Open and Shut?: North, South, and Open Access: Jeff MacKie-Mason responds from California

"This is the final part of an experiment in a matched interview process. It consists of Q&As with two OA advocates, one from the global North and one from the global South, along with their responses to each other’s Q&A.  Jeff MacKie-Mason The first Q&A was undertaken with Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, UC Berkeley’s University Librarian and Chief Digital Scholarship Officer, and can be read here. The second Q&A was conducted with Mahmoud Khalifa, a librarian at the Library of Congress Cairo Office and DOAJ Ambassador for the Middle East and Persian Gulf, and can be read here. Prior to that Khalifa responded to MacKie-Mason’s Q&A. This can be read here.

Today I am publishing the final part of the experiment. This consists of four parts. First (A), MacKie-Mason responds to Khalifa’s Q&A; second (B), MacKie-Mason comments on Khalifa’s response to his Q&A; third (C), Mackie-Mason comments on the “polemical” nature of the preambles I attached to the interviews; fourth (D), I respond to MacKie-Mason’s comments about my style.

(A) MacKie-Mason comments on Khalifa’s response

Mahmoud replies to one of my statements: “I have a different point of view! Subscriptions in the global South are paid by institutions; publication fees are paid by the scholars themselves. True, some universities provide financial support for their scholars when they publish internationally, but this is far from adequate, especially in light of the large differences between currencies. It is vital to consider the local economic situation and factor in the low salaries of researchers in developing countries.”

First, let me be clear, I am *completely* sympathetic to Mahmoud’s concerns. I don’t want a world in which there is less access or less opportunity to publish for global south scholars...."