[foota]

This makes me feel stupid, but people get paid when they publish in journals?

[dublinben]

No. The "special offer" was for the publication fee. Major publishers have decided that they can charge extra for open access papers.

[paulddraper]

They charge extra, because making it open-access prevents them from charging readers as they would normally do.

[Normal_gaussian]

I believe he is referring to the normal price for publishing it as open access being 2k, but their current deal reduces it to 1.2k

However you shouldn't feel stupid. The wording is, as English often is, confusing to those without context.

[kaeluka]

That's the price journals ask to make a paper open access.

Edit: oh my, three+ comments at the same time.