Publishing infrastructures in the semi-periphery: how research assessment shapes the research output of Spain and Lithuania

Abstract National research assessment policies, often framed in terms of improving research quality and enhancing international competitiveness, have contributed to intensifying ‘publish or perish’ pressures and reshaping the global academic publishing landscape. However, their impact on the domestic publishing infrastructures of semi-peripheral nations remains underexplored. This paper examines how such infrastructures shape whether new high-volume open-access models function as a portfolio addition or a systemic substitute. Using a comparative mixed-methods analysis of Spain and Lithuania, we combine Web of Science data (2004–24) with twenty-eight semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal two distinct, rational strategies. In Spain, a resilient domestic infrastructure and a more permissive evaluation system enable researchers to adopt new publishers as part of a diversified publication portfolio. In contrast, Lithuanian policies progressively marginalized domestic journals, creating acute strain and leading researchers to adopt these models as a systemic substitute. We conclude that community-managed domestic publishing infrastructures are central to the autonomy of national research systems, distinguishing dependent displacement from more resilient, diversified configurations.