Editorial 30(2)

Abstract

In this editorial we would like to discuss and comment on some of the some of the recent international developments in open access publishing as well as welcome the new members of our editorial board. As a journal with a long history of free open access with no charges for authors or readers, we have been able to avoid some of the complex decisions and trade-offs that authors, readers and institutions now have to make in choosing where to publish their work. Nevertheless, we feel that it would be valuable to explore some of the terminology around open access publishing to help readers and authors navigate the territory. In writing this editorial we have drawn upon some recent work undertaken by Laura Czerniewicz of the University of Cape Town, one of the new members of AJET’s Editorial Board (see below). Czerniewicz and Goodier (in press) undertook a case study of the practices of authors at one institution, along with the practices of the leading journals that these authors published in, with a focus on the consequences of the emergence of various open access publishing models.