Towards Equitable Open Access: Reimagining Publishing Practices for Applied Linguistics

In recent years, the field of applied linguistics has made significant strides towards more transparent research practices. Journals in our field almost always offer options for open access publication and wonderful repositories have been developed that allow scholars to share their research instruments, analysis scripts, and datasets. This leads to more transparency and better opportunities to profit from each other’s wisdom. We have also witnessed the creation of databases that make our research accessible far beyond academic communities, such as the OASIS database and the Language Learning Task Bank, which significantly contribute to increasing the impact of the research generated by our field.

These valuable developments are driven by our desire to be more visible as scholars, to produce better research, and to allow anyone to benefit from our findings. Meanwhile, the publishing industry has recognized these desires and has managed to turn open access publication into a highly profitable enterprise. Publishing open access has become big business to such a large extent that our goals of increased transparency, equity, and better science are jeopardized. Open access publishing is primarily available to affluent scholars, and so-called ‘predatory’ publishing has emerged, which is driven more by economic concerns than quality concerns. These developments pose serious threats to the diversity and trustworthiness of the research our field generates. In this contribution, I will delve into these dynamics, discuss the forces at play, and offer suggestions for how we can move towards publication practices that are truly equitable.