Celebrating Judith Masters and introducing a memorial fund to support scholars under‐represented in biogeography

The Global Biogeography Initiative

“…Whileopenaccesspublishinghascertainmerits,and'flipping'subscription based or 'hybrid' journals to 'gold' OA appears imminent (Rieseberg et al, 2023), the associated Article Processing Charges (APCs)arebeyondthemeansofmanybiogeographersinmanynations, across low-to high-income countries. Moreover, in the minority of cases that funds may be available, they present startling trade-offsevenforresearchersfrommiddle-incomeeconomies.For example,anAPCof~$2000(i.e.themeanAPCfor2022according toOpenAPC)woulddisplace5 monthsofgraduatestudentsalaryin India,over2 monthssalaryforapostdocor6monthsofagraduate levelbursaryinSouthAfrica,andisroughlyequivalenttoamonth's salaryforamid-careerresearcherinmanymiddle-incomecountries inSouthAmericaandAfrica.HigherAPCscanseemdetachedfrom reality:for~$5 kauthorsmightpublishonepaper(e.g.inJournal of Biogeography)orless(e.g.inapanoplyofsecondtier'Nature'journals) or build a house-extension in South Africa (Dawson, 2023).…”