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 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	None Found
MDPI	Epigenomes Data Medical Sciences Non-Coding RNA see more journals	Molecular Biology Genomics Genetics	Waiver eligible for: Authors unable to pay APC Full APC waiver for all authors(selected journals) in 2018 Mode of eligibility: Automatic eligibility for full APC waivered journals Waivers at publisher's discretions Amount of waiver: Full waiver for selected journals (includes Kenya) Publisher's discretion in other journals 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 New submissions for PeerJ Computer Science journal (from July 10, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2018) 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 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	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.

Predatory Journals

Publisher Name	Journals	Sources
Omics International		Article about OMICS international Newspaper article on The Guardian about predatory publishers
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET)		see discussion on ResearchGate The Guardian newspaper article source listed on OMICS

How to Contribute

Thank you for your interest in the project. Kindly read the 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

License

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