Indonesia tops open-access publishing charts

European funders have been leading a charge under ‘Plan S’ to make more of the scientific literature free to read. Yet the nations that publish the highest proportion of their research papers open access (OA) aren’t in Europe, according to a preliminary analysis shared with Nature. Instead, countries in southeast Asia, Africa and South America are leading the way — thanks to a flourishing network of local open-access journals and publishing portals. 

Indonesia may be the world’s OA leader: the study found that 81% of 20,000 journal articles published in 2017 with an Indonesia-affiliated author are available to read for free somewhere online, and 74% are published with open-access licences, meaning they could be legally redistributed