Status of open access scholarly journal publishing in Pakistan

Abstract

Open access (OA) scholarly journal publishing is a recently emerged phenomenon of scholarly publishing in Pakistan. This study has been designed to find out the current status of open access (OA) scholarly journal publishing in Pakistan. A quantitative research method was used to evaluate the contents of the websites of 329 Pakistani journals on a checklist of 12 items. OA publishing paradigm has emerged in Pakistan as a majority (90%) of Pakistani scholarly journals are following the OA publishing paradigm. More than two-thirds (69%) of journals are following the Diamond OA model, followed by Gold OA (26%) and Crowdfunding OA (3%). The majority (97%) of journals belongs to the Y (the lowest) category of journals and the majority (97%) of journals do not have an impact factor. Indexing in Scopus and Web of Science is 24 (16%) and 20 (13%), respectively. Average article processing charges (APCs) per article in Sciences and Social Sciences journals of Pakistan are 46 $ and 90 $, respectively. In terms of ranking, Pakistani journals are in the stage of infancy. The present study is the first comprehensive exploration to explore the current status of OA scholarly journal publishing in Pakistan. This study may help to come up with recommendations to strengthen the credibility of OA journals in Pakistan. This study may be generalized to developing countries that have similar circumstances to Pakistan.