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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif'><a href="https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/41184625">https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/41184625</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif'>Open access publishing (OAP) makes research output freely available, and several national governments have now made OAP mandatory for all publicly funded research. Gold OAP is a common form of OAP where the author pays an article processing charge (APC) to make the article freely available to readers. However, gold OAP is a cause for concern because it drives a redistribution of valuable research money to support open access papers in ‘mega-journals’ with more permissive acceptance criteria. We present a data-driven evaluation of the financial ramifications of gold OAP and provide evidence that gold OAP in mega-journals is biased toward Western industrialized countries. From 2011 to 2015, the period of our data collection, countries with developing economies had a disproportionately greater share of articles published in the lower-tier mega-journals and thus paid article APCs that cross-subsidize publications in the top-tier journals of the same publisher. Conversely, scientists from Western developed countries had a disproportionately greater share of articles published in those same top-tier journals. The global inequity of the cross-subsidizing APC model was demonstrated across five different mega-journals, showing that the issue is a common problem. We need to develop stringent and fair criteria that address the global financial implications of OAP, as publication fees should reflect the real cost of publishing and be transparent for authors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Ina Smith</span></b><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Project Manager: <a href="http://africanopenscience.org.za/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>African Open Science Platform</span></a> <br>SciELO Planning Manager<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)<br><a href="https://blog.doaj.org/2016/09/07/the-doaj-ambassadors-biographies/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>DOAJ Ambassador, Southern Africa Region</span></a><br><a href="https://loy2016blog.wordpress.com/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>LIASA Librarian of the Year 2016</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://orcid.org/"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#338CAF;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=16 height=16 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.gif@01D35DDD.4FD26360" alt="http://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16(1).gif"></span></a><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif'> <a href="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9710-3668"><span style='color:#0563C1'>http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9710-3668 </span></a></span><u><span style='color:#0563C1'><o:p></o:p></span></u></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Switchboard: +27 12 349 6600 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Tel: +27 12 349 6641 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Fax: +27 (0) 86 576 9512<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Email: </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif'><a href="mailto:ina@assaf.org.za"><span style='color:#0563C1;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>ina@assaf.org.za</span></a></span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#1F497D'><img border=0 width=184 height=75 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D35DDD.4FD26360" alt=assafemail></span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>1st Floor Block A, The Woods, 41 De Havilland Crescent, Persequor Park <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Meiring Naudé Road, Lynnwood 0020, Pretoria, South Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>PO Box 72135, Lynnwood Ridge 0040, Pretoria, South Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>Website: </span><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif'><a href="http://www.assaf.org.za/"><span style='color:#0563C1;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'>www.assaf.org.za</span></a></span><i><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'> </span></i><span lang=EN-ZA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> 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