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“The idea of paying for publication makes me feel that the decision to publish a particular research depends on the profit and not the quality of the research,” said Tamer Al-Sayed, Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Qatar.
Some Arab countries, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are working to promote open access through initiatives that make open publication accessible or even free for researchers, and according to the UNESCO report, the two countries have the most high citation rates of research papers among Arab countries.
Qatar has three major open access initiatives, including the Qatar National Library’s Open Authors Fund, whereby the library pays an article processing fee on behalf of authors for the costs of articles published in open access journals.
Another initiative is Qatar University’s QSpace platform, which hosts an online collection of scientific articles and academic activities for faculty, students and university guests.
Additionally, Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press, Doha, hosts an open access, peer-reviewed online publishing platform called QScience.
New challenges caused by Covid –19
Despite institutional support for open access in Qatar, initiatives such as QScience face new challenges and uncertainties due to the coronavirus situation.
“The main challenge was working remotely as a team and virtually developing our communication skills,” said Rima Usaifan, head of academic publishing and journals at HBKU Press during the panel discussion.
“We also have financing concerns. We do not know what the financial consequences of this epidemic will be, how the publishing sector will be affected and for how long ”.
The situation appears more difficult for open access periodicals in less wealthy Arab countries such as Egypt.
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According to Aziza Ali Mohammadi Abu El-Enein, sub-editor of Cybrarians, open access periodicals in Egypt suffer from a lack of funding, a lack of academic recognition, and some readers’ distrust of the newspapers they publish.
Cybrarians, an open access digital publication, is published in Arabic and specializes in bibliography, librarianship and information sources. He relies on the commitment of the editorial staff to be able to present their numbers for free. Aboul-Enein says open and free publications are especially beneficial for young researchers who cannot afford to publish or access academic research in commercial scientific journals.
Kronfleh, of the World Summit on Innovation in Healthcare (WISH), recommends looking at open access in a broad context, not only in terms of publication but also through sharing information with stakeholders, partners and society in general.
“There is a tendency to work in isolation, protecting information and not sharing it,” he said. But collective information shared in a collaborative spirit can identify gaps, challenges and opportunities and act as a catalyst for evidence-based decision making.
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