(13 Feb 2023) The world of open access (OA) academic publishing is not a fair or inclusive space as recent conversations and older conversations show. OASPA recognises that OA at any cost is not acceptable, and is mindful of inequities introduced by the current (fully-OA and transitioning) publishing landscape; in removing the paywall to read we should not be building new walls that create inequitable barriers to publishing. APCs (Article Processing Charges) and TAs (Transformative Agreements aka Read & Publish or Publish & Read) are inequitable because they open articles only from a select set of authors. Similar problems arise with pure-publish agreements that provide access to OA publishing to authors at select institutions. At the same time, there are real costs to publishing, and these approaches are steps forward on the journey towards an OA future.
The Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association has the news here.
