Bridget Deemer
Laura J. Falkenberg
Mary R. Gradoville
Scott Hotaling
Erin K. Peck
Rita M. Franco-Santos
2026
<p>There are clear advantages for those who openly share their research. Publishing Open Access (OA) articles can increase author visibility (McCabe and Snyder <span>2014</span>), improve productivity metrics (i.e., more diverse and higher citation rates; Huang et al. <span>2024</span>; Piwowar et al. <span>2018</span>), widen collaborative networks (Tai and Robinson <span>2018</span>), and help secure future funding and/or comply with funder mandates (Herrmannova et al. <span>2019</span>; Larivière and Sugimoto <span>2018</span>; McKiernan et al. <span>2016</span><span> </span>and references therein). These benefits can be vital for students and early career researchers (ECRs) trying to advance and thrive in academia. However, publishing papers in Gold OA journals such as<span> </span><i>L&O Letters</i><span> </span>comes at a notable financial cost, as these journals require that the corresponding author (or their organization or funder) pay a fee to make their published article immediately freely available to the public. These article processing charges can be prohibitively expensive (Fontúrbel and Vizentin-Bugoni <span>2021</span>; Mekonnen et al. <span>2022</span>; Ross-Hellauer et al. <span>2022</span>). While Read and Publish agreements and waiver programs may be available to help cover these costs, these programs often exclude independent authors as well as those affiliated with ineligible or non-participating institutions (e.g., publisher waivers using the<span> </span>Research4Life eligibility criteria for access<span> </span>currently only allow authors from one of 13 South American countries/territories to publish free of charge). Besides the financial barrier, authors from underrepresented groups can also face a myriad of other publishing roadblocks, such as linguistic challenges (for speakers of English as a foreign language; Amano et al. <span>2023</span>; Franco-Santos <span>2024</span>; Ramírez-Castañeda <span>2020</span>) and geopolitical-scientific bias (e.g., science conducted in the Global South being seen as less impactful and innovative than that conducted in the Global North; Ghosh <span>2022</span>; Smits et al. <span>2025</span>). For context, Global South (GS) and Global North (GN) are not geographic determinations (i.e., South and North hemispheres), but geopolitical classifications regarding a nation's level of development (underdeveloped, developing, or developed). For example: Australia and Brazil are both located in the southern hemisphere, but the former is considered as a Global North (developed) country and the latter as a Global South (underdeveloped or developing) country.</p><p>When a subset of researchers is unable to openly publish their work, the diversity of voices represented in OA literature can decline (Williams et al. <span>2023</span>). Loss of diversity is a loss to science, as diversity increases productivity, innovation, and scientific impact (refer to opening quote; Freeman and Huang <span>2014</span>; AlShebli et al. <span>2018</span>; Tomillo et al. <span>2022</span>). To partially address the above-mentioned challenges and enable underfunded ECRs to publish their work in OA format, the biennial<span> </span><i>L&O Letters</i><span> </span>Early Career Publication Honor (ECPH) was established in 2020 by the<span> </span>ASLO Raelyn Cole Editorial (RCE)<span> </span>Fellows (Hotaling et al. <span>2022</span>). Below we reflect on the benefits, outcomes, and scientific impact of the 2022 call and introduce the articles it helped publish in<span> </span><i>L&O Letters</i>, which are bundled in this section of the ECPH Virtual Issue. Articles published in<span> </span><i>L&O Letters</i><span> </span>during other calls are available in their respective sections. We also refer the reader to six articles published by ECRs in other journals (not included in this Virtual Issue) whose content originally warranted their leading author an ECPH in 2022.</p>
application/pdf
10.1002/lol2.70137
en
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
Whatever it takes— Shaping the L&O Letters Early Career Publication Honor to deliver true benefit
article