Gold Open Access Publishing in Mega-Journals: developing countries pay the price of western premium academic output

Gold open access publishing is a cause for concern because it drives a redistribution of valuable research money to support open access papers in ‘mega-journals’ with more permissive acceptance criteria. A data-driven evaluation of the financial ramifications of gold OAP is presented and evidence is provided that gold OAP in mega-journals is biased toward Western industrialized countries. The global inequity of the cross-subsidizing APC model was demonstrated across five different mega-journals, showing that the issue is a common problem. Stringent and fair criteria need to be developed to address the global financial implications of OAP, as publication fees should reflect the real cost of publishing and be transparent for authors.