The Publication Ecosystem – Conclusion

In the Open Access – The Publication Ecosystem chapters, we have explored the publication ecosystem, including publishing practices, the financial drivers, and how publishing has transformed through the digital shift.

Publishing plays a particularly important role in academics, serving as the mechanism through which scholarly research is circulated and judged. Many publishing decisions impact the ability of researchers to secure research funding, obtain promotion and elevate their profile within their discipline, creating the “publish or perish” mentality in academia. With the introduction of the internet, a “digital shift” provided an opportunity and alternative to traditional subscription-based publishing in the form of open access (OA), a model where research is published freely online and is available to any reader with access to the internet. While the introduction of the internet introduced what many consider a more equitable publishing system, publishers have found ways to monetize the OA movement through a variety of publishing models (e.g. green OA, hybrid, etc.), including seeking to monetize their catalogue for training GenAI tools. Additionally, predatory publishing , a parasitic form of OA publishing that asks authors to pay the costs of publication without adhering to the rigorous ethical standards expected by authors and readers, has impacted trust of OA.  While world events, like the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the benefit of free and quick access to research outputs, the goals of the OA movement remain elusive.