The term “Globalisation” refers to how trade and technology have made the world into a more connected and interdependent place. Although globalisation is an ongoing process of greater interdependence among countries, a little focus has been given to the developing world in terms of publication quality. In other words, it is always a challenge to publish in high impact non-paid journals from developing countries.
To obtain a research-based doctoral degree, many universities and institutes in developing countries require at least two papers published in indexed journals. No doubt that, requiring Ph.D. candidates to publish to obtain a doctoral degree can provide much-needed developments or advancements to academic systems in developing countries. If the research findings of a research team can be distributed globally, their value remains high. The problem is that developing countries have a very little ability to share their research findings globally through open access publications. Research cost and article processing fees are a major problem for researchers in low- and middle-income countries although some reputed publishers offer article processing charge waivers.
Profit oriented publishers
Today, many research publishing systems are dominated by a number of large-profit publishers. Some 99 percent of open access publishers ask money upon acceptance of an article. It usually costs a lot of money to publish in good high-impact open access journals, which is a difficult task for scientists in low- and middle-income countries due to insufficient funding.
This article is not giving the impression here that scientists in low and middle-income countries can publish quickly if they have enough funding. Research findings should always be new, attractive and important. Here I try to say that scientists in low and middle-income countries, due to financial constraints, face difficulties in publishing in open access journals when compared to scientists in developed countries.
The financial constraints on conducting research are not due to the mistakes of scientists in low and middle-income countries. It is the disruptions and delays caused by the lack of funding of the institutions/agencies that provide funding for research work. Despite delays and funding irregularities, young scientists and scholars in developed or underdeveloped countries are advised to engage in scientific activities.
There are a number of journals that consider your quality work without a fee. It is true that publication processes in paid open access journals are quick. But, publishing in an open access paid journal for the very first time do not always give the original taste of the publication process. Fresh scholars should be open to long-awaited and hardworking peer review process, repeatedly questioning and revising, which improve their scientific writing and publishing skills. What could make a young scientist for an encouraging long academic life better than confronting and addressing his own mistakes, rather than the procedural process of expression?. Therefore, long journeys can lead to many fruitful things.
Non-paid journals
This active attitude is not cheap. It will offer a number of meaningful consequences. Although you may have financial constraints to publish in open access journals, you can try quality non-paid journals with well-written publications with properly sorted data. With this positive approach you can overcome the mentality of ‘publish or perish’.
The ‘publish or perish’ mentality of expression or destruction leads to a loss of morale and commitment. Publishing in a non-open access journal for the first time as a fresh scholar can greatly enhance scientific and public confidence in scientific processes. For reading purposes, libraries of universities and research institutes should subscribe to non-open access journals of reputed publishers.
Impact factor (IF) of a journal is a frequently debated topic in the scientific community. It reflects the quality of a scientific journal among scholars. IF is a scientific index that provides information on the number of citations over the past two years. IF does not provide an idea of the status of a research paper published in a journal or IF does not provide an idea of the scientific value of a paper published in a journal.
However, the scientific community is increasingly inclined to select journals related to IF. Therefore, most journals with a good IF, in some cases, prioritise the amount of research contained in research papers, no matter how great the essence and ideas of the research papers, and send them for peer review.
In some cases, scientific publications from the scientists in middle or low income countries are rejected even before they are subjected to peer review due to the insufficient amount of research work in research papers. But the research findings in these papers may be priceless, and they may surprise even scientists in developed countries!. However, IF of journals still govern many things. It determines the destiny of many scholars in the academia. Researchers, scientists and scholars will have to deal with IF until a suitable substitute is found to measure the quality of scientific publications.
Writing style
In addition to the quantity of publications producing from developing countries, the articles may not even be a peer reviewed due to poor writing style, insufficient statistical analysis and very poor study designs. Importantly, scholars have to be careful when selecting the best journal for your work. An article written by an editor of one of the reputed journals had mentioned that the authors from developing world have no idea how to pick the best journal for their scientific work. Thus, it is essential to make scholars educated about these matters in advance through training sessions and by establishing teams of dedicated persons managed from a common central point (similar to a center of excellence).
A considerable number of researchers and scientists in developing countries has been trained for a reasonable period in developed countries. They try to remain in developed countries due to a variety of social, financial or scientific reasons. By improving the research facilities and the status of the home country through long term plans, this issue can be solved to some extent.
Compared to developed countries, a less number of educated people are found in developing countries, necessitating the need of increasing educated people. Thus, to achieve short term developments, it is essential to get the best use of educated people in developing countries.
Governments of developing countries lacking adequate training and research programs at the graduate levels, should focus to establish centres of excellence through collaborations with the developed world to make significant changes at graduate levels. Many governments of developing countries spend a lot of money to educate students at undergraduate levels.
However, they fail to keep them in their countries upon completion of their education due to inappropriate career systems and structures, poor salaries, lack of a strong status and inadequate paid employments. A few countries in the developing world have established well-equipped central research units. These locations will be helpful for many scientists to utilise research facilities.
Lab instruments
The Maintenance of lab instruments is a problem in developing countries, and often one finds laboratories or institutes in developing countries with much unserviceable equipment, because there is no-one to carry out even minor repairs and sometimes even high cost for minor repairs and spare parts. Unfortunately, a few developing countries produce scientific equipment.
In many developing countries, laboratory scientific equipment is rapidly becoming obsolete and the spare parts needed for it are often unavailable. There are also cases where equipment in the laboratories of developing countries is completely discarded due to a minor technical fault as parts of some old equipment are not manufactured by many developed countries. This is irritating to developed countries.
Notable, importation issues in developing counties (import restrictions, customs duties and prior approvals) should also be solved to achieve a good scientific status. This has become the most important issue associated with scientific work in many developing countries and by overcoming importation issues, many branches of scientific research work can be stimulated for sure. To minimise many issues related to scientific research in developing countries, the concept of ‘science park or science base’ needs to be considered, where an individual centre exclusively focuses scientific activities as a center of excellence.
Non-scientists
Many members of governments are non-scientists. Scientists or researchers in developing countries should not expect their support just to receive them as support, demanding scientific community to go and explain the significance of their work and what they hope to achieve. Having obtained such financial support then the work should be conducted with serious intention and enthusiasm for the money they received as the officials, sometimes, regard research as a sack into which money is pumped. It is unavoidable, perhaps desirable, that most research work in developing countries will be applied or mission oriented.
Many developing countries lack a proper collaboration among researches and medical professions. Through establishing such strong collaborations within the country itself, many health related issue which need to be research can be identified without taking help from ‘parachute” instructors who land for a short time and redesign locally.
In the long run, for developing countries, there is no substitute for spending more money on research. By improving the quality of scientists, selecting nationally relevant research projects, and minimising the burden of importing scientific materials and appointing correct bureaucracy to correct places, many issues can be solved.