The BOAI Org and the National Council of Rectors of Costa Rica (CONARE) recently co-organized the second webinar in their series highlighting the need to protect the Latin American model of no-fee open access journals which do not charge authors to publish or readers to access.* The webinar focused on Brazil and speakers included Arianna Becerril García, Fhillipe de Freitas Campos, Andrea Mora Campos, Edna Montero, Peter Suber and Andréa Vieira. The event was moderated by Bianca Amaro with simultaneous interpretation in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Bianca Amaro introduced the topic of no-fee open access journals in Brazil, citing the prevalence of university and research institution-supported journals. She noted that Brazil has approximately 4,000 open access journals, the majority of which do not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs).
Arianna Becerril García presented findings from research conducted by Redalyc which found that 7% of the no-fee open access (OA) journals in their index have started charging APCs, primarily to cover basic expenses. She noted that the adoption of APCs has undesired effects, altering author demographics, subject matters, and the communities served, with journals shifting away from local topics to more global ones, potentially excluding authors from the Global South who lack institutional support or resources to pay. Becerril García highlighted a correlation between the adoption of APCs and an increase in English-language publishing, emphasizing that trivializing APCs as a sustainability model overlooks these broader impacts. She underscored the crucial responsibility of governments, public agencies, and institutions in supporting the editorial community to avoid APC adoption.
CAPES’s efforts to strengthen no-fee OA journals were introduced by Andréa Vieira. She noted that CAPES, a federal agency supporting postgraduate systems and research assessment, has shifted its policy since 2023 from only paying for access to investing in open infrastructure through SciELO. She highlighted a significant shift in their research assessment policies, through which the role of the journal impact factor is decreased, allowing for a greater focus on publications with social impact. Vieira outlined CAPES’s future plans, including increasing investment in no-fee OA journals from the current 2% of its $100 million budget and developing a program to strengthen Brazilian open access journals. She emphasized that journals need funding to maintain quality and address issues like plagiarism and AI, and without it, they will be forced to charge.
Andrea Mora Campos shared Costa Rica’s successful model for sustaining no-fee OA journals, which took many years to establish but is now being replicated in other Central American and Caribbean universities. Through this model, journals are supported by faculties within universities, which hire journal editors, while institutional support is provided for journal infrastructure.
Peter Suber and Becerril García offered further comments on the sustainability and political implications of the no-fee model. Suber noted the challenge of finding simple ways for universities to support no-fee OA journals comparably to paying APCs, suggesting solutions such as shared hosting costs for journal portals and integrating publishing into faculty jobs, as described in Costa Rica. He also raised concerns about potential future declines in science funding, which could lead to more journals adopting APCs, and advocated for an international network of journal portals. Becerril García emphasized the critical role of reciprocity in sustaining the “commons of knowledge” through no-fee OA, asserting its sustainability over the APC model, especially when institutions and governments collectively commit to supporting public goods.
Fhillipe de Freitas Campos detailed the actions taken by the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT) over 20 years, including building technological infrastructure to disseminate training and support scientific studies. Among the infrastructures and actions underway in Brazil, he highlighted the historic support given to the use of the OJS software and highlighted the Directory of Brazilian Electronic Scientific Journals (Miguilim), which is a registry of more than 5,000 Brazilian scientific journals. In addition, he discussed the difficulty in finding qualified and timely peer reviewers for articles, which is driving IBICT to create the Brazilian Directory of Scientific and Technical Reviewers.
Edna Montero highlighted the work ABEC has been doing to professionalize scientific publication and related activities, developing a comprehensive education system with courses in publishing, peer review, management, assessment, and tools to provide generalized and individualized certifications.
During the discussion, Vieira clarified that the funding to support SciELO’s infrastructure is not tied to a policy prohibiting APCs. She noted, speaking unofficially, that she believes if public resources are used, there should be no space for APCs, provided the editorial process can be fully funded. And Fhillipe de Freitas Campos confirmed that IBICT, in collaboration with La Referencia, is developing a free persistent identifier intended for adoption across Latin America.
The organizers announced that a third webinar in the series will be organized over the coming months.
To view a video of the event, please click here.
* The organizers have chosen not to use the term “diamond” due to its exploitative connotations.