Arjun Dahal

May 30, Kathmandu- Communication is an integral aspect of human beings as well as an indicator of progress when it comes to publishing the work, which is another means of communication. Experts from each field write down their work and expertise and communicate to the general public and other experts from their fields, which is continuously shaping our progress. Publishing in a journal not only uplifts the academic and professional life of a researcher but also adds a brick to build the world as a better place.

Publishing a research work isn't as easy as people think. Authors need to study, conduct experiments (at least thought experiments for theoretical works), write, then submit to the respective journals which publish their works, which is, of course, a formal means, but our concern is about APC, abbreviated form of Article Processing Charge. This means that a researcher needs to pay the journal to publish their work, which here authors have labelled as mafiasm.

Journals worldwide have a huge turnover in profit as a result of APC employed by the authors. It is an academic business which we all can’t deny. But let’s see how much ethics is involved. Journals hardly pay their reviewers, who play the key role in reviewing the submitted manuscript to make it a fact to be discussed and to be used for further study, which significantly adds value to the knowledge in the field in which any paper/manuscript is written. This is an immediate labor exploitation of reviewers, who are called volunteers in the name of ethics in the research community. Even the journals of laws and social sciences seek APC, which is a dogma, when viewed ethically.

When we look at other publishing industries, particularly of books, some of them pay in advance, and most of them pay royalty to the authors depending upon the sales of the book. They value their authors, thus by means of royalty earned, authors at least can earn some amount of money which helps them to sustain their life as an author. On the other hand, journals seek APC from authors, who indeed are in need of a budget for their research, and the amount of grants they receive for their research gets reduced as a means of APC, whereas sustaining their personal life as a researcher gets harder despite their academic status. This is exactly what the author stamps as mafiaism.

Now let  us look at a few brighter sides of journals. They provide awards and fellowships to researchers as well as play a key role in the progress of the publication sector. However, this brighter side comes with the darker side of APC, which plays as a business tool. Furthermore, the policy of publication, such as making manuscripts open-accessed plays as another tool for business and each individual needs to pay a certain charge for studying an article that is not in open-access status. Furthermore, journals charge institutions with an institutional access category through which readers can access and read. This is the business policy due to which journal publishers have tremendous turnovers.

Our question then becomes, how journal publishers can be ethical in the publication business, same as that of book publishers. The answer lies in royalty. For the articles that are not available in open-access policy, journal publishers can provide royalties to the authors, which would yet again set the pedal for researchers as some amount of fund is available to them by means of royalty. It is true that there are a lot of authors for a single paper, but by enabling a formal system of royalty payment, it can be balanced.

Thus, by the means of providing proper royalty to the authors, journal publishers can practice more ethical business like that of book publishers, and when reviewers too are paid, authors like me wouldn’t have any purpose or arguments to label them as academic mafias.

Author's Bio: Arjun Dahal Teaches Physics and Mathematics at Gauriganj Secondary School, Gauriganj