The cost of printing the challenge of Iranian researchers; Ministry of Science: We follow – | Iranian and world news

According to Mehr Reporter, for decades, the traditional model of scientific publishing was based on sale; In this model, scientific content was only available to institutions, libraries and users that could afford high costs to access scientific journals. In such a structure, even the author of the article has to pay for the print or online copy of his article.

But since the early 9th century, with the growth of the open access movement, the effort to change this model began. Among the types of free access, what is mostly considered is the golden free access (Gold OA); The model in which the article is given to the public without any obstacle after judgment and acceptance.

In this way, instead of selling the right to subscriber, the cost of publishing the article is the author of the article or his backing institution, such as universities and research centers.

These costs vary depending on the credibility of the magazine, the scientific field, and the publisher model, and fluctuates between $ 1 and $ 2. Although some publishers have discounts for low -income writers, it is not easy for researchers from countries such as Iran to face problems such as rising exchange rates, reducing research budgets and other sanctions restrictions.

In recent years, publications are moving towards the publication of golden free access, with more than 2 % of articles being published as golden free access.

According to the data published in the annual report of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM 2024), about 2 percent of the world’s scientific articles are published in free access, of which 5 % are golden access.

This change, although an important step in making scientific articles available, can in practice cause the inequality to publish an article for researchers. The researchers did not have access to articles before, but today they cannot easily publish an article.

Some experts say one of the issues that has been involved in reducing Iranian scientific publications in recent years has been the problem of researchers in paying for the publication of articles.

In this regard, Dr. Mehdi Pandar, Deputy Director of Administrative, Financial and Resource Management of the Ministry of Science, told Mehr reporter about whether the Ministry of Science has a plan to allocate funds to universities as a goldsmith’s publication allowance: “We are looking for this issue and if we can allocate resources.”

“We are pursuing this issue, but no promise can be, and it depends on what the conditions for next year’s budget setting.”

One of the important events that happened to the Ministry of Science this year was that $ 1.5 billion was allocated for the subscription of scientific bases, which was a significant number. This can help the country’s scientific leap and prevent the stagnation or decline in the country’s scientific rank.

According to Mehr, in recent years the Ministry of Science has been pursuing the accumulated debt of universities to international scientific bases, and finally last year it was able to provide universities access to these bases last year. Also, for the first time in this year’s budget, the amount of $ 1.5 billion was set for access to international scientific bases so that university access would not be cut off.

Although this action facilitates the researchers’ access to scientific data, the issue of providing for publication in free access publications for Iranian researchers remains unresolved.

According to Dr. Mohammad Hassanzadeh, the head of the country’s scientific resource supply base; In research processes, mechanisms should be considered to provide these funds so that researchers in various formats such as research validity or government and industry assistance can provide the right to publish an article in golden free access publications. Because if we do not anticipate the centralized budget for the funds needed, we will have trouble and there will be a sharp downward trend in Iran’s position in the global level.

Overall, it seems that the country’s scientific policymakers, along with providing conditions for scholars to access scientific sites, are also thinking of sustainable support mechanisms for publishing free access articles so that Iranian researchers can be not only readers but also effective science producers in this global competition.