The View From Mexico: Voices Of Mexican Journal Editors And Librarians On Challenges Of The Journal Publishing Ecosystem For Researchers Of The Global South

Research organizations in the Global North push for agreements with major international journal publishers to find solutions to the journal inflation and access crises to make their state-funded research open access. Researchers and educational institutions of the Global South are largely left out of the discussions. But to meet criteria for global university ranking systems set by institutions in the Global North, institutions in the Global South must invest in ever-inflating subscription fees for those “prestigious” journals and their researchers are expected to publish in those English-language journals. To gain more understanding of Global South perspectives on these issues, the author interviewed journal editors and librarians at different universities in Puebla Mexico. The interviews explored challenges for Mexican researchers to publish in English-language journals of the Global North, challenges for Mexican institutions to continue to access those expensive journals, the current level of open access at their institutions, the future outlook for open access in Mexico, and the social justice implications of the academic journal publishing ecosystem dominated by the Global North.