The editing and publishing of academic journals has a cost, and the cost is rising because of the price increase of related commodities and labor. Although there are many academic journals, especially some prestigious academic journals, they never charge for manuscripts.
Page cost profiteering
There are even many rewards. However, as long as it is an academic journal, its editorial department has to modify, edit and publish the manuscript, which requires a lot of manpower and cost. In the author's opinion, the cost of a paper should include two items besides publication fee and editing fee (including manuscript fee, review fee and editing fee): the salary of the editor and the office expenses (including business membership fee) to maintain the normal operation of the editorial department. We can make a rough calculation: for example, an academic journal, six people, bimonthly, with 28 papers published and 230,000 words issued in each issue. Publishing fee+editing fee+salary+office fee = 10000 yuan +(230000× 300 yuan+1000 yuan) +(6 people× 2000 yuan× February) +( 12000 yuan ÷6 issues) = 43,300 yuan/28 articles = 1546 yuan, that is, the cost of publishing 1 article is 1546 yuan. How can there be a "free dinner" nowadays? Even the "cost-only" of merchants has become a gift and warm words for customers. For example, in addition to your registration fee and other fees, people have not forgotten to charge you a dollar for the answer sheet.
There is an international practice, which is approved by China Association for Science and Technology and supported by the author. The economically developed countries in the world have always regarded the publishing industry as an information industry, and it is a common practice and a normal thing to charge for publishing papers in their countries. It is reported that even if a paper is published in the world's top academic journal Science, a page fee will be charged. [3] Academic journals in developed countries have rich experience in running journals, so China can naturally try to collect publishing fees from them. According to the website, a director of the Academic Journals Management Office of the General Administration of Press and Publication once said that most international journals charge a page fee, which is good for domestic academic circles to form this practice spontaneously in accordance with international practices. However, he said that it is not appropriate for the country to charge a page fee for publishing academic papers without a clear document. [4] In fact, it is reasonable to charge the paper fee, which is also in line with the relevant provisions of the state. Starting from 1988, the practice of charging publishing fees for sci-tech academic journals has been approved by China Association for Science and Technology. It can be said that most universities and research institutes in China have gradually changed their attitudes and supported the publication fee of papers, which can be paid from the funds of research projects. For example, Peking University stipulates that the publication fee of academic papers can be spent in the innovation fund of doctoral dissertations.