International Journals: The Amazon of the Scientific Community?
There has been a tremendous push to build scientific capacity in developing countries. Overall, scientific researchers around the world are beginning to discuss local issues, and great ideas are being formed to solve various challenges. However, one key metric of scientific capacity, Scientific Journals, are losing their influence in these countries. From a pure number perspective, there is an overall increase in the number of scientific publications every year. However, on closer look a majority of these writings are being published in international journals vs. local scientific journals.
Large international journals are pushing out more local journals in the same way Amazon is putting small retail business out of business. Amazon has the resources to get more products to a customer and do so in a shorter amount of time. Similarly, larger journals publish at a higher volume, are listed in databases, and get peer reviews faster. If you want to you get your scientific work out faster and to a larger audience, then an international journal makes sense.
On the other hand of the argument, local journals offer certain advantages. Much like how local retail stores can tailor products to customer needs, so can local journals. Local journals have a high amount of local readers so they have the ability to influence policies and new initiatives within the country. Additionally, international journals can be harder to access due to poor internet access and prices on subscriptions.
In conclusion, local journals in developing countries are sources of homegrown knowledge. They offer any country or area the ability to learn from regional scientists and researchers who are focused on regional issues. Their work will only inspire future work within the community to address regional challenges faced. It is up to the scientific community to support these local journals and allow them to flourish within their respective countries because they could hold the key to solving the very global health issues that international journals write about today.