Research from the global South, without the waiver application

The literature on digital identity systems is largely written by people who do not have to use one to eat. The literature on mobile money is substantially written from outside the places where it is infrastructure. This is not only a fairness problem: it means the field's general claims rest on an unusual sample and nobody is quite sure how unusual.

Publishing cost is one reason, and it is the one a journal can actually do something about.

Waivers and why we do not have one

Most large open access publishers operate waiver schemes for low-income countries, and they are genuinely used. But a waiver is an application: a form, a justification, a declaration about your institution's finances, and a wait, usually before you know whether the paper will be reviewed at all. Researchers tell us, repeatedly, that they simply pick a different venue rather than ask.

We charge nobody. There is nothing to apply for.

What we publish

• Digital identity and welfare systems, and what happens at the point of enrolment and exclusion.
• Mobile money, credit scoring and digital finance for underbanked populations.
• Agricultural and health technology deployment, including programme evaluations that report failure and explain it.
• Connectivity and infrastructure, and the political economy of development funding for technology projects.

Authorship

We ask that research conducted in a country involves researchers based there as authors rather than as data collectors, and we will ask about contribution and authorship order where that looks unclear. This is not a quota; it is a question about whether the work was done well.

Language

We review in English. If English is not your first language and the research is sound, we will work on the prose with you rather than desk-reject the paper for its sentences. Say so in your cover letter and we will handle it as an editing question, which is what it is.