Publication Charges in Agriculture Journals: What to Expect

At this agriculture journal there is no submission fee, and an article handling and processing charge of 2,500 INR for Indian authors or 55 USD for international authors falls due only after a paper has been accepted. Across the field charges vary enormously, and what matters as much as the amount is when it becomes payable.

Charges make authors uncomfortable, and the discomfort is usually about not knowing what is normal. This sets out what the money is for, when it should fall, and what should worry you.

What this journal charges

Both rates have been in effect since 1 October 2022 and are stated on the Instructions to Author page, where you can read them before deciding to submit.

Why an open access journal charges anything

Somebody pays for publishing. In a subscription model it is the reader’s library; in an open access model it is the author or their funder. The work being paid for does not change:

• Manuscript formatting and typesetting
• Running the submission and review system
• Registering a Crossref DOI for every article
• Plagiarism screening on every submission
• Hosting, and keeping old articles reachable
• Preservation and backup copies, including printed archives

This journal receives no governmental or non-governmental financial support, which is why the charge exists. A journal subsidised by a society or a university can charge less or nothing — that is a funding difference, not a quality one.

The timing matters more than the amount

A charge that falls after peer review cannot have influenced the review decision. A charge that falls before review has been collected by people who had not yet judged your paper.

This is the single most useful thing to check about any agriculture journal’s charges, and it is usually answerable in one line on their site:

That last row is the trap. By the time you know the number, you have invested months and the paper is accepted — walking away feels impossible. Find the figure before you submit.

The vocabulary, and why it is confusing

When comparing two agriculture journals, work out the total you would actually pay. A low headline APC with per-page and colour charges on top can exceed a higher flat fee, and the difference only becomes visible after acceptance.

What you get for it here

• Double-blind peer review by two reviewers, after an initial editorial read — see the publication policy
• A registered Crossref DOI under the prefix 10.33545, so the article stays citable
• Open access from day one — no paywall, no registration, under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence with authors retaining copyright
• Online and print publication, with a download link e-mailed to you
• Plagiarism screening through Similarity Check by Crossref
• A permanent archive — every issue since 2019 remains reachable, with content stored on three separate sources

What "no charges at all" can mean

Some journals genuinely charge nothing, and they fall into two very different groups.

Subsidised journals

A society, university or government body covers the costs. Legitimate and often excellent — and you can usually tell, because the funding body is named openly on the site.

Journals that charge nothing because they do nothing

No review to organise, no DOIs to register, no screening to run, no archive to maintain — so no costs to cover. The absence of a charge is not generosity here; it is a description of the service.

The distinction is easy to check. Look for the review process, the DOIs and the indexing, as in our guide to what makes a good agriculture journal. A free journal that passes those checks is a good find. One that fails them is free for a reason.

Questions worth asking before you submit

Send these to the Managing Editor if the site does not answer them. A journal that replies clearly has told you a great deal; one that does not has told you more.

1. What is the total charge for a paper of my length, including any page or colour charges?
2. At what stage does it fall due?
3. Is there a waiver or discount, and how do I apply?
4. What does the charge cover?
5. Is there any charge if my paper is rejected? The answer should be no.

That last question is worth asking explicitly. Here there is no submission fee, so a rejected paper costs you nothing but time.

Hybrid journals: the expensive middle

A hybrid journal is a subscription journal that lets individual authors pay to make their own article open access. The library still pays the subscription; the author pays on top.

Two things to know. The charge is typically several times higher than at a fully open access agriculture journal, because you are buying an exception rather than the normal route. And some funders will not pay hybrid charges at all, on the grounds that the publisher is paid twice for the same content.

Charges and the review decision

The reason the sequence matters so much is worth spelling out. At this journal the reviewers and the Editorial Board reach a decision without knowing what any author will pay, because nothing has been paid at that point.

Where a fee is collected up front, the people deciding know that a rejection returns money and an acceptance keeps it. That does not prove anything about any individual decision, and plenty of journals with submission fees run proper review. But it is a structure worth understanding before you choose, because you cannot inspect it from outside — you can only look at where the money sits relative to the decision.

Budgeting for charges

1. Check the figure before you submit, not after acceptance.
2. Ask your institution. Many have a fund for publication charges that authors never claim because they do not know it exists.
3. Put it in the project proposal. Publication costs are an allowable expense in most research funding.
4. Ask about a waiver early if you have no funding. Before submission is a much easier conversation than after acceptance.
5. Do not let cost alone choose your journal. A venue that charges nothing because it does nothing is the most expensive option — it costs you the paper.

Charges are not the uncomfortable part they are made out to be, provided two things are true: you can find the number before you commit, and it falls after the decision. Both are checkable in five minutes on any journal’s own site.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to publish in this agriculture journal?

There is no submission fee. An article handling and processing charge falls due only after your paper has passed peer review and been accepted: 2,500 INR for Indian authors and 55 USD for international authors, in effect since 1 October 2022.

When do I pay?

After acceptance, never before. A charge falling before review is buying something other than publication, because at that point nobody has judged the paper.

What does the charge cover?

Manuscript formatting, the publication process and website maintenance. The journal receives no governmental or non-governmental financial support, so these costs are met from the charge.

Is there a discount or waiver?

Ask the Managing Editor before submitting rather than after acceptance. Policies differ between journals and the answer is easier to give early.

Do readers pay to read articles?

No. Every article is free to read and download from the day it is published, with no subscription and no registration. The charge is on the publishing side only.

Is the subscription price the same thing?

No, and this confuses people. The print subscription price is what a library pays to receive printed copies. It has nothing to do with what an author pays to publish.

Related Guides

What the charge pays for, and who pays in the other model:

• Open Access vs Subscription: What Agriculture Authors Need to Know
• How to Publish a Research Paper in an Agriculture Journal
• How to Choose an Agriculture Journal for Your Paper