Last updated: April 2026 · 8 min read · Audience: Authors, students, early-career researchers · Reading level: Introductory
Introduction
Academic publishing is functional but imperfect. The recurring challenges authors face are well-known in the field and have established approaches, even when no single solution exists. This page surveys the challenges and the practical responses.
Five recurring challenges
| Challenge | Common cause | Practical response |
|---|---|---|
| Long timelines | Reviewer availability, issue scheduling | Continuous-publication journals; preprints |
| High APCs | Pricing of flagship open-access journals | Subscription, diamond OA, low-APC OA, waivers |
| Peer review variation | Volunteer reviewers; uneven editorial oversight | Choose journals with documented review processes |
| Predatory venues | Open-access model exploited by bad actors | Verify indexing, editorial board, recent articles |
| Access gaps | Author resources, reviewer networks | Editorial support; pre-submission enquiries |
Practical guidance for each challenge
Long timelines
Total time from submission to publication remains long at many journals — often 4–12 months for full original articles. Authors needing faster publication should target continuous-publication open-access journals with documented short timelines, deposit preprints for immediate citability, and select article types matching the contribution (short reports rather than full articles where appropriate).
High APCs
APCs at flagship open-access journals can exceed USD 5,000. The credible alternatives are subscription journals (no author fee), diamond open-access (subsidised), low-APC open-access (often under USD 500), and waiver programmes. Most authors have at least one viable alternative to high APCs in their field.
Peer review variation
Peer review quality varies. Verify the journal's documented process, sample recent articles for substantive revision, and check editorial board affiliations. Strong peer review is identifiable through transparency and recent evidence of substantive review.
Predatory venues
Access gaps
Unaffiliated authors and authors at less-resourced institutions sometimes have less access to mentor networks, reviewer feedback channels, and waiver information. Editorial offices that accept pre-submission enquiries and provide guidance partly address this; treating editorial support as a resource (not as a transaction) helps.
Decision guidance
Most challenges are mitigatable with informed journal selection. The cost of the verification work — reading author guidelines, sampling recent articles, checking indexing — is small compared to the cost of mistakes. Spending an hour on pre-submission research consistently produces better outcomes than rushing to submit.
Example scenarios
Scenario: a master's student facing high APCs
Students paying out of pocket are particularly affected by APC pressure. The realistic alternatives — subscription journals, diamond open-access, low-APC open-access with waivers — are usually all available in the student's field. Selecting from these alternatives takes deliberate research; defaulting to whatever journal appears first in search results commonly results in unaffordable fees.
Scenario: a PhD researcher under deadline pressure
Time-constrained authors face the speed-vs-credibility trade-off most acutely. The realistic strategy is a continuous-publication journal with documented short timelines and a parallel preprint deposit, not a venue claiming 24-hour acceptance. Verifying speed claims through recent articles' dates is straightforward.
Scenario: an early-career international researcher
International authors sometimes face language editing pressure, waiver eligibility uncertainty, and timezone friction with editorial offices. Addressing these requires planning: identify language editing options before drafting, confirm waiver eligibility before submission, and plan submission timing around the editorial office's working hours.
What to do next
Identify which challenge is most relevant to the current submission and apply the corresponding practical response. Authors targeting EP Journals Group venues can use the central submission form once a target journal has been selected.
Frequently asked questions
Related topics across the knowledge centre
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EP Journals vs Predatory Journals: How to Tell the Difference
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Indexed vs Non-Indexed Journals: A Practical Comparison
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Low-Cost Research Journals
Low-cost journals span subscription venues with no author fee, diamond open-access journals fully subsidised by institutions, and open-access journals with modest APCs. Verifying credibility matters more than the headline number.
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How to Publish a Research Paper in Law
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Journals for Students: Where to Publish Early Research
Students are typically best served by open-access journals that maintain transparent peer review, modest article processing charges (APCs), and clearly documented timelines.
Resource
Journals for Multidisciplinary Research
Multidisciplinary work fits journals explicitly oriented toward cross-field research, generalist scientific journals, or specialty journals where the work's primary discipline anchors. The choice depends on which audience the work most needs to reach.
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Avoiding Plagiarism in Academic Research
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An overview of how academic indexing operates, the principal categories of indexing services, and the implications of indexing status for authors and journals.
Related reading and next steps
- Submission portal — Submit a manuscript through the central form
- Journals list — Six peer-reviewed journals across disciplines
- How to check journal legitimacy
- Understanding APCs
- Reputable vs predatory
- Low-cost research journals
Editorial enquiries
Questions about this guide or about preparing a manuscript for submission may be directed to the editorial office. Where a query relates to a specific journal in the portfolio, please indicate the journal abbreviation in your message.
Email: editor@ep-journals.org