Step 1: Pay the Submission Fee

Traditionally, journals made the money they needed to operate by charging readers and institutions subscription fees. Open access journals like the Journal of Emerging Investigators, however, make their articles free for anyone in the world to read—so how do we cover our costs?

JEI isn’t just a journal—it’s also a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Grants and generous donations help us provide low-cost publishing and science communication opportunities for middle and high school students around the world.

However, publishing is expensive; in fact, each submission costs us well over $100 in technology and staff time. To help offset this cost of submission and publication, we charge an up front $49 fee for each submission. Unlike other journals where submission is free but followed by steep publication or expediting fees, we charge one, low fee at the very beginning. This keeps the fee reasonable, predictable, and equal for all students.

• The submission fee goes directly to pay the cost of operating our submission platform. This includes costs such as managing your manuscript, providing a DOI upon publishing, and storing your submission in our online management system.
• Paying the fee does not guarantee your manuscript will be published. Reaching publication depends on students and mentors following our Submission Guide and actively participating in the peer review and publishing process by addressing feedback.
• Submission fees cannot be refunded.

Schools and Institutions

We appreciate when schools and institutions pay the submission fee for their students but also understand they have more internal finance protocols to follow. If you need an invoice to submit to your institution to generate a purchase order, or if your institution cannot pay via Stripe, please reach out to [email protected] for assistance.

Scholarships

We want publishing to be accessible for all students regardless of background or financial means. For students who cannot afford the $49 submission fee, JEI provides a limited number of scholarships per year to cover the cost of submission. To ensure the students who truly need the scholarships receive them, please apply only if neither you, your family, your mentor, nor your institution can afford to pay the submission fee. You should only apply for a scholarship after you have written your manuscript according to our submission guidelines.

Scholarships are not granted automatically, and applications will be assessed on a weekly basis. If you are granted a scholarship, you will need to use the provided scholarship code as a “promo code” in the payment website to receive your 10-character submission fee code.