Webinar raises correlation between adoption of APCs with rise of English-language publishing in Latin America – Budapest Open Access Initiative

"The BOAI Org and the National Council of Rectors of Costa Rica (CONARE) recently co-organized the second webinar in their series highlighting the need to protect the Latin American model of no-fee open access journals which do not charge authors to publish or readers to access.*  The webinar focused on Brazil and speakers included Arianna Becerril García, Fhillipe de Freitas Campos, Andrea Mora Campos, Edna Montero, Peter Suber and Andréa Vieira. The event was moderated by Bianca Amaro with simultaneous interpretation in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Bianca Amaro introduced the topic of no-fee open access journals in Brazil, citing the prevalence of university and research institution-supported journals. She noted that Brazil has approximately 4,000 open access journals, the majority of which do not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs).

Arianna Becerril García presented findings from research conducted by Redalyc which found that 7% of the no-fee open access (OA) journals in their index have started charging APCs, primarily to cover basic expenses. She noted that the adoption of APCs has undesired effects, altering author demographics, subject matters, and the communities served, with journals shifting away from local topics to more global ones, potentially excluding authors from the Global South who lack institutional support or resources to pay. Becerril García highlighted a correlation between the adoption of APCs and an increase in English-language publishing, emphasizing that trivializing APCs as a sustainability model overlooks these broader impacts. She underscored the crucial responsibility of governments, public agencies, and institutions in supporting the editorial community to avoid APC adoption...."