How Accessible are Journal Articles on Education Written by Sub-Saharan Africa-based Researchers?

This article investigates the extent to which education publications authored by researchers based in sub-Saharan Africa are published as Open Access. We draw on bibliometric analysis of 1,858 peer-reviewed articles over the period 2010-2018, together with interviews with 31 academics based in the region. Overall, we find a steady increase in Open Access publishing in the region over this period, although the proportion of Open Access publications remains low. However, Open Access articles by researchers in sub-Saharan Africa are concentrated in journals with a lower impact factor as authors in sub-Saharan Africa tend to publish in higher quality journals behind a paywall, rather than in lower quality journals that either have no or lower cost for Open Access.