About this Research Topic
The open-access (OA) publishing model makes research information available to readers at no cost. This type of publishing has several advantages over traditional subscription-based publishing. Foremost, it increases access to scientific knowledge and the reuse of academic research outcomes, resulting in a greater citation rate. Research outcomes in Asian countries have been growing at a rapid pace. The National Science Foundation published data in October 2021 that the number of articles published by researchers in Asian countries increased from 452,116 in 2010 to 877,626 in 2020. At this rate of increase, Asia – led in numbers by China and India – is on track to surpass both the United States and the European Union in research production soon. Consequently, there has been an increase in researchers opting for OA publishing interest in establishing partnerships to start new OA journals in Asian countries. However, challenges still remain for the OA model to become as established in Asia as the United States and Europe. Mandates for OA from governments are not common in Asian countries and researchers are also often uninformed about the licensing models and what it means for the research community. Besides this, lack of awareness about the benefits and understanding of predatory publishers are some of the constraints in the adoption of OA publishing. There are only a small number of empirical studies on OA publishing trends and OA policies in Asia. Therefore, research on OA publishing should be accelerated so that appropriate policy can be framed at all levels and researchers can benefit.
This Research Topic aims to investigate OA publishing trends across countries, disciplines, and institutions in Asian countries, their benefits to researchers and other stakeholders, and the barriers researchers face in adopting different OA publishing models. This also includes the evaluation of OA mandates and policies of the governments, research funders, and research institutions that require researchers or recipients of research grants to publish their research in open access. It is also vital to understand the difference in varied models of OA publishing so that researchers can opt for the suitable one to make their research visible to readers. Further, new models need to be devised so that more authors come forward in publishing their research in OA.
In this Research Topic, OA includes OA journals, self-archiving, and different OA models, including gold, green, and hybrid. We expect contributions (all article types are accepted, with a focus on original research articles, review articles, and opinions) from scholars of different countries and regions, covering a wide range of methodological approaches to better understand OA scholarly publishing trends and perspectives in various contexts. The authors can contribute to the following areas of research, including but not limited to:
• Growth of OA journals and Institutional or disciplinary repositories.
• Use of different self-archiving venues for making published, peer-reviewed journal articles OA.
• OA availability to scientific research across countries, disciplines, and institutions.
• Evaluation of the impact of OA policies.
• Impact of OA on research for the advancement of science.
• Factors that motivate and impede researchers from adopting OA.
• Comparative analysis of OA initiatives and policies of Asian countries with other countries of the world
This Research Topic aims to investigate OA publishing trends across countries, disciplines, and institutions in Asian countries, their benefits to researchers and other stakeholders, and the barriers researchers face in adopting different OA publishing models. This also includes the evaluation of OA mandates and policies of the governments, research funders, and research institutions that require researchers or recipients of research grants to publish their research in open access. It is also vital to understand the difference in varied models of OA publishing so that researchers can opt for the suitable one to make their research visible to readers. Further, new models need to be devised so that more authors come forward in publishing their research in OA.
In this Research Topic, OA includes OA journals, self-archiving, and different OA models, including gold, green, and hybrid. We expect contributions (all article types are accepted, with a focus on original research articles, review articles, and opinions) from scholars of different countries and regions, covering a wide range of methodological approaches to better understand OA scholarly publishing trends and perspectives in various contexts. The authors can contribute to the following areas of research, including but not limited to:
• Growth of OA journals and Institutional or disciplinary repositories.
• Use of different self-archiving venues for making published, peer-reviewed journal articles OA.
• OA availability to scientific research across countries, disciplines, and institutions.
• Evaluation of the impact of OA policies.
• Impact of OA on research for the advancement of science.
• Factors that motivate and impede researchers from adopting OA.
• Comparative analysis of OA initiatives and policies of Asian countries with other countries of the world
Keywords: Scholarly Communication, Open Access, Open Science, Open Access Policies, mandates; Open Access journals, Open Access Institutional Repositories
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
