Open but not temporally synchronous: temporal asymmetries in scholarly infrastructures

Purpose This study investigates whether open knowledge infrastructures exhibit systematic temporal bias in knowledge ingestion, focusing on differences in indexing speed between high-income and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Design/methodology/approach We propose the Critical Temporal Observability Framework (CTOF) and apply an accelerated failure time (AFT) survival model to measure cross-platform temporal lag – days between Crossref metadata deposit and OpenAlex record creation – across 11 countries, four disciplines, and Gold OA status, using a model-eligible sample of 9,645 article records. Findings Articles from LMICs require 18.1% longer cross-platform temporal lag than those from high-income countries (time ratio = 1.181; median gap = 323 days). Gold OA articles exhibit longer lags (time ratio = 1.377) irrespective of country. High temporal observability reveals bias rather than eliminating it. Originality/value CTOF introduces temporal observability as an analytical lens for detecting infrastructural inequalities. Findings challenge the assumption that openness guarantees fairness and offer a practical evaluation tool for librarians and repository managers.