Publishing a scientific article in a peer-reviewed journal costs from $0 to $3,000 USD: a VAK journal — from 5,000 to 30,000 rubles as an editorial fee, Scopus Q3–Q4 — from $500 to $1,500 USD, and in a number of Open Access journals publication is free provided the manuscript passes peer review.
The other day a Telegram group discussion turned to paying for scientific publications. It’s not exactly a secret that journals charge fees for publications. Foreign journals make good money from this: for example, one of the largest publishing houses, Elsevier, has more than a billion pounds in operating profit. Meanwhile, publishing in a decent journal does not always cost a fortune. Sometimes it’s just an editorial fee, DOI, typesetting or technical preparation — roughly a few thousand rubles. But sometimes it feels like you’re being offered not to publish an article, but to join the board of directors of a small oil company.
So what about us? We’re not that rich, so let’s try to save a bit. Below is a guide on how to approach publishing in journals with hope and come out with some money left in your wallet.
What VAK is and why it matters. VAK — the Higher Attestation Commission (Высшая аттестационная комиссия). In simple terms, it’s part of the state system of scientific attestation in Russia. Journals listed in the VAK registry are peer-reviewed scientific publications where the main results of candidate and doctoral dissertations are published.
The value is not that the abbreviation sounds stern. The value is that VAK is embedded in the official legal framework of the Russian Federation.
There is Government Decree No. 842 “On the Procedure for Awarding Academic Degrees” https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_152458/
There is Order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation No. 534 dated 31.05.2023, which regulates the formation of the list of peer-reviewed scientific publications and the requirements for such journals https://rg.ru/documents/2023/07/12/minnauki-prikaz534-site-dok.html
There is the official VAK section with the list of peer-reviewed publications ВАК
So a journal from the VAK list is a publication that sits inside the official system of requirements set by the state: peer review, scientific scope, editorial policy, publication of research results and other joys of bureaucratic orthodoxy.
Why VAK can be useful for O-1, EB-1A, NIW and similar cases. For petitions like O-1, EB-1A, NIW and the like, evidentiary support is often important. One possible element of that evidence is authorship of scientific articles in professional, industry or other significant publications. And here VAK is very convenient. Such a publication fits well with USCIS requirements — it’s a scientific article in a relevant peer-reviewed journal from an official list, with clear requirements for the journal. Plus those requirements are set and regulated by the state. Explaining that to an external reviewer is much easier than saying “here’s a site, seems like a journal, seems to publish articles, seems not to be dead.”
A few more notes. VAK is a journal status, not a passport club. Authors of any nationality can publish in these journals if the article fits the topic, formatting and level — nationality itself shouldn’t be an issue. That said, the world is a bit strange at the moment, so don’t overload editors with unnecessary biographical details — don’t share citizenship, where you live or political views. Editors typically need only your name, email, affiliation, topic, manuscript, sometimes ORCID, and sometimes information for a contract.
VAK journals have categories: K1, K2 and K3.
K1 — the top category. Sounds nice, looks solid, looks good on a CV. But if your goal is not to build an academic career in Russia or to satisfy serious dissertation requirements, chasing K1 often makes little sense. Why? Because K1 is usually stricter, slower and more picky. Peer review can easily stretch for months. You wait, get nervous, write to the editorial office, the editors stay silent, then send revisions, then go silent again. If you lack excitement in life — a great attraction. Around the third month of such correspondence my eye started twitching.
K3 — also an option, but it’s the bottom category; requirements there compared to K1 are negligible. Still, the journal itself can be perfectly alive, normal, indexed and topic-appropriate. However, if you have a choice and the material is of suitable quality, I wouldn’t recommend starting with K3 without a reason.
K2 most often looks like the most balanced — a decent level, many journals, wider choice, and better chances to fit within reasonable timeframes. For the task “get a working scientific publication in a peer-reviewed journal without aging in the process”, K2 often turns out to be the most rational route.
How to find a suitable journal. The algorithm is quite simple.
- Go to the official VAK list http://perechen.vak2.ed.gov.ru/list or ВАК
- Use the filter to find a journal that:
– is active with a current status;
– matches your topic and scientific specialty;
– is reasonably present on the internet;
– preferably belongs to K2 if you don’t know why you specifically need K1. - Enter the journal title into Google. Find the website. On the site look for sections “For Authors”, “Publication”, “Editorial Policy”, “Contacts”.
- Write a simple letter. Not a petition to the tsar, not a manifesto to save science, but something primitive like: “Hello. My name is Ivan Ivanov. I have prepared a manuscript on [topic]. I would like to explore the possibility of publication in your journal. The manuscript is attached. I would be grateful for information on the submission procedure, timelines, formatting requirements and publication terms. Sincerely.”
What happens next. Scenarios are usually standard.
The editorial office may send a contract and take the article for peer review. They may first take it for review and ask for the contract later. They may ask you to bring the formatting in line with requirements. They may send reviewer comments and ask you to revise. They may inform you of fees for editorial preparation, typesetting, DOI or publication charge.
Or they may not reply at all. Unfortunately that’s also common practice.
Sometimes the editors send something strange — for example, conditions after which you want to close your laptop and stare out the window. In that case don’t suffer heroically. Just find another journal and write to them.
Can you submit the article to several journals at once?
This is where academic angels may frown. Ideally, the same article should not be submitted simultaneously to multiple journals. It’s not the most ethical approach: editors spend time, reviewers read the manuscript, the process is in motion. But life is life — if you’re in a hurry, submitting to several journals can indeed save a lot of time. One journal may stay silent for a month, another replies in three days, a third asks to fix the formatting, a fourth says “our next issue is in six months”, and the fifth suddenly turns out to be normal.
If you do this — do it carefully. Don’t send everyone a CCed email. Write to each journal separately. And crucially — in the end choose only one journal. You must notify the others that you decided to revise the manuscript and withdraw it from consideration. Don’t leave loose ends, because those tend to turn into rakes later on.
How much can it cost.
Publishing in a VAK journal does not have to cost the sky. Sometimes it’s completely free. Sometimes it’s a few thousand rubles for editing, typesetting, DOI or an organizational fee.
But there are cases where publishers heavily monetize science. What can you do — commerce is everywhere. Such journals often reappear in resales of services, because the model is built around a stream of paid publications.
What is reasonable to pay for?
For manuscript revision — yes.
For editing — yes.
For translation — yes.
For journal selection — yes.
For formatting references, checking structure, polishing the text — yes.
But paying a lot just so someone will open the VAK site and send a letter instead of you for half a professor’s monthly salary — that’s questionable.
How to check that a journal is not only “in VAK” but also “alive”. The mere fact that a journal is listed in VAK is a must-have. But you should definitely check how it is indexed. A minimal check is simple:
- open the latest or penultimate issue of the journal;
- take the title of any article;
- paste it into Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/
If the article appears — that’s already good. If nothing is found, consider another journal.
You can also look at eLIBRARY and RINC https://elibrary.ru/. But if you’re preparing a petition for USCIS, pay special attention to Google Scholar, since USCIS often looks at that.
What the article itself should be like. All of the above works only under one condition — you have a normal article. Not a genius, not a paradigm-shifting discovery. Just a normal article:
– a clear topic;
– a scientific problem;
– the text resembles an article, not a school term paper;
– there are sources;
– there’s logic;
– there are conclusions;
– it doesn’t feel like the text was run through a neural network three times and then forgotten to be cleaned up;
– uniqueness at least around 80% and an AI score preferably no higher than 15% (you can check, for example, via Антиплагиат https://antiplagiat.ru/);
– borrowings are properly cited.
Don’t go crazy about AI detectors — they often lie, get scared by normal academic language and behave like an anxious dog in front of a vacuum cleaner. But don’t ignore them either — editors increasingly look at this metric. So the text should be not just formally “unique”, but truly coherent, well-assembled and readable.
To summarize
Publishing a scientific article is not hard. Especially when we’re talking about VAK. VAK is useful because it’s part of the state system of scientific attestation. For USCIS such a publication is easy to explain: state regulation, official list, peer-reviewed scientific publication, relevant topic, a clear external framework.
And most importantly — you don’t have to overpay people who sell you the secret of opening the VAK site as if it were sacred knowledge of ancient priests.
If you need help with a solid unique manuscript, polishing the text, selecting a journal, indexing, citation or correspondence with editors (if after all the above the process still feels like magic) — contact me, I’ll be glad to help.
