Creating Global Studies Knowledge amidst Biased and Entrenched Systems of Academic Publishing

Global Studies, perhaps more than other fields, requires broad access to published scholarly literature that is inclusive of as many voices and perspectives as possible. One cannot engage in global studies research if their perspective and the perspectives other scholars in the field come from the same source. For this reason, access to knowledge and access to the means to produce and publish knowledge are critical issues for the Global Studies community. This issue revolves around who gets to produce knowledge and by what means. As Zaheer Baber noted, “the dominant pattern of knowledge production continues to reflect a very stratified, hierarchical division of intellectual labour that does not adequately convey the realities of globalization” (2003, p. 616).