LETTER: Cost of writing a research article is unaffordable

Jens Kuhn’s letter in response to Tamar Khan’s article raises the bind many academics and researchers now find themselves in (“Academic journals running a nice little racket,” December 12). 

During the last century, almost all scholarly journals were published on a nonprofit basis by nonprofit academic discipline associations. Then, publishing conglomerates offered these professional associations fees to sell their journals to the publishing company, and one by one snapped up a majority of academic journals.

Next, academics got a shock when these journals suddenly started charging authors “publication fees” or “page fees” — the reverse of royalties. Universities now face double charges. First they have to subsidise their academics to get published. Second they have to pay the publishers their annual subscription fee for the journal. Where these are digital subscriptions, the publishers next demand that each reader pay typically about R1,000 to read one article. 

Research to write a new article may now require R30,000 to R40,000, unless you search for alternative sources, hoping they will cover at least some of the same points. There are still a few brave hold-outs. For instance, the African Journal of Political Studies is still published by the African Association of Political Science. Long may they flourish!

Keith Gottschalk
Claremont

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.