Research and open access from low- and middle-income countries

There are many barriers to research in the resource-poor areas of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). One is the cost of accessing journals (subscriptions) which can prevent the work being accessible to the communities and scientists in these regions. The emergence of the Internet and the development of open access publishing has improved the situation, but significant barriers persist. Open access refers to unrestricted online access to and ability to reuse scholarly papers free of any publisher-imposed access charge, but the publishing cost is often transferred to the authors.

Access to the Internet has improved communication and made a significant impact to the transfer of knowledge in LMICs. It has provided a conduit to research, guidelines, and contemporary discussions of health care matters. No longer are health care workers and scientists restricted to the outdated textbooks found in many institutional libraries or the limited journals that the libraries can afford. Although Internet access has improved dramatically in many LMICs in the last decade, it still remains relatively expensive and sometimes erratic.

There are other significant barriers to open access in LMICs. Most journals charge fees for the publication to be made immediately (‘gold’) open access. These charges can be considerable (up to 5000 US dollars), prohibitive for researchers in LMICs where their institutions cannot or will not pay for the publication. The fees can be much more than the annual subscriptions to the journals and often amount to more than a researcher’s monthly salary. In some cases, the fees are waivered for researchers from LMICs, but this is often restricted to those from the poorest countries.¹ Often publishers will impose a delay in the open access (6 months in ‘green’ open access), reducing the immediacy of the research.

Clearly, publishers need to remain financially viable in order to offer the platform for scientific publishing. They provide a system of independent verification of the science and enhanced content.² So what are the solutions? Journals and publishers depend upon the authors who submit papers to review other authors’ work for free. Some journals offer payments in kind, for example free access to journals or citation databases in recompense. Other suggestions include acknowledging the reviewer’s institution in some way, thus providing people with incentives to review papers.¹ Such credit could be used to defray the cost of open access publishing. The Wellcome Trust have started Wellcome Open Research (https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/) which allows funded researchers to publish research for free within days of submission, subjected to open and invited peer review. This platform is restricted to Wellcome Trust researchers, although the model could be adopted by other charitable and philanthropic organizations. The World Health Organization provides a portal of access to over 16 000 journals for LMIC institutions for free or at low cost (https://www.who.int/hinari/en/), although access is often restricted to papers 6 months after they are published.

The cost of online publishing can be relatively low. For example, at the Journal of the International Child Neurology Association (https://jicna.org/index.php/journal/index), the estimated cost is about 200 US dollars per paper for copyediting, layout, and registration with various indexing websites, but this does not include the time for the webmaster or editorial staff.

Open access publishing of scientific research could have a significant impact on science, development, and health in LMICs, but it does need support. Established publishing companies could do more to make papers accessible to researchers in LMICs and improve the immediacy of the research. Funders and philanthropic organizations should support the work they fund being open access. Authors should be encouraged to publish in open access journals or those journals that allow free access to research conducted in LMICs, or at least ensure that other researchers and communities have access to their findings for the benefit of communities in these areas.^*