[IRTalk] Africa’s open-access journals ‘run on hidden labour’

[Ina Smith]

Maybe of interest:
Africa’s open-access journals ‘run on hidden labour’
https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-pan-african-2026-7-africa-s-open-access-journals-run-on-hidden-labour/

The report, published last month by the International Network for Advancing Science and Policy, analysed 235 Diamond Open Access journals - those that do not charge fees to authors or readers - on the continent. It found that almost half rely primarily on institutional support, while the rest cobble together grants, partnerships and volunteer effort to stay online.
“This masks the true cost of publishing and limits the ability of governments and funders to plan and coordinate investment,” write authors Nora Ndege and Jon Harle.

Access the report itself:
Ndege, Nora & Harle, Jonathan. (2026). Financing Open Research: A Focus on African Publishing Platforms and Journals. International Network for Advancing Science and Policy (INASP).
https://zenodo.org/records/20551689

Financing Open Research: a focus on African publishing platforms and journals<https://zenodo.org/records/20551689>
Africa's open access publishing ecosystem, spanning roughly 1,790 journals and platforms like AJOL, AfricaArXiv, and Open Research Africa, is far more fragile than its policy visibility suggests. A new INASP policy paper reveals that most of this infrastructure survives through unpaid academic labour, informal institutional subsidies, and short-term donor cycles rather than any coordinated public investment. The total cost of sustaining the entire system is estimated at $7.2 to $14.3 million annually, a figure modest by global standards, yet no structured financing mechanism exists to cover it. The core argument is not that Africa lacks resources for open research, but that existing contributions are unrecognised, uncoordinated, and unsustainable in their current form. The paper calls for Science Granting Councils, national governments, universities, and regional bodies to formalise institutional underwriting, integrate publishing infrastructure into national research budgets, and build regional consortia.


Ina Smith

Programme Officer: Open Science and Open Infrastructure

Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)



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