Open access: academic publishing and its implications for knowledge equity in Kenya

Abstract

Traditional, subscription-based scientific publishing has its limitations: often, articles are inaccessible to the majority of researchers in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), where journal subscriptions or one-time access fees are cost-prohibitive. Open access (OA) publishing, in which journals provide online access to articles free of charge, breaks this barrier and allows unrestricted access to scientific and scholarly information to researchers all over the globe. At the same time, one major limitation to OA is a high publishing cost that is placed on authors. Following recent developments to OA publishing policies in the UK and even LMICs, this article highlights the current status and future challenges of OA in Africa. We place particular emphasis on Kenya, where multidisciplinary efforts to improve access have been established. We note that these efforts in Kenya can be further strengthened and potentially replicated in other African countries, with the goal of elevating the visibility of African research and improving access for African researchers to global research, and, ultimately, bring social and economic benefits to the region. We (1) offer recommendations for overcoming the challenges of implementing OA in Africa and (2) call for urgent action by African governments to follow the suit of high-income countries like the UK and Australia, mandating OA for publicly-funded research in their region and supporting future research into how OA might bring social and economic benefits to Africa.

Open access in South Africa: A case study and reflections

“…Open access is beneficial for research universities (their rankings and impact measures improve); for funders whose missions of creating and sharing knowledge are realised; for the research process which sees efficiencies, immediacy and transparency; and for the development imperatives of universities and societies at large for which the scholarly resources of universities are made available to all. 9 Open access is essential for visibility and has proven valuable for citations: in a meta-study of 35 studies surveyed, 27 showed a citations advantage (the percentage increase ranged from 45% to as high as 600%). 10 For those from less developed countries, the effect is more profound: the influence of free access on citations has been shown to be twice as large for the poorer countries in the developing world compared to richer countries, as measured by per capita gross national income.…”

Should We be More “Open” About Publishing Research?

“…Open access helps researchers as readers by opening up access to articles that their libraries do not subscribe to. One of the great beneficiaries of open access may be users in developing countries, where currently some universities find it difficult to pay for subscriptions required to access the most recent journals [12][13][14]. Some schemes exist for providing subscription scientific publications to those affiliated to institutions in developing countries at little or no cost.…”

Predatory Publishing Is a Threat to Non-Mainstream Science

“…Opening access to publications, and particularly adopting a ‘green’ archiving policy, is essential for improving visibility of non-mainstream science countries and academic disciplines with limited funding and a small number of indexed journals (1415). Gold open access, which was adopted as a priority for British academic and research institutions in 2012, relied on the advances in academic disciplines of interest to the global community, well-established publishing industry, and substantial research funding available for British and European researchers at that time (16).…”