Sorry, we’re open: Golden Open Access and inequality in the natural sciences

Abstract

Global Open Access (GOA) journals make research more accessible and therefore more citable; however, the publication fees associated with GOA journals can be costly and therefore not a viable option for many researchers seeking high-impact publication outlets. In this study, I collect metadata from 237 open-access natural science journals and analyze them in terms of Article Processing Charges (APC), Impact Factor (IF), Eigen Factor (EF), citability, and country of publisher. The results of this study provide evidence that with IF, EF, and citability all increase as APC increases, and each of these metrics are higher in publishers from developed countries in comparison to developing countries. Implications of these trends are discussed in regards to natural sciences and inequality within the global scientific community.

Inequality in plant diversity knowledge and unrecorded plant extinctions: An example from the grasses of Madagascar

“…Andrafiamena in north Madagascar Infrequent flowering (Dransfield, 1998) infrastructure, including access to internet, online datasets, and sci- (http://www.resea rch4l ife.org/), HINARI, and AGORA seek to improve equality in access to online journals, but their reach is still limited. Opportunities to publish are also unequal: journals with higher impact factors have higher publication costs (Gray, 2020), and the financial model of Golden Open Access in mega-journals favors western researchers (Ellers, Crowther, & Harvey, 2017…”

“…A number of platforms such as OARE ( Online Access to Research in the Environment https://www.oaresciences.org/), Research4life (http://www.research4life.org/), HINARI, and AGORA seek to improve equality in access to online journals, but their reach is still limited. Opportunities to publish are also unequal: journals with higher impact factors have higher publication costs (Gray, 2020), and the financial model of Golden Open Access in mega‐journals favors western researchers (Ellers, Crowther, & Harvey, 2017). Well‐intentioned free access provided to national institutions often fails in Madagascar because most are unable to provide web access, logins, or email addresses to staff and students.…”