Equity in Open Access Means Thinking Beyond Fees | Katina Magazine

"Open access (OA) was originally defined in terms of access for readers. In the last five years or so, it has increasingly been recognized that access for authors is just as important: financial barriers to publication create considerable inequities between researchers worldwide. Among the proposed solutions to the problem of equity for authors, diamond OA, which does not charge fees for authors or readers, has garnered considerable interest.

But a definition of equity focused on financial barriers for authors and readers is also too narrow. Equity should extend beyond authors and readers to reviewers and editors, who make essential contributions to knowledge production, and should include dimensions beyond the financial or economic: linguistic and epistemic diversity as well as quality assurance in publishing. To advance a more resilient and diverse scholarly publication system, these dimensions of equity should be monitored with more attention than is currently lavished on citation counts and journal metrics."