Discussing their analysis of a new dataset of journals published via the Open Journals Systems publishing platform, Saurabh Khanna, Jon Ball, Juan Pablo Alperin and John Willinsky argue that rather than being an aspiration an open, regional and bibliodiverse publishing ecosystem is already in existence.
(7 Feb 2023) While no one really knows how many academic journals exist in the world, our recent study sheds light on how typical estimates undercount (where they do not discount) a sizable portion of journals from the Global South. The 25,671 journals considered in our study largely originate in the Global South. They have published more than 5.8 million articles and reports in the last decade, with research offered in at least 60 languages, representing both STEM and non-STEM disciplines. Yet for all their geographic, linguistic, and disciplinary diversity, these journals have yet to be fully incorporated into the body of knowledge that researchers regularly consult, and this may well be to the detriment of science and its beneficiaries.
What is common to the journals in this study is their use of the open source editorial management and publishing platform Open Journals Systems (OJS). OJS was released in 2002 by the Public Knowledge Project (with which we are associated, providing us with access to this set of journal data from 2020, now made freely available here).
These journals are published in 136 nations, with a larger concentration in lower middle income and upper middle incomes countries (see figure below). Indonesia and Brazil are seen to emerge as powerhouses in generating scholarly output, with both nations together accounting for more than 50% of the journals analyzed.
Find out more here.
