Publishing open access at low cost: what are our options?

In most Kenyan Institutions, students are required to publish at least one paper at MSc level. The common question is: where do we publish at low cost? To help students and early career scientists take decisions on where to publish, we create this open resource that can be used to guide students and early career researchers in Africa to publish open access, and at subsidized or waived article processing charge.

We tackled this question during an OpenScienceKE hackathon held on 30th and 31st August 2018. The contributors to this project can be found here. See this section and the data entry guidelines if you'd like to contribute.

Here is a summary of what we found during the hackathon:

• Most Open Access publishers offer waivers or subsidies to authors from developing countries.
• For some, the waiver policy is linked to the corresponding author or the source of research funds.
• Lower Income countries authors receive full waivers, while Lower middle-income countries receive a 50% subsidy.
• Journals also consider waiver requests on a case by case basis
• Kenya is part of developing countries
• Kenya is a Lower-Middle Income country
• No special waiver to students identified so far, but may be part of the case by case waivers

Low-cost open access table

Publisher Name	Journals	Scope	Waiver Criteria	Other Open Science Practices
Hindawi	Advances in Bioinformatics The Scientific World Journal BioMed Research International Genetics Research International Scientifica see full list	Bioinformatics Computational Biology Genomics Genetics Infectious Diseases Molecular Biology	Waiver eligible for: Low-income economies Lower-middle-income economies Mode of eligibility: Automatically eligible Amount of waiver: Not stated Application process: Request a waiver before submitting manuscript Send an email to [email protected] see waiver details	None Found
Public Library of Science(PLOS)	PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases PLoS Genetics PLOS Computational Biology PLOS Pathogens PLOS Biology PLOS ONE PLOS Medicine see journal list	Infectious Diseases Pharmacology Molecular Biology Cancer Research Genetics Computational Theory and Mathematics see more details	Waiver eligible for: low income countries middle income countries where 50% or more of the research work is funded from these countries Mode of eligibility: automatically eligible Amount of waiver: Full waiver for low income countries(includes Kenya) Subsidized: middle income countries pay 500USD Application Process: Apply for waiver during manuscript submission see waiver details	None Found
Wiley	Molecular Systems Biology Advanced Science Cancer Medicine Plant Biotechnology journal see full list	Biochemistry Genetics Molecular Biology Cancer Research Medicine see more	Waiver eligible for: Authors in developing countries Mode of eligibility: Automatically eligible for waivers and discounts Amount of waiver: Automatic waiver(full) - includes Kenya 50% Automatic Discount see countries in above categories Application Process: submit waiver or discount request during article submission	Open Data Allows Pre-prints
BioMed Central (BMC)	BMC Cancer BMC Medical Genomics BMC Genetics Molecular Cancer Malaria Journal BMC Bioinformatics BMC Genomics see more journals	Genetics Genomics Bioinformatics Molecular Biology Biomedicine see more categories	Waiver eligible for: low-income countries low-middle income countries individuals (in case of lack of funds) authors with a substantial critique of articles published in the same OA journal Mode of eligibility: Automatic eligibility for low- and middle-income countries Case-by-case basis for individuals lacking funds Amount of waiver: Full waiver for low-income countries 50% APC discount for low-middle income countries Individuals: Not stated see waiver details; More on APCs Application process: Request a waiver or discount during submission	Some journals have open peer review
Nature Publishing Group	Nature Communications Human Genome Variation Blood Cancer Journal Genetics in Medicine npj Systems Biology and Applications see more journal	Biochemistry Genetics Genomics Immunology	Waiver eligible for: low-income countries lower-middle-income countries substantial critique of an article previously published in the same fully OA journal authors in financial need (case-by-case basis) Mode of eligibility: Automatic eligibility for low- and middle-income countries Case-by-case basis for individuals in financial need Amount of waiver: Low-income countries: full APC waiver Lower-middle-income countries: 50% APC discount (Kenya included here) Discretionary waivers: Not stated Application process: Request waiver or discount at the point of submission Apply for discretionary waivers prior to or at the point of manuscript submission waiver for countries; see more on waivers	Open Data. Research data policies are provided
MDPI	Epigenomes Data Medical Sciences Non-Coding RNA see more journals	Molecular Biology Genomics Genetics	Waiver or discounts eligible for: Authors unable to pay APC Authors from low- and middle-income countries Full APC waiver for all authors (selected journals) in 2020 Mode of eligibility: Automatic eligibility for full APC waivered journals Waivers or discounts at publisher's discretions Case-by-case basis for authors from low- and middle-income countries Amount of waiver: Full waiver for selected journals Publisher's discretion in other journals (waivers and discounts start from 15% (of the total APCs in a journal)) Application process: Discuss waiver with editorial office during article submission see waiver details	None Found
PeerJ	PeerJ PeerJ Computer Science	Bioinformatics Computational Biology Data Mining and Machine Learning Genetics Genomics See more	Waiver eligible for: Low income countries See list of countries Mode of eligibility: Automatic eligibility for authors from low income countries for a single publication, one per submitting author, per year Any co-author who was an undergraduate at the time of the research Amount of waiver: Low income countries: Full waiver Application process: Indicate desire for a waiver in the "Confidential Notes to Staff" upon submission see details on waiver	Optional post-publication peer review history transparency. see details Supports pre-prints. see details
Oxford University Press (OUP)	Bioscience Horizons Biology Methods and Protocols Nucleic Acids Research Database DNA Research Genome Biology and Evolution Journal of Insect Science see more journals	Bioinformatics Computational Biology Genomics Genetics Molecular biology	Waiver eligible for: Authors from developing countries Authors in financial hardship Mode of eligibility: Automatic eligibilty for authors from developing countries Waiver granted at the discretion of the editor of the journal for authors in financial hardship Amount of waiver: Full waiver for Free access countries 50% reduction on open access APCs for authors in reduced access countries and regions (Kenya included in this category) see developing countries list Application process: Apply for waiver during manuscript submission see more details on waivers	None Found
Frontiers	Frontiers in Genetics Frontiers in Plant Science Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology see more journals	Bioinformatics Computational Biology Genetics Genomics Systems Biology	Waiver eligible for: Authors without the means to pay the APCs Mode of eligibility: Case-by-case basis at the discretion of the publisher Amount of waiver: Full waiver Partial waiver Application process: Apply for waiver before, or immediately after, the manuscript is submitted see more details	Collaborative Peer Review
eLife	Research categories include: Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics Cell Biology Computational and Systems Biology Genetics and Genomics Evolutionary Biology see more topics	Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics Cell Biology Computational and Systems Biology Genetics and Genomics Evolutionary Biology see more topics	A $2500 fee is collected for published researchers. Waiver is available for researchers with insufficient funds. Mode of eligibility: Case by case basis at the discretion of the publisher Application process: Application for a fee waiver is done once the article submission has been invited for full peer review. see more details on eLife Publication fees	None Found

Preprints

Preprint Name	Description
bioRxiv	A free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preprints in the life sciences. Authors use the bioRxiv service to make their manuscripts available as “preprints” before peer review, allowing other scientists to see, discuss, and comment on the findings immediately.
AfricArXiv	This is specially designed for African scientists to share their research outputs. They accept the following; Case studies, research articles, review papers, data and methods papers, project proposals, technical notes, dataset description papers and negative results. A manuscript can be submitted prior to or post publication. N/B AfricArXiv is not a journal and does not evaluate the scientific quality of a manuscript in all details.
medRxiv	medRxiv accepts preprints of articles covering all aspects of research in the health sciences. Research articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, clinical research design protocols and data articles may be posted. A manuscript may be submitted prior to, or concurrently with, submission to a journal but will not be posted if it has already been accepted for publication, published, or posted elsewhere.
PeerJPreprints	An archive of previously published preprints. Focuses on high-quality peer review and fast publishing. Good to note that Computational Biology is their scope.
BioHackrXiv	Provides a wide scope of scientific preprint submission. Subjects include, Microbiology, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biochemistry, Nutrition, Neuroscience etc.
Preprints.org	Available for preprints in all STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. Of particular interest to us include Biochemistry, Genetics, Molecular Biology among others. Other than life science the server has a wide scope of subjects in Material science, Medicine and Pharmacology, Mathematics and Computer Science, Physical Science, Social Science, Arts and Humanity, Engineering, Biology, Behavioral Science, Chemistry and Earth science.
arXiv	an archive for scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. Important to note that arXiv only accept submission of manuscripts from registered authors. A new user may be required to find endorsements from authors who have published a certain number of papers within the subject area.

Predatory Journals

Leading scholars and publishers from ten countries have recently defined predatory journals and publishers as "entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices"(Grudniewicz et al., 2019). Predatory journals take advantage of the pay-to-publish model used by legitimate open access journals. Therefore, one prominent feature of predatory journals is their readiness to publish any article submitted as long as the author is willing to pay the article processing charges. In this regard, the predatory journals will aggressively solicit the authors to publish in these journals. Predatory journals may also provide false information such as fake impact factors, incorrect addresses, misrepresentations of the editorial board, false claims of indexing or membership of associations and misleading claims about the rigor of peer review. By readily allowing publication of articles without rigorous vetting, predatory publishing undermines legitimate and trustworthy scholarly publishing. To aid authors in identifying predatory journals, lists of possible predatory journals have been created and are regularly updated. These include:

• List of Predatory Journals (Adapted from Beall’s list)
• Cabell's Blacklist (Accessed on a subscription basis)
• Beall's List

How to Contribute

Thank you for your interest in the project. Kindly read the CONTRIBUTING:data entry guidelines for creating this resource. Here are some of the ways you can contribute to this resource:

• Review the resource table
• Suggest some of the publishers who provide waivers (Open an issue or send us a pull request)
• Provide suggestions on formatting
• Share this resource

Etherpad link for collaborative note taking: https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/2018-openaccess

Contributors

1. Caleb Kipkurui (Project Leader)
2. Karega Pauline(Team Leader)
3. Kennedy Wanjau Mwangi
4. Fridah Glelis Kariuki
5. Sebastian Musundi
6. Jennifer Mutisya
7. Cavin Mgawe

Reference

Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., Ardern, C., Balcom, L., Barros, T., Berger, M., Ciro, J. B., Cugusi, L., Donaldson, M. R., Egger, M., Graham, I. D., Hodgkinson, M., Khan, K. M., Mabizela, M., Manca, A., … Lalu, M. M. (2019). Predatory journals: No definition, no defence. Nature, 576(7786), 210–212. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y

License

All content of this repo is released under the CC-BY 4.0 license