Abstract
The expansion of open access publications has been correlated with specific government policies in many countries. The evolution in these cases is understandable within the framework of funding regulations. However, this is not the case for Brazil, where no regulation is currently in place. The unusually high percentage of open access publications in the Brazilian scientific community is analyzed here toward understanding which factors influence this growth and how similar effects may also impact other countries, particularly developing nations. We found that from 2012 to 2019 the Brazilian scientific community drifted to international open access journals. This transition is discussed in the framework of mega journals.
Highlights
The increase in subscription fees of scientific journals and cuts in the budgets of libraries reinforced the need to procure new methods of ensuring access to scientific outputs (Suber 2012).Due to the resistance of commercial publishers – one of the most powerful interest groups in the scientific publications sphere, boycotts were imposed by proponents of the change who advocated Open Access (OA) as a solution to scientific information access inequality (Epstein 2012)
It is in this scenario as a response to the high prices paid by the libraries (Mann et al 2009) that the OA movement arises for optimizing public access to information and eliminating the monopoly of these commercial publishers concerning the flow of information (Kamila & Biswas 2011)
Considering the leading role played by Brazil in the number of OA publications (Archambault et al 2014, Pavan & Barbosa 2018), as well as the indication that mega journals are a new path for international publications, this article aims to analyze the Brazilian scenario regarding OA to verify variations in the amount spent on APCs in the 2012-2019 period, what percentage of these publications are in mega journals, and how their use has evolved in Brazil
Summary
Due to the resistance of commercial publishers – one of the most powerful interest groups in the scientific publications sphere –, boycotts were imposed by proponents of the change who advocated Open Access (OA) as a solution to scientific information access inequality (Epstein 2012). It is in this scenario as a response to the high prices paid by the libraries (Mann et al 2009) that the OA movement arises for optimizing public access to information and eliminating the monopoly of these commercial publishers concerning the flow of information (Kamila & Biswas 2011).
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