Electronic Journal Publishing: A Reader
Version 2.0
Published by INASP, 2001
©INASP 2001
http://www.inasp.info
8.2
Disseminating the Electronic Publishing Philosophy in Developing Countries
Sulaiman Adebowale
CODESRIA
Av Cheikh
Anta Diop x canal 4
BP 3304
Dakar, Senegal
The digital revolution is entrenching itself more in our world. Ideas
and concepts about computer-assisted means of information dissemination and
retrieval are becoming ingrained in our minds. The era has brought its share of
new-sounding buzzwords and jargons well-implanted on the lips and minds of
not-just elitist folks. Sui generis of revolutionary tendencies, the digital
revolution is stimulating conflicting senses of doom and dreams. We are
confronted with both unbridled excitement of unlimited possibilities and
apocalyptic foreboding of disasters. We are being divided into warring sides of
the custodians of traditional norms reacting to the avalanche of the revolution
virtuosos, preaching the inevitability of change (Surowiecki
2000).
The question is where do we all stand? It is natural that our reactions
and stances may differ or be less generic across the spectrum. Transformations
take different forms of profundity and levels in different parts of the world;
the digital era is no exception—some are logged on, others are not. Secondly,
the dialectics of change occur in context; the digital era is built on and
embedded in existing realities of the geopolitics of our times. The Internet
media, for instance, cannot be separated from the real world and real people.
They "are continuous with and embedded in other social spaces, ...happen
within mundane social structures and relations that they may transform but that
they cannot escape into a self-enclosed cyberian
apartness" (Miller and Slater 2000:5). Therefore, by situating our
attempts at proffering answers within these two caveats, we can improve our
chances of coming up with explanations close enough to realities. Moreover, the
existence of areas of divergence and convergence of what the Internet
technology means for actors in publishing from both the developed and
developing world will become the more clear.
This paper is about the developing countries on the edge of the digital
revolution. It acknowledges that scholarly journal publishing, whether print or
electronic, is not homogenous among these countries. The level of developments
varies from Latin America to Africa and to Asia. But it also recognises that there is a marked division in the economics
and politics of knowledge production and dissemination between developed
countries on one hand and developing countries on the other. Using scholarly
journal publishing in Africa as a specific case study, the paper will analyse recent trends in publishing, influenced in the last
five years by advances in internet technology and its increasing widespread
use. It will attempt to question the extent of the impact that the technology
is having on journal publishing. More important, it will discuss how journal
publishers in Africa and the developing world can respond effectively to the
new publishing environment, taking into consideration the current role and
relevance of scholarly journals in this part of the world.
The chance for
repositioning
Scholarly publishing is peculiarly frustrating for all, but more so for
the developing countries. The culture of scholarly publishing is imbued with
contradictory ethos of collective altruism and fatalism
for and against progress. The workings
of scholarly journal production are noteworthy in this direction. In a bid to
be 'disseminators of authoritative scholarship... [certified by its editorial
practices] to be as reliable as the collective expertise of the group of
professionals who have produced and judged the scholarship can make it' (Tomlins 1998: 3), the scholarly journal has been able to
distinguish itself from other forms of publishing, be it paper-back fiction or
journalism. Through the author, editor, peer reviewers, copy editors,
typesetter, production manager, etc., it has built an effective sifting system
of adding qualitative value to scholarship, and in so doing, has armed itself with
the enviable role of determining the direction of scholarship. This system
ensures not only that the best scholarship gets published, but also that
spurious ones are not disseminated. But like all realities, there are
underlying complexities in seemingly benign relationships. In this case, it
means the bulk of scholarship produced in the world never gets published and
disseminated. Why?
First, concepts like “authoritative scholarship” are too value-laden to
be neutral. The decision of what constitutes such scholarship may be influenced
by factors other than merit. Reviewers and editors are influenced by a culture
that invariably favours restricting scholarship and
research along boundaries, disciplines, languages, methodologies, schools of
thought, etc. The acceptance or rejection of an article for publication will be
determined by the weight of each of these variables in the selection process,
regardless of whether the actors act consciously or not (Adebowale
2000; Zeleza 1997 and Gibbs 1995).
Secondly, the modes of operation of publishing, in its nearly
six-hundred-year history have depended entirely until quite recently on a
complex structure of expertise that requires substantial amount of resources.
The means often necessary to co-ordinate work among all the different actors in
the publishing chain do not only determine the effectiveness of a publishing
project but also restrict the presence of maverick investors and thus limit the
avenues available for authors to be published. Furthermore, publishing
effectively depended on an industrial environment which has always flourished
in certain parts of the world—developed—and beset with lack of basic
infrastructural connections in some other parts of the world—developing. This
imbalance has fostered a situation where the dissemination of scholarship is
controlled and shaped by a perpetual cycle of frustration for small journal
publishers, which covers the majority of publishers in developing countries.
Established and resourceful journals are in the right citation indexes and
marketed more aggressively, attract high quality manuscripts from well-known
scholars influenced by the desire to be cited by peers. They can afford to earn
enough to sustain themselves and acquire efficient managerial capability to keep
the journals in the top position. The contrast of this reality is the bane of
journal publishers in the developing world: poor journals remain poor in every
step of the process.
Therefore, as a result of or consequent to these realities is the fact
that scholars and scholarship from the developing world have found themselves
frustrated by the very structure that is supposed to liberate them. The next
question is does a simple web page hold the panacea to change the balance of
power?
The Internet offers possibilities never
before seen in publishing since the advent of the Guttenburg
printing press and desktop publishing combined. The ability to surmount
hitherto challenging obstacles like distance and time gives the Internet an
edge over traditional print-on-paper delivery of journals. From the desktop of
an author or publisher, material can be disseminated beyond the normal reaches
of traditional print-on-paper versions, and in exceedingly faster time. All doubts were put
to paid earlier in March 2000 when half a million people downloaded the King
novella, Riding the Bullet. Though King's novella is a form of
publishing that is governed by different dynamics from journal publishing, its
success is still instructive for journal publishing, the format is closer to
journal articles than books.
It is valid that internet connectivity is still very poor for the
developing world. It is estimated that there is one Internet user for every 750
people in Africa, 3 in North America and Europe, 125 for Latin America and the
Caribbean, 200 for South East Asia and the Pacific, 250 for East Asia and 500
for Arab States, 2500 for South Asia. [1]
And when it is available, access is still constrained by factors similar to
those that have impeded print-on-paper publication and additional worries (cost
of telephone access, a weak telecompetence
capability, low bandwidth, lack of constant power supply etc). But in reality
the potential users of electronic journals in the developing world is far
greater than one might expect.
Firstly, although there is one Internet user for every 750 people in
Africa, the figure could be misleading for journal publishers in this part of
the world. Internet connectivity in Africa and most of the developing world
initially took root mainly in academic institutions and among academics. In
some parts of Africa, universities and NGO institutions were the first to have
email and Internet access and there is very little evidence that their interest in Information Technology (IT) has waned,
rather it seems to be growing. It will be interesting to know the level of
connectivity among scholars on the continent today. In a survey of users of
four journals published by CODESRIA conducted by Jean Pierre Diouf (2000), 85 percent of the researchers and libraries
respondents have internet access. It is noteworthy that 75 percent out
of this particular group were from Africa alone. An earlier study of the use
made of African-based journals in two African universities by Alemna et al. (1999), shows that although the
majority of the staff did not use ICT to identify and acquire journal articles,
"academics were beginning to recognise the
importance of the internet in the identification and acquisition of
journals". If journal publishers in Africa and other parts of the
developing world focus their electronic publishing plans on this group, which
has always been the thrust of print-based scholarly journals, they stand a
better chance of reaping the benefits of the digital era. Secondly, the
increasing interests and widespread acceptance for emails, discussion lists and
conferences by scholars from the developing world suggest that a viable market
for electronic publishing does exist, just waiting to be tapped. However, as
publishers in this part of the world will certainly have to face, dreams of
electronic information will be determined by more complex factors than the level of connectivity. Some issues will be
instructive.
If it were possible, in a world of globalisation,
to situate cause and effect on a singular issue, the question of copyright could determine the development and
impact of electronic publishing in the world today. Questions of rights
protection and royalty have become more contentious in the last few years. It
is true that dissemination through the internet has limitless possibilities. It
is equally valid that the effortless ease in pirating and flagrant violation of
copyright material on the web risks constraining the acceptance and development
of electronic publishing. Although academic publishing is essentially not for
profit, as Stevan Harnad
(1995; 1999) and others (Harnad and Hemus 1997) have vociferously argued, the inability to earn
adequate returns on investments may further impoverish journal publishing in
the developing world. Furthermore, as Richard Balkwill
(2000) rightly points out 'the lack of payment for a good or service in no way
invalidates the claim or control of that copyright owner's material'. Authors
and publishers may want to distribute freely, but they may still want to have
some form of control of how the material is distributed. And the technology is
coming up with some tricks. Thomas E. Weber (2000) describes recent
developments in the technology which can ensure that not only someone who has
paid for material can access it, but also allow publishers to impose new
charges—transposing pay-per-view for 'pay-per-read' or 'pay-per-listen'.
Publishers the world over may start gloating, but users and librarians may have
a contrary expression. Think of a book you can never own, borrow, lend or
resell when you are broke.
Yet the key to the viability of electronic publishing
may lie elsewhere. In the developing world, the fact that journal publishing is
predominantly still controlled by academic and professional institutional
publishers [2], holds some
promise. Studies on the economics of Internet-published scholarly journals, for
instance have shown that the medium is not cheaper to develop than
print-on-paper versions. Though there are savings in the delivery format in
terms of no outlays for paper and postage costs, the need for hardware,
software and technical support swallows the savings that online publishing
would have gained from the earlier stages of production (O' Shea
and Hanson 1998; Vanden Bos
1998; Morris 1999). The cost of the publishing process of a peer-review journal
online or in print is virtually the same before printing or mounting on the web
site. Peer review, revisions, editorial and page layout cover 70 percent
of the first copy cost. The real savings remain time, links to additional
material, references, abstracts and other articles, etc. In other words, the
huge costs of electronic journal publishing and the porosity of the web means
publishers must seek other avenues of earning returns on investment.
Journal publishers in developing countries will be in a better position
to survive in the digital era if they forge alliances with other media to
support their publishing initiatives. The current mergers between publishers
and other industries and media (telephone companies, software and computer
manufacturers, Internet service providers etc.) in developed countries can have
some benefits if emulated by developing countries. Secondly, institutional
academic publishers in these countries can tap the increased visibility of an
internet presence to boost their overall objectives and programmes. More
opportunities to attract funding and membership from diverse groups and bodies
can open up from a web presence, which may improve avenues to pursue a
cost-effective electronic publishing arm.
Thirdly, based in countries where deep structural bottlenecks constraint
the publishing environment, publishers in the developing world must be clear
about the form of electronic publishing they will embark on. Are web sites better
suited or do ebooks proffer more benefits? If web
sites, in what form, "plain vanilla" or richly tagged, linked and colourful journals with all the multimedia frizz? Will
material on these sites be provided free, or subscribed to through payment
and/or registration? These questions will determine the effectiveness of the
publisher's electronic publishing plans.
The rapidity of the development in IT suggests that the technology has
not yet reached its peak. Though it has not become 'second nature' for everybody—nothing
has ever—it is getting better and coming up with more up to date technology
that seems to be less cumbersome for users in all parts of the world—developed
or not. Yet it is advisable for now that journal publishers in the developing
world should steer away from web sites that require subscription and payment,
given the extra managerial and technical burden of issuing and controlling
passwords, payment problems—credit cards vital for net transactions elsewhere
have not yet taken root in most countries, e.g. in Africa. Moreover, it costs
more to develop such sites and the poor bandwidth and internet access in these
countries do not favour richly tagged web sites
because of the exceedingly long time taken to download material. Though this
problem may be solved by having host sites in developed countries, other issues
like domestic laws could hinder services being provided.
Furthermore, although WAP technology holds some interest for users in
the developing world, the growth of cell phone users in these countries over
the last five years has been astonishing. [3]
But if the thought of reading journals on cell phones may appear too
futuristic, ebooks have more potential in the
developing world as the technology improves. The length of journal articles
seems more suitable for dissemination electronically than books; furthermore, ebooks may have more advantage in academic publishing than
web site postings. The reasons are not far fetched.
Electronic journal publishing today favours
article per article issues. Articles can be published individually and
immediately as soon as they are ready (after peer review, revision, editing,
design etc.). Print journal publishing is delayed because articles take
different time scale to go through this process and editors have to wait to
make up issue numbers, at least thematically coherent ones. The web site will
be great for academic authors and users who require immediate access to current
research in the discipline. [4]
But bound collections of articles, epitomised in
print volumes, mean a great deal to scholars. Readers that can access their
work when it is in bound collection are greater than when it is alone. In
addition, a collection can be interpreted as the corpus of essential knowledge
on a particular discourse at a particular point in time. So for academia, the ebook as it becomes cheaper and more available across
platforms, can make more impact than web sites.
Electronic publishing portends interesting avenues for the developing
world. Its 'utopian possibilities' (Miller and Slater 2000) and Wild West ethos
(Hunter 1998) open new ways of transforming and reconstructing social realities
and spaces. It is true that the extent of such transformations may be impacted
upon by current relationships and spaces. Hence, it is equally natural for
tensions and contradictions to exist. The vast majority of the world's
population may not be connected or may not have the right infrastructure to
reap its fruit. But it also valid that the current era presents a space for
individuals and groups to engage with global culture as participants and not
"marginalized observers" and to reposition themselves in this space
(Miller and Slater 2000: 20).
In publishing fora and conferences the world
over, there has been increasing noise about what electronic publishing means.
Sadly, actors in the developing world have grudgingly stuck to a discourse of
right and wrong, of the threats to face with the digital
age; rather than accept the positivity and negativity
of the era and seek opportunities to tap. The reasons for this shortcoming may
be traced to survival instincts: Different groups would have different needs to
maintain or alter existing positions. The role of publishing in the developing
world may differ from that of the developed world. The acceptance, involvement
or rejection of electronic publishing in these countries will be influenced by
how the issues are engaged vis à
vis the roles. For instance, the need to continue to
produce print versions of journals may still be imperative for the developing world,
publishers in this part of the world must take this necessity into serious consideration in electronic publishing plans, rather than
desist from electronic publishing. Furthermore, electronic publishing will
demand new ways of working, bring up new actors into the trade, or reconstruct
structures. The onus for journal publishing in the developing world is to
engage these changes proactively, in order to preserve its meaning for its
community and guarantee its relevance at any particular point in time.
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2000, "Scholarly Journals and Knowledge Production and Dissemination on
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V, and Rosenberg, D., 1999, "African Journals: An evaluation of the use
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Footnotes
[1] . See UNDP World Development
Report 1999, OUP, Oxford, and Mike Jensen, 'African Internet Status', .
[2] Although there is a growing
tendency, for example in Africa, of commercial publishers--usually
northern—taking over the management of academic journals, the editorial control
and support for these journals, still resides with the institutions.
[3] Da-Silva,
Jean-Christophe, 2000, “Un monde a deux vitesse”, Am: Afrique Magazine, no 168, pp. 11-16.
[4] Disciplines may differ in their
acceptance or concept of time and research validity. Scholars in the natural
sciences may be more exigent than those in the arts and humanities in this
regard ( see Hunter 1998 and Tomlins 1998).