Open access in Africa – green and gold, the impact factor, ‘mainstream' and ‘local' research

Abstract

I have been following the debate raging in the UK and beyond about whether the Finch Commission and the Research Councils UK - and then the EC with a slightly different emphasis – were right in opting for support for the ‘gold route' of open access publishing rather than prioritizing only the ‘green route' of open access repositories. There seems to have been a general consensus in the commentaries that I have read that this will disadvantage the developing world, which will be faced with the barrier of high article processing fees and become increasingly excluded. The green route, through continuing creation of institutional repositories, would be better for us, we are told.