Looking beyond, around and within cultural differences and dialogues across the open access ecosystem - Céspedes - Medical Education - Wiley Online Library

"‘Where is it indexed?’ or ‘what's its impact factor?’ have been, for decades, typical questions researchers ask themselves when choosing a journal to disseminate their work. In the last few years, new questions have popped up: ‘is it open access?’, ‘is it compliant with my institution's mandates?’, ‘does it charge an APC (article processing charge)?’. Worryingly, a follow-up question is, all too often, ‘can I afford it?’.

We were reminded of these dilemmas by a recent Medical Education article, where Han and Kumwenda highlight, but also question, the claim that online education has been ‘touted for promoting equity and inclusivity’.1 The authors acknowledge notable progress and efforts in providing open and equitable access to medical education globally, but they also highlight concerns about its potential to perpetuate—and even exacerbate—inequalities between well-resourced, or Global North, and under-resourced, or Global South regions. An analogous argument can be made when it comes to discussing access to scholarly articles...."