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Open Access Realities in Cambodia: Progress, Gaps, and Policy Choices
Over the past decade, open access (OA) has significantly altered how Cambodian scholars discover and share research. Improved connectivity and global OA platforms have expanded access to scholarly literature. However, deep structural inequalities continue to shape who can meaningfully benefit, both as readers and as authors.
Access: Connectivity Without Universality
Cambodia’s digital infrastructure has advanced rapidly. According to DataReportal, approximately 9.66 million people were internet users in January 2024, representing about 56.7% of the population. Despite this growth, nearly half of Cambodians remain offline, with access concentrated in urban areas and among younger and more educated groups. Persistent disparities between Phnom Penh and rural provinces mean that OA content, although free to read, is not equally reachable for many students and educators.
Within universities, smartphones and campus connectivity have made OA a routine entry point to scholarly literature. Librarians, particularly at institutions such as the University of Puthisastra, actively promote platforms like the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Access to subscription journals, however, remains limited and is usually dependent on short-term project funding or international collaborations. For early-career researchers, OA articles identified through Google Scholar and publisher websites often constitute the primary accessible research material.
Producing OA Knowledge: A Fragile Ecosystem
On the publishing side, Cambodia’s OA ecosystem remains modest. A small number of university-based journals operate openly online. The Cambodia Journal of Basic and Applied Research at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) follows a diamond OA model, with publication costs covered by the university rather than by authors. Similarly, the Cambodian Journal of Agriculture at the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) provides free access to articles in Khmer and English, mainly through linked paper formats, although a fully developed online platform is not yet available.
These initiatives are significant in a funding-constrained environment where international article processing charges often exceed a researcher’s monthly salary. Nevertheless, Cambodian journals remain largely invisible in global OA indexes. Regional assessments indicate that Cambodia has had little or no representation in DOAJ, while several neighboring countries show modest but growing inclusion. As a result, Cambodian scholarship is more likely to appear as research about Cambodia in foreign OA journals than as content published in indexed domestic journals.
Quality Risks and Predatory Pressures
The expansion of OA has also introduced risks. Early-career academics, operating under publication pressure and within weak evaluation systems, are increasingly targeted by predatory publishers that promise rapid and inexpensive OA publication. Commentaries on higher education in Cambodia have highlighted growing concerns related to plagiarism, weak peer review, and submissions to questionable journals. These practices undermine research credibility and further marginalize local scholarship. In a system where journal rankings and assessment frameworks are still evolving, distinguishing reputable OA venues from exploitative ones remains difficult.
Policy and Institutional Gaps
Cambodia’s National Research Agenda signals a shift toward a more research-oriented higher education system, emphasizing science, technology, and innovation. Leading universities, including RUPP and RUA, have adopted research strategies and modest internal funding schemes. However, explicit national OA policies, such as mandates for institutional repositories or coordinated dissemination frameworks, remain limited. Most OA activity is driven from the bottom up by departments, journal editors, and librarians rather than through a coordinated national strategy. This results in uneven adoption and limited visibility of locally produced research.
Toward a More Equitable OA Future
Several targeted actions could strengthen Cambodia’s OA trajectory:
- Adopt a national open access policy Publicly funded research should be openly accessible through a government-endorsed framework aligned with research governance, accreditation, and quality assurance systems.
- Invest in repositories and local journals Shared technical infrastructure, editorial training, DOAJ application support, and long-term digital archiving should be prioritized, particularly for Cambodian-language research outputs.
- Protect researchers from predatory publishing National and institutional guidance on acceptable journals, alongside formal training in publication ethics, is essential to safeguard research integrity.
- Strengthen library-led OA literacy and inclusion Academic librarians are well-positioned to support OA discovery, evaluation, and copyright literacy. Investments in provincial campus connectivity and low-bandwidth access tools are critical if OA is to benefit students beyond major urban centers.
Cambodia’s open access journey remains at an early stage. With coordinated policy development, institutional investment, and sustained attention to research integrity and inclusion, OA can evolve into a foundation for equitable knowledge production. This would allow Cambodian scholarship not only to consume global research but also to contribute to it on more equal and visible terms.
Keywords
Open access publishing scholarly communication Cambodia higher education research policy diamond open access institutional repositories academic libraries predatory journals research integrity Southeast Asia publishing open science knowledge equity research capacity building
Dr. Hin Lyhour has obtained a Ph.D. in agricultural science from the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), Cambodia, since 2021. He is a lecturer and researcher in the fields of farming equipment development and biogas utilization and assessment. He leads some development projects as well as supervising master and doctoral students. Currently, he serves as a reviewer for some journals, too.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their affiliated institutions, the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE), or the Editor’s Café editorial team.
