Is it impolite to say we told you so?

[Glenn Hampson]

A new study (https://go.nature.com/3GZ36wz) shows exactly how APC’s are impacting OA authorship from the Global South. Between 2018 and 2020, the research team looked at 37,000 articles published in 38 Elsevier mirror journals. Their findings? “Around 80% of articles in mirror journals had first authors from high-income countries, and none had first authors from low-income countries.” This was despite the availability of APC waiver programs like Research4Life, which still didn’t reduce fees low enough to make publishing possible.

 

So, does this APC “transformation” keep rolling out, or will Elsevier, Nature and other publishers, funders, initiatives (like Plan S) and institutions be willing/able to pause and reflect?