Gray, Eve2021-05-312021-05-312021-05-31Gray, E. (2021). The neo-colonial political economy of scholarly publishing: Its UK-US origins, Maxwell’s role, and implications for sub-Saharan Africa. The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC), 27, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/313672077-7213 (online version)2077-7205 (print version)https://hdl.handle.net/10539/31367https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/31367The prevailing dynamics of today’s global scholarly publishing ecosystem were largely established by UK and US publishing interests in the years immediately after the Second World War. With a central role played by publisher Robert Maxwell, the two nations that emerged victorious from the war were able to dilute the power of German-language academic publishing—dominant before the war—and bring English-language scholarship, and in particular English-language journals, to the fore. Driven by intertwined nationalist, commercial, and technological ambitions, English-language academic journals and impact metrics gained preeminence through narratives grounded in ideas of “global” reach and values of “excellence”—while “local” scholarly publishing in sub-Saharan Africa, as in much of the developing world, was marginalised. These dynamics established in the post-war era still largely hold true today, and need to be dismantled in the interests of more equitable global scholarship and socio-economic development.enscholarly publishing, academic journals, global science, universities, colonialism, decolonisation, impact metrics, distribution rights, copyright, fair use, fair dealing, Robert Maxwell, UK, US, sub-Saharan Africa, South AfricaArticle