Leave a Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Open Access Realities: A Perspective from Egypt’s Evolving Research Landscape
The evolution of Open Access (OA) publishing continues to define the landscape of global scholarly communication. For institutions in the Global South, particularly in Egypt, 2025 has been a revealing year, highlighting the complex dynamics of adopting OA models. While the principle of democratizing knowledge is widely celebrated, the practical realities across regions with diverse funding structures, digital infrastructure, and international visibility present both immense opportunities and persistent challenges. Reflecting on developments in Egypt helps illuminate the crucial next steps needed for sustainable, equitable, and globally visible research dissemination.
OA Adoption Increased, Yet Funding Disparities Remain
In Egypt, the push toward Open Access has gained significant momentum. Universities, supported by national initiatives such as the Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB), increasingly recognize that free access to research is vital for national development, clinical practice updates, and educational enrichment. This awareness has encouraged more journals to transition to OA models, often with institutional support.
However, the cost structure of Gold OA, particularly the reliance on Article Processing Charges (APCs), continues to pose a substantial barrier. Many Egyptian authors, especially early-career researchers and those in disciplines with limited grant availability, struggle to cover APCs required by high-impact international journals. Although several national institutions and university-based journals provide waivers or significantly reduced fees for local authors, these efforts often depend on limited budgets or short-term project funding, threatening long-term sustainability. The challenge extends beyond publishing OA to affording globally visible OA publication.
Visibility Challenges Limit the Full Benefits of OA
Publishing an article in Open Access does not automatically ensure global visibility; it merely ensures availability. For Egyptian and regional journals, visibility barriers remain significant:
- Indexing Gaps: Many high-quality regional journals are still not consistently indexed in major global databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, limiting discoverability, citation impact, and international perception.
- Technical Compliance: Achieving modern digital publishing standards, including search engine optimization, standardized metadata, and robust submission systems, requires trained staff and continuous funding, both of which are often limited in university settings.
In 2025, there has been progress in developing institutional repositories and integrating them with national research platforms. However, building stronger, more strategic pathways to international indexing bodies remains essential for maximizing OA benefits.
The Crucial Role of Institutional and National Support
Egypt’s advancement in OA has closely followed the level of institutional commitment. Universities with active research management structures, including Suez Canal University, have supported their journals through:
- Stable Funding: Consistent financial allocation for operational expenses, indexing fees, and digital infrastructure.
- Capacity Building: Training editorial teams on publishing ethics (e.g., COPE), peer-review standards, and modern submission systems.
- Infrastructure Development: Ensuring reliable digital hosting, repository integration, and long-term archiving solutions.
The EKB continues to provide broad access to global research literature. The next essential step is developing a national strategy focused not only on accessing global knowledge but also on elevating Egyptian research output for international visibility.
Addressing Ethical and Integrity Challenges Through AI
Research integrity remains a top priority. Although financial pressures in certain OA models can raise ethical concerns, 2025 has shown a positive shift. The use of AI-assisted integrity tools, such as plagiarism detectors, image-forensics software, and data-consistency checkers, has strengthened editorial oversight. This development ensures that as Egyptian research gains visibility, it also upholds rigorous, transparent, and internationally credible peer-review practices.
The Road Ahead: Combining Access with Equity
The current landscape demonstrates that Open Access is powerful but incomplete on its own. For Egypt to fully benefit from the OA paradigm, the focus must shift toward combining access with equity and capacity:
- Sustainable APC Models: Advocating for fair, tiered APC structures or national transformative agreements that recognize regional economic contexts.
- Indexing Advocacy: Strengthened national engagement with global indexing agencies to include high-quality regional journals.
- Technical Infrastructure Investment: Continued development of shared editorial platforms and repositories aligned with international metadata standards.
- Reviewer and Editor Development: Expanding regional training programs to uphold publishing ethics and rigorous peer-review processes.
Open Access is fundamentally a global commitment. For researchers in Egypt and across the Global South, achieving true inclusion requires ensuring not only that research is free to read, but also that journals have the equitable support, visibility, and long-term resources necessary to sustain their mission.
Keywords
Open Access (OA) Egypt Global South APCs Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) indexing research visibility institutional support national initiatives digital infrastructure publishing ethics AI integrity tools scholarly communication journal capacity-building sustainable OA models
Fatma Ibrahim Abdel-Latif Megahed is a Lecturer of Family and Community Health Nursing at Suez Canal University, Egypt, specializing in diabetes management, community health, and lifestyle modification. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and authored a book on climate change and health. Dr. Megahed also contributes as a reviewer for international nursing journals and actively promotes evidence-based health education in Egypt.
View All Posts by Fatma Ibrahim Abdel-Latif MegahedDisclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their affiliated institutions, the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE), or the Editor’s Café editorial team.
