The findings from my small study on how authors in the Global South provide open access to their research are consistent with previous analyses I have undertaken, i.e., they are more likely to publish in open access journals that either do not levy publication fees (bronze/diamond) or that charge lower-cost APCs (under US$2000). What also has been a consistent finding - but still surprising! - is that very few Southern authors choose to share their work via the other free option, or green open access. Only 10 pre- or postprints were recorded during the data collection period. The five postprints were all deposited in co-authors' institutional repositories based in the Global North (four in the UK and one in Singapore).
It's very likely that my counts are low because I am not able to identify eprints in a systematic way. Green versions of articles can be harder to locate for a variety of reasons:
- There is no single database that one can search for eprints and it is not possible to undertake a search across all repositories where most eprints are deposited; this means multiple sites need to be visited on a regular basis to locate relevant items (although browser extension tools like the Google Scholar button and Unpaywall are very helpful for discovery purposes).
- Eprints may be posted at any time, even years after an article was published, meaning that multiple searches would need to be conducted over an extended period to ensure comprehensiveness.
At the same time, studies of self-archiving practices in the Global South point to additional explanations for low green OA counts, such as lack of awareness and limited usage of institutional repositories by certain GS scholars (see, e.g., Hoskins & Tapfuma, 2019; Tapfuma & Hoskings, 2019), slow implementation of IRs and/or infrastructure challenges in certain GS countries (see, e.g., Ifeanyi & Stella, 2020; Mbughuni et al., 2022), and funder policies with self-archiving requirements that do not factor in journal policies (see, e.g., Koley & Lala, 2022).
My main focus has always been to improve awareness of open access options for forced migration researchers. In that spirit, here are a few recommendations that I hope will encourage those of you who wish to avoid costly APCs to choose the green OA option:
1. Selecting a journal:
- Use the Think. Check. Submit. resource to help you identify trusted journals and publishers. The interface is available in a wide variety of languages.
2. Self-archiving policies to keep in mind:
- Most subscription-based journal publishers allow self-archiving of postprints, but they may place limits on when the full-text of the postprint can be accessed (i.e., the embargo period, which can range from 6-24 months) and where it can be deposited (institutional and subject repositories are usually okay, but academic social networks like Academia or ResearchGate are not). See this table for a summary of policies relating to refugee- and migration-specific journals.
- Note that some publishers, like Oxford Univ. Press, Springer and Taylor & Francis, do not impose embargoes for postprints that are posted on authors' personal websites.
- Even better, a number of journal publishers have adopted zero embargo policies, i.e., there is no required waiting period to access the full-text of your postprint whether it is self-archived in a repository or posted on an author website. See more information in this blog post.
- You can also check Sherpa Romeo for details on many more publishers' self-archiving policies.
3. Identifying a repository:
- Once your manuscript is accepted and has undergone peer review, deposit the resulting postprint (i.e., the version that has been peer reviewed but not yet copy edited) in your institution's repository, if one is available (if you are not certain, check OpenDOAR).
4. Funder policies:
- The entity that provided funding to you for your research may have stipulations regarding open access. For example, authors who receive support from Coalition S funders can choose the green route to comply with their open access requirements. However, the resulting postprint must be available immediately (no embargo) and carry a CC BY license (or exceptionally, a CC BY ND license - see this blog post for more info).
- In light of the limits on self-archiving set by publishers described above, Coalition S developed the Rights Retention Strategy to help authors implement their policy. When submitting their manuscript to a journal, researchers should include the following statement: "This research was funded in whole or in part by [Funder] [Grant number]. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission."
- Additional tools developed by Coalition S to assist researchers with the green route include this graphic, the Pre-submission & covering letter templates: user guide, and the Journal Checker Tool.
Many examples of postprints are provided in my blog and on the open access journal pages I have created for the International Journal of Refugee Studies (IJRL), the Journal of Refugee Studies (JRS) and Refugee Survey Quarterly (RSQ)!
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