Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 25, Issue 4, Pages 711-715Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.13949
Keywords
open-access publishing; pay-to-play; pay-wall; scientific journals; scientific publishing
Categories
Funding
- Wilson Center
- National Research Foundation [98404]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The article discusses the challenges African scholars face in affording open-access publishing fees, highlighting the burden it places on them. It calls for funders and publishers to support a more equitable publishing model.
With open-access publishing authors often pay an article processing charge and subsequently their article is freely available online. These charges are beyond the reach of most African academics. Thus, the trend towards open-access publishing will shift the business model from a pay-wall model, where access to literature is limited, to a pay-to-publish one, where African scholars cannot afford to publish. We explore the costs of publishing and the ability of African scholars to afford to publish via open access in top journals. Three-quarters of the 40 top ecology journals required payment for open-access publishing (average cost $3150). Paying such fees is a hardship for African scholars as grant funding is not available and it is not feasible to pay the fees themselves as salaries are low. We encourage funders and publishers to facilitate an equitable publishing model that allows African scholars to make their research available through open-access publishing.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available