We need to put Open Access journals at the heart of academic publishing | Africa at LSE

"The non-capitalist publishing alternatives align more closely with academic principles of free scholarly exchange and public outreach, but they are often too complicated. For example, hosting a journal using the Open Journal System requires the use of web development and online database tools, which is a daunting task for most users. We need more publicly funded institutions to offer the comprehensive services that only large publishers with significant profit margins currently provide.

They are rare, but they do exist. For instance, Science for Africa funds and connects Open Science projects, the Public Knowledge Project enables journal hosting, and Open Research Europe publishes through open peer review. North American or European university librarians can provide a surprising range of in-house not-for-profit publishing services tailored to academic needs.

So why aren’t they more widely known and used? European science funders have opted to create parallel tracks, doubling the financial burden on taxpayers rather than reducing it. For example, many institutions fund the overpriced APCs of large publishers through public science funds, the same funds which are supposed to support independent Open Access journals. It’s like supporting both David and Goliath. Other than habit, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for this to continue....

we must stop paying APCs. Instead, we need long-term funding for Open Access journals hosted by academic institutions, not only in Europe but globally, especially in Africa, where research and publishing funds are scarce. This funding must collaborate with local publishers to professionalise the OA movement. We must prevent it from becoming as US-Eurocentric as the overall higher education sector, where Global South scholars are often treated as guests and forced to engage with white logic and white methods before their value is recognised. Localisation is not contradictory to global scholarship but can help integrate indigenous knowledge and decolonising epistemologies into global scholarship.

Shifting from APC funding to journal and infrastructure funding is a political decision that will not cost taxpayers more and may even save money. This is an ongoing debate about how we fund academic research and publishing. But, as we seek to establish the new system it’s worth asking: Can we keep it simple, scholars?"