Article processing charges are stalling the progress of African researchers: a call for urgent reforms

Nabyonga‐Orem, Juliet; Asamani, James Avoka; Nyirenda, Thomas; Abimbola, Seye

doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003650

Cited by 53 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Consequently, most journals have shifted from subscription-based access to research articles and embraced open access publishing. In the latter, however, the authors have to pay article processing fees, which often run into thousands of dollars — another barrier to publishing, especially from authors in Low- and Middle-income Countries (Nabyonga-Orem et al, 2020 ). The lack of access to subscription-based journal articles due to their unaffordable cost hinders the accessibility of scientific literature by African researchers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lack of access to subscription-based journal articles due to their unaffordable cost hinders the accessibility of scientific literature by African researchers. However, the main barrier to equitable access and knowledge sharing in Africa is the cost of publishing, which is unaffordable for most researchers in Low- and Middle-income Countries (Nabyonga-Orem et al, 2020 ). For example, in most Kenyan institutions, students have to publish at least one paper at the Master's level.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?

Mwangi

Mainye²,

Ouso

et al. 2021

Front. Res. Metr. Anal.

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According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Open Science is the movement to make scientific research and data accessible to all. It has great potential for advancing science. At its core, it includes (but is not limited to) open access, open data, and open research. Some of the associated advantages are promoting collaboration, sharing and reproducibility in research, and preventing the reinvention of the wheel, thus saving resources. As research becomes more globalized and its output grows exponentially, especially in data, the need for open scientific research practices is more evident — the future of modern science. This has resulted in a concerted global interest in open science uptake. Even so, barriers still exist. The formal training curriculum in most, if not all, universities in Kenya does not equip students with the knowledge and tools to subsequently practice open science in their research. Therefore, to work openly and collaboratively, there is a need for awareness and training in the use of open science tools. These have been neglected, especially in most developing countries, and remain barriers to the cause. Moreover, there is scanty research on the state of affairs regarding the practice and/or adoption of open science. Thus, we developed, through the OpenScienceKE framework, a model to narrow the gap. A sensitize-train-hack-collaborate model was applied in Nairobi, the economic and administrative capital of Kenya. Using the model, we sensitized through seminars, trained on the use of tools through workshops, applied the skills learned in training through hackathons to collaboratively answer the question on the state of open science in Kenya. While the former parts of the model had 20–50 participants, the latter part mainly involved participants with a bioinformatics background, leveraging their advanced computational skills. This model resulted in an open resource that researchers can use to publish as open access cost-effectively. Moreover, we observed a growing interest in open science practices in Kenya through literature search and data mining and that lack of awareness and skills may still hinder the adoption and practice of open science. Furthermore, at the time of the analyses, we surprisingly found that out of the 20,069 papers downloaded from BioRXiv, only 18 had Kenyan authors, a majority of which are international (16) collaborations. This may suggest poor uptake of the use of preprints among Kenyan researchers. The findings in this study highlight the state of open science in Kenya and challenges facing its adoption and practice while bringing forth possible areas for primary consideration in the campaign toward open science. It also proposes a model (sensitize-train-hack-collaborate model) that may be adopted by researchers, funders and other proponents of open science to address some of the challenges faced in promoting its adoption in Kenya.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?

Mwangi

Mainye²,

Ouso

et al. 2021

Front. Res. Metr. Anal.

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“…There is a lot wrong with global health, and the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting many of these wrongs. 1 The growing calls to decolonise global health point to imbalances that contribute to the status quo in global health knowledge production: insufficient funding for research capacity building in the Global South, 2 domination of research activities by institutions and researchers from the Global North, 3 lack of fair credit to and representation of local authors in research publications, 4 prohibitive publication costs and little interest in local issues from global health journals, 5 and barriers faced by researchers from the Global South to participation in international conferences. 6 But more pernicious than all of these imbalances is the underlying and pervasive dehumanisation of Black and Brown (and other) people, 7 and the persistent white saviour mentality and related white or northern supremacy.…”

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confidence: 99%

Reform of research funding processes could pave the way for progress in global health

Ashuntantang

Luyckx

Naicker

et al. 2021

The Lancet Global Health

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“… 34 , 35 Also, the Brazilian Society of Dermatology subsidy for the submission, statistical review, and publication of articles in ABD, maximizes publication opportunities for authors and institutions with fewer research resources, a model of good practice for scientific publications. 36 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends of the main bibliometric indicators of Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia (2010–2019)

Miot

Ianhez

Ramos

2021

Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia

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Background The Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia ( Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia ) is the official journal of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology, which has been published since 1925, with free, bilingual access. There are several bibliometric indicators that estimate aspects of a journal’s scientific influence. Its analysis, based especially on the evolutionary trend, allows identifying the journal’s strengths and weaknesses, in addition to guiding editorial policies. Objectives To evaluate the trends of the main bibliometric indicators of Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia , in the decade of 2010–2019. Methods Methodological study that proposed the analysis of bibliometric indicators published by Journal Citation Reports, SCImago, and Scopus, for the journal Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia , from 2010 to 2019. The following aspects were evaluated: Impact factor, Immediacy index, SJR (SCImago), in addition to the number of citations, citable items, Cite Score, percentage of external citations, percentage of cited articles, percentage of citable articles, and the article influence score. Results There was an increase in the main bibliometric indicators in the last decade: impact factor (0.337 to 1.121), immediacy index (0.054 to 0.204), Eigenfactor (0.00025 to 0.00394), SJR (0.176 to 0.453). The percentage of external citations (48.4% to 94.1%) and cited articles (24.7% to 51.4%) also increased. The increase in the impact factors of Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia in the period was more significant than that of the dermatology journals (1,667 to 2,118) and the Brazilian journals (1,247 to 1,408), indexed in the Journal Citation Reports. Study limitations Failure in the classification and registration of the databases. Conclusions There has been a consistent increase in the scientific influence of Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia in the last decade.

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Article processing charges are stalling the progress of African researchers: a call for urgent reforms

Abstract: Article processing charges are stalling the progress of African researchers: a call for urgent reforms.

Cited by 53 publications

References 17 publications

Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?

Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?

Reform of research funding processes could pave the way for progress in global health

Trends of the main bibliometric indicators of Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia (2010–2019)

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