Being charged to publish in a magazine

Shoot Owl

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Hello,

I'm currently trying to have an article I wrote on AI published in a magazine. It isn't a short story but is more of an informative piece. After submitting the article to a magazine for their consideration, the editor said that it was "chargeable". Apparently "chargeable" means that I have to pay to publish my article.

Has anyone ever heard about paying to have your work published? I know it is usually the other way around. This strikes me as very odd and I'm considering retracting my submission. Any advice?
 

Fruitbat

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No, paying to have your work published in a magazine does not sound right at all. :(
 

MaeZe

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Does the article advocate a position? "Chargeable" sounds like what an editor would say about an advertisement.
 

Shoot Owl

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The magazine is in the field of my work - Health Safety & Environment (HSE). Is it within the rules to post the name of the magazine?
 

Helix

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Is it a peer-reviewed academic journal? They often have page charges. But there's also a bunch of dodgy journals that accept articles for a fee.
 

MaeZe

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Is it a peer-reviewed academic journal? They often have page charges. But there's also a bunch of dodgy journals that accept articles for a fee.

If that's the case it should be clear in the submissions guidelines. Have you looked at the magazine's submission policy, Shoot Owl?
 

tiddlywinks

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The magazine is in the field of my work - Health Safety & Environment (HSE). Is it within the rules to post the name of the magazine?

Shoot Owl, my day job is in your field (I work in marketing for an EHS&S firm). Most of the print and digital magazines I'm aware of in our space do NOT charge writers for their articles, unless they're one of "those" that like to eek out more money from consultants working in this space in the form of advertising space disguised as "you pay to write an article for us!" Yeah no.

There are a number of places you can look into submitting that will take your work (for free) if it fits with what they are looking for. Have you looked at Greenbiz, Environmental Leader or EHS Today, just as a couple off the top of my head? Might not be a good fit for AI, unless it's themed around AI improvements in EHS practices, but I'm not as familiar with that particular topic.

Bottom line, this sounds fishy to me.
 

Shoot Owl

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Is it a peer-reviewed academic journal? They often have page charges. But there's also a bunch of dodgy journals that accept articles for a fee.

It's a regular magazine as far as I am aware.

If that's the case it should be clear in the submissions guidelines. Have you looked at the magazine's submission policy, Shoot Owl?

There are no submission guidelines. I used their contact form to ask if they were open to submissions.

Shoot Owl, my day job is in your field (I work in marketing for an EHS&S firm). Most of the print and digital magazines I'm aware of in our space do NOT charge writers for their articles, unless they're one of "those" that like to eek out more money from consultants working in this space in the form of advertising space disguised as "you pay to write an article for us!" Yeah no.

There are a number of places you can look into submitting that will take your work (for free) if it fits with what they are looking for. Have you looked at Greenbiz, Environmental Leader or EHS Today, just as a couple off the top of my head? Might not be a good fit for AI, unless it's themed around AI improvements in EHS practices, but I'm not as familiar with that particular topic.

Bottom line, this sounds fishy to me.

I am indeed an HSE consultant. The article was initially intended for IOSH Magazine but since it wasn't the best fit for them, I just googled other HSE magazines.

They haven't yet responded to my most recent email.
 

JDlugosz

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Magazines should pay you for the work. A borderline magazine/journal might not give stipends, but doesn't charge you!

Some serious academic journals expect sponsorship from the company or institution employing the contributor. You can find out more at the Academia Stack Exchange, where it is a frequent topic of discussion. They can help you determine whether this is a so-called predatory journal. But you did say “magazine”.
 

herdon

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Is it within the rules to post the name of the magazine?

There shouldn't be a problem posting the name of the magazine. There's an entire section of the forum devoted to pointing out scams, who's running them, how to avoid them, etc.

Either the magazine is trying to scam you, in which case they obviously wouldn't want you to post the name but you'd be warning people here to stay away, or the magazine has a valid reason for asking for money, in which case it would be stated somewhere in the submission guidelines and they wouldn't care if you posted it here.