As an independent researcher, I hadn’t realized how expensive conducting research actually is. Notwithstanding any costs associated with your research itself, it costs considerable amounts just to disseminate your findings.

Attending conferences in order to present your research has a range of costs, including travel and accommodations, for starters. Even as a guest speaker at a conference, the costs of your attendance will not necessarily be completely covered.

And journals, meanwhile, may have a range of fees. Subscription fees obviously don’t surprise me at all. What has surprised me, however, is discovering that some journals charge a few dollars just to read one article; you could spend quite a bit on downloading articles that you end up not even referencing. And, even more surprising than that, is learning that researchers have to pay to get their papers published.

I’m not referring to a few hundred bucks, either. I’ve seen fees range up to many thousands of dollars or euros. And, if you want to print color figures with your article, the cost can skyrocket quickly.

Fortunately, there are free and cheap ways to get your papers out there. The arXiv respository must be popular, at least in part, due to that. If my paper gets the thumbs-up from the expert currently reviewing it, that’s where I’m looking to submit it first.