[*Note from HIFA moderator (NPW): The original version came through without line breaks for those on Immediate setting. I am sending this second version in the hope it will be more readable.]
Having enjoyed the Open Access discussion so far, I put together an opinionated summary of some of the pros and cons of OA in the following table (converted to text here as the listserv software doesn’t allow for table format). Comments and suggestions on making it more accurate would be very welcome.
General
Open Access Pros
–Provides access to international literature previously inaccessible on account of cost
–Allows access to and sharing of the results of sophisticated and expensive research –Provides an international perspective
–Offers novel solutions to the health challenges of contemporary life
Open Access Cons
–Opens the floodgates to outside resources, swamping local literature (>80% of it is in English, almost nothing in local languages)
–Makes it harder to find literature on locally appropriate solutions
–Forces an industrialised-country perspective on the developing world (“epistemic injustice”)
–Usually refers to medical practices requiring expensive equipment, pharmaceuticals and care regimes
Economics of the publishing model
Open Access Pros
–Diminishes the economic burden on educational library budgets by removing many of the paywalls preventing access to essential health information (how and when depending on the kind of OA offered: Green, Diamond, Gold, Hybrid, or Bronze)
–Enables publishers to publish anything that is submitted, as the cost is covered up front
Open Access Cons
–Increases the burden on educational administrative budgets by making authors and/or their sponsoring bodies (universities, governments) pay for publication through Article Processing Charges (APCs)
––APCs: financial discrimination, when there is no sponsor
––APCs: epistemological discrimination, when the subject matter is not of a type that attracts research sponsors (e.g., ethics, knowledge management, intellectual property, …)
––APCs: social/ethical discrimination, when applicants for APC waivers have to justify their inability to pay –Encourages the rise of predatory journals which will publish anything for APCs, leading to a decrease in scientific quality
Other
Open Access Pros
–Encourages wider quotation and citation –Facilitates science communication (depending on Plans S, T, or U), encouraging self-archiving in open access repositories
–Encourages the process of going from research to policy to practice (R2P2P)
Open Access Cons
–Provides unremunerated training materials for AI chatbots
–Encourages disputes and controversies
–Can lead to a decline in peer review
–Research that is not locally relevant can result in inappropriate local policies and consequently failures in practice
Source: Chris Zielinski, 2025 Chris Zielinski Centre for Global Health, University of Winchester, UK and President, World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Blogs; http://ziggytheblue.wordpress.com and http://ziggytheblue.tumblr.com Publications: http://www.researchgate.net and https://winchester.academia.edu/ChrisZielinski/
HIFA profile: Chris Zielinski: As a Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at the Centre for Global Health, University of Winchester, Chris leads the Partnerships in Health Information (Phi) programme, which supports knowledge development and brokers healthcare information exchanges of all kinds. He is President of the World Association of Medical Editors. Chris has held senior positions in publishing and knowledge management with WHO in Brazzaville, Geneva, Cairo and New Delhi, with FAO in Rome, ILO in Geneva, and UNIDO in Vienna. He served on WHO's Ethical Review Committee, and was an originator of the African Health Observatory. He also spent three years in London as Chief Executive of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society. Chris has been a director of the UK Copyright Licensing Agency, Educational Recording Agency, and International Association of Audiovisual Writers and Directors. He has served on the boards of several NGOs and ethics groupings (information and computer ethics and bioethics). chris AT chriszielinski.com. His publications are at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris-Zielinski and https://winchester.academia.edu/ChrisZielinski/ and his blogs are http://ziggytheblue.wordrpress.com and https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ziggytheblue