How can I publish my research paper free of cost?

Many times, it is recommended to publish in Non-APC journals. In this blog post, We will be describing how to publish a research paper free of cost. We will also provide a list of free publishing open-access journals where researchers can publish their research papers without any publication fees.

Researchers can share their research in the research community without cost as a preprint. However, the preprints are not peer-reviewed.

Researchers can publish their research free of cost in journals with non Open Access options. Journals published by Springer, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, IEEE, and other reputed publishers provide researchers an option to publish either open-access (OA) or non-open-access. The open access option can make access to the published works limited.

The next option is to publish in the conference proceedings. Most of the conference proceedings publish research free of cost.

How to find free publishing research journals?

There are so many free-publishing open-access research journals. Make sure, you select reputable journals having an impact factor or any other ranking metric. The reputable journals are indexed in Scopus/ Web of Science/ DOAJ/ UGC CARE list. You can search for journals that are published by reputable publishers or by Some Universities/ Institutions.

Different ways for finding journals that publish without publication fees:

Access the PhDTalks Journal Finder Tool that lists more than 10,000 free publishing research journals.

The Directory of Open Access Journals currently indexes 13,100 journals that don’t charge APCs to the authors (out of 19,132).

Go to the official website of DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), which is a website that hosts a community-curated list of open-access journals. Here, you can browse the list of journals that publish with No APC.

Choose Non-OA journals from Springer, Elsevier, IEEE, and Taylor & Francis.

Another way is by visiting journalsearches.com

Steps in publishing a research paper free of cost

  1. Select a free publishing research journal (a list of such journals is provided below). A non-paid publishing journal doesn’t ask authors to submit fees for publication.
  2. Go to the official website of the journal.
  3. Read a few research papers from the journal.
  4. Write your own research paper according to the journal’s guidelines.
  5. Download the paper format/template from the journal website and format your manuscript according to the journal template.
  6. Proofread your research paper.
  7. Submit the manuscript to the journal using the journal’s online submission link.
  8. Once your paper is accepted, it will be published in the journal.

The whole process of paper publication may take two to 6 months or even more. It depends upon the journal editorial team, and how frequently they handle the research papers they receive.

List of free publishing journals

There are more than a thousand free publishing open access and non-open access research journals. A few non-APC and open-access journals are listed below.

S. No.Journal TitleJournal ScopePublisher
1Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnologyplant biotechnology, animal biotechnology, microbial biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, medical biotechnology, genomics, proteomics, and bioinformaticsSpringer
2International Journal of WellbeingEconomics, Econometrics, and Finance (miscellaneous)International Journal of Wellbeing Charitable Trust
3Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and DevicesBiomaterials (Q1); Ceramics and Composites (Q1); Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials (Q1); Materials Science (miscellaneous) (Q1)Elsevier
4Applied and Computational MechanicsBiophysics (Q4); Civil and Structural Engineering (Q4); Computational Mathematics (Q4); Computational Mechanics (Q4); Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes (Q4)University of West Bohemia
5International Journal of Automotive and Mechanical EngineeringAutomotive Engineering (Q3); Mechanical Engineering (Q3)The Automotive Engineering Centre (AEC), Universiti Malaysia Pahang
6Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Mathematics (miscellaneous) (Q3); Applied MathematicsIndian National Science Academy
7Quantitative Finance And EconomicsBusiness, FinanceAIMS Press
8Baltic Journal of EconomicsEconomics, Econometrics, and Finance (miscellaneous) (Q2); Political Science and International RelationsTaylor & Francis
9Journal of Social and Political PsychologySociology and Political Science (Q1); Applied Psychology (Q2); Social PsychologyPsychOpen
10Social Psychology of EducationEducation (Q1); Social Psychology (Q1); Sociology and Political Science (Q1); Developmental and Educational PsychologySpringer
11Advances In Electrical And Electronic EngineeringElectrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology, Applied Mathematics, Physics, and OpticsVSB-Technical University of Ostrava
12Ethics, Medicine, and Public HealthAll ethical aspects of science, the practice of biomedical research, and public healthElsevier
13Journal of Taibah University Medical SciencesMedicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Applied Medical SciencesElsevier
14Journal of Computer Science and TechnologyComputational Theory and Mathematics (Q2); Computer Science Applications (Q2); Hardware and Architecture (Q2); Software (Q3); Theoretical Computer ScienceSpringer
15New Generation ComputingData Mining, Cognitive Computing, Programming and Semantics, Control Theory of Bio- and Nano-systems, Bio/Nano/Molecular Computing and Engineering, Skill Science and Philosophy, Computational Social ScienceSpringer
List of free publishing journals
Does it cost money to publish a research paper?

Many research journals publish research papers without any publication cost. Thousands of research journals published by Springer, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, IEEE, and other publishers don’t ask for APC.

How to find free publishing research journals?

Almost all Springer and Elsevier journals publish in Hybrid mode i.e. Open Access and Non-Open Access. The journals don’t charge for publication in Non-Open Access mode. The simplest way to find Non-APC journals is to visit www.journalsearches.com and here researchers can browse free publishing research journals according to subject/ discipline.

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