Publication from the Global South in the current world

 

For us ecologists, publication of our findings is a key aspect of doing science. We conceptualize questions, plan and execute experiments and then we need to report them to our peers. However, nowadays, the landscape of publication is seeing rapid change. Open science is out there; an important transformation to democratize science. Pre-print servers based on a ‘crowdsourcing’ model are an interesting and growing development that, however, also brings up much debate¹. And then, we have recently a number of papers shouting out the problems with inequities in access to scholarly publication by researchers working in less developed world economies, or more often termed, the Global South ^2,3 (I admit I’m not a big fan of this term, as I disagree with the geographical implication as well the grouping of wealthy vs poor nations, especially so in the sciences). This brings-up a much called for problem. Are we scientists from the Global South hindered to publish and have an impact on ecological thinking and the solution of environmental problems?

 

If there is a list of obvious reasons why it is not the same to do science (and get it published) in poor countries than in the rich ones, starting from salaries, through to the working conditions and researcher budgets, I often feel- as an ecologist- that we are tempted to play that card more often than needed, given the tools and resources the global communication era offers. Having develop most of my research career in Latin America, here go a few thoughts on what I think is the real significance of some of those elements often mentioned as factors influencing how we get to publish when living and working miles away from where “things happen”, so to speak. 

 

(1)   Research budgets. These are in no way comparable to those managed by established research teams in Europe or North America. Often, these are crippled by bureau-ocracy, currency exchange rates and inflation. But, associated with this, travel to and from field sites, and the deployment of many experiments may prove to be cheaper. I have also seen lower budgets selecting for nimble solutions, creativity and flexibility among researchers. This is not something to brag about, but it is a fact.

(2)   Research questions. If ambitious experiments with elaborate and costly gear is often impossible to achieve, as compared to what may be seen in many developed countries, we may encounter less trod ecosystems (e.g., unpolluted fresh water systems, less invasives, old-growth forests, etc.) which allow for unique studies, in turn providing information of enormous value to ecological theory and practice. 

(3)   Job security and developing a competitive CV. Publishing in high impact factor journals are the stepping stones for building a good reputation and having access to better, more stable jobs worldwide. The flip side of the coin here is that, in many countries from the Global South, (a) competition for teaching and research may have lower bars , (b) many countries have well established, state-run permanent research positions (e.g., CONICET in Argentina) that offer rather unique opportunities for ECRs (if with salaries that are not especially exciting), something rare in the Global North and (c) the relativization of the impact factor and other indices in the hiring and promotion processes (to include, for example, regional journals in the local language, relative journal rankings such as Scimago). An interesting fact here is that local/regional journals were historically affected (in terms of impact) by low circulation, an issue clear depreciated today in the era of the Internet.

(4)   Knowledge and training. It is often argued that schools and universities may be less rigorous in poor countries. In my experience, including in this many years, collaborating with people from richer countries, I would confidently assert this is false. I have not only seen no handicap in training (e.g., in stats or ecological theory) but would argue that often, I have seen the opposite. Moreover, it’s not unlikely that researchers working in the poorer regions, have attended at some point in time, universities abroad. This, to obtain their PhDs or to acquire post-doc experience. In fact, this may be very common and should be acknowledged more. Finally, our recent habituation to remote work and virtual meetings has opened the door (unlikely to be closed ever again) to innumerable opportunities for listening to our peers, even if presenting their work in another language (YouTube subtitles do the trick) or many, many miles away home. 

(5)   APCs and access to the literature. Paying to get published is rarely feasible with most budgets handled by researchers in the developing countries. While this is true, many ecologists in low-income regions have worked out shortcuts. One the hand, by choosing journals with low or no APCs (see item 3). There are many of these, with no doubts and many of us have learnt fast to identify them. On the other hand, by being listed in countries recipient of waivers or asking for these after submissions (if a littoe like begging) are accepted rarely fails. Finally, access to literature is also possible. There are websites that -if illegal- allow for downloading even the most unlikely works. These websites very well-known in many countries and their use is pretty widespread throughout the research community in these countries. And, writing a short email asking authors for PDFs also works and is used by many.

(6)   The language wall. Opportunities for scientists for whom English is not their native tounge has also been posited as factor affecting publication. I think this is true, but not critical. I was taught early on in my career when playing with basic mathematical models, that one outstanding feature of math notation is that it is universal and that is could be seen as the ‘ultimate language of science’. Now, most of us were not born listening to our parents speak to each other using Greek notation, derivatives or functions. We learnt this in school. This is also true for language skills many of us, non-native English speakers, have acquired. We can learn the language, especially in its written form. We can also seek help from colleagues and friends to improve our writting. The end product may be far from perfect (who’s good as Shakespeare and ready to throw the first stone)…but, can we get the message across? I certainly think we can. By the way, we also need open minded editors and reviewers, but this is another story.

 

In sum, it should be clear in that I full endorse any route directed to improve diversity and equity in ecology and science in general, as well as any actions towards the opening of science, including all stages and actors of the scholarly publication system. In this, I mean, for example, more flexible and understanding editors and reviewers (I need to say this: please refrain from stating things such as, “The English needs significant improvement. I cannot do this myself as the whole manuscript needs much work.)” Also of course, understanding cultural differences in approaches to science and communication, that include the critical deconstruction of standing paradigms, is warranted.

 

Yet, I feel sometimes, as noted by some recent works I’ve come across lately, we focus on specific problems of the current model. I think sometimes we still armor ourselves to fight dragons. The best example of this is the language barrier. We hear much moaning on this, paradoxically often in articles written in the English language, by authors with a track record of hundreds of publications (most in English, of course)⁴.  The truth is, I may misspell the word “hypothesis” or mispronounce it, at some meeting. Or even stumble to write a grammatically correct sentence when describing my experiments. Still, I would bet my salary (rather meager you should be warned!) that most readers (or the audience) can and will understand what I’m trying to say (please, this no excuse for making a thoughtful, devoted effort to improve our writing skills!). Scientists (ecologists) in different regions, countries or time-zones may have more in common among ourselves than often thought (this means we share common goals, problems and are strongly connected) and, the changes we are seeing even today in the publication world suggest that this problem will soon be outdated.

 

If there is a handicap for scientists in living and working in the Global South when it comes to getting their research published, the first thing that comes to mind, is that is too a broad generalization. Not only will it vary among countries and regions largely, but also within. Our mental framework of national borders obscures the huge diversity inside many countries. Cultural differences (in the kind of questions we study and in how we plan and communicate our findings) is probably the strongest issue when it comes to dealing with rules and traditions established by a few (the dragons!).  Undoubtedly, we need to take immediate actions to democratize publication to gain a better knowledge of our natural world. Less pressure on language, more international and less race and gender biased editorial teams are but some proximate chores we need to do (and are being done by many journals and Academic institutions worldwide). Meanwhile, I suggest we keep our eyes open (and our minds receptive) to the changes we are seeing in scholarly publication in the era of global communications. 

 

Gracias!

 

A few references.

 

1.     Heimstädt, Maximilian (2020) Between fast science and fake news: preprint servers are political. Impact of Social Sciences Blog (03 Apr 2020). Blog Entry.

2.     Nuñez, M.A., Barlow, J., Cadotte, M., Lucas, K., Newton, E., Pettorelli, N., & Stephens, P. A. (2019). Assessing the uneven global distribution of readership, submissions and publications in applied ecology: Obvious problems without obvious solutions. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56, 4–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13319 

3.     Maas, B, Pakeman, RJ, Godet, L, Smith, L, Devictor, V, Primack, R. Women and Global South strikingly underrepresented among top-publishing ecologists. Conservation Letters. 2021; 14:e12797. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12797

4.     Nuñez, M. A, Chiuffo M, Pauchard, A & Zenni, T. 2021.  Making ecology really global. TREE 36(9):766-769.