Scholarly Journal Publishing in Developing Countries

Abstract

Most of the world's trade in periodicals and newspapers is confined to a small group of mainly industrialized countries. Only a few of the scholarly journals considered important enough to be indexed for the international scientific community are produced in developing countries. Many scientists and researchers from developing countries prefer to communicate through journals published in developed countries. A survey carried out in 1986 by the Association of Journal Editors (Mona Campus) at the University of the West Indies identified many problems common to journal producers in other developing countries, including restricted library subscriptions budgets, limited local audience, lack of expertise in marketing, promotion and production and inadequate financial support. Cooperative action among editors and publishers may help to solve these problems.