Contribution short abstract:

Sustaining - and editing - a vibrant Open Access journal in African universities is hard work. Using case studies from the African social sciences, this paper explores the impact of commercial publishing logics and systematic underfunding on university presses and journals across the continent.

Contribution long abstract:

'You should publish in a journal older than you are' was the guidance of one wise Ghanaian sociologist, when we talked to her about the publishing choices and dilemmas African scholars face. It is challenging advice to follow. The combined impact of postcolonial austerity, commercial publishing models and powerful bibliometric infrastructures all undermine long-established research publishing cultures. Journals struggle to sustain a regular publication pattern without funding or sustained resource and commitment from their institutions. The pressure on academics to publish in 'indexed' journals further undermines those journals unable to get indexed by Scopus or Web of Science, the two dominant commercial citation infrastructures

This paper offers case studies of Africa-published OA journals from across the social sciences. An ethnographic attention to the daily struggles faced by editors and publishers reveals that they are getting by – but only just – in the face of the bibliometric coloniality that has shaped the global research economy.