Open access e-journals: Creating sustainable value in developing countries

The extent to which people living in developing countries have access to scholarly literature has historically been severely constrained. The constraints in part are created and enforced by academic publishers, primarily for reasons of finance, and in part are a result of the digital divide: the glaring inequality of access to the Internet that pervades the developing world. In this article, we assess the first of these two constraints and explain how open access electronic journals have the potential to create sustainable value for people living in developing countries. We first review the current situation with regard to print and electronic journals, before looking at the open access phenomenon in greater detail. We then present a case description of one current open access electronic journal that is increasingly exerting an impact in the field of information systems on this constraint. The salient issues are then discussed, with a view to identifying good practices for open access electronic journals, in both editorial and financial terms. Finally, we conclude the article with some closing thoughts.