In recent years, Open Access (OA) has made significant strides in South Africa, yet several formidable challenges persist, notably the absence of a cohesive national policy. Drawing inspiration from the global initiative OA2020, a coalition of scientific and educational organizations in South Africa is uniting to forge a robust pathway towards the adoption and implementation of Open Access practices across the nation.
This article chronicles the evolution of Open Access mandates in South Africa alongside its existing policies, aimed at assisting researchers with submissions and providing accessible avenues for reading scholarly work.
Open Access Represents a New Paradigm
Open Access signifies a revolutionary publishing model for academic research, facilitating immediate access to scholarly information at no cost to readers. Beyond free access, this model allows for the unrestricted reuse of research for academic and educational purposes, thereby fostering a culture of knowledge sharing.
A Brief History of Open Access in South Africa
Over the past two decades, South Africa has witnessed a variety of open science initiatives. Here is a detailed overview of the significant milestones in the development of Open Access in the country:
- 2009: South Africa officially became part of the SciELO Program, gaining access to an Open Access searchable database of full-text academic articles.
- 2010: The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) undertook a comprehensive study focused on national subscription payments and the impact of processing charges within scholarly publishing.
- 2012: Stellenbosch University hosted the Berlin 10 Open Access Conference, concentrating on strategies to dismantle financial barriers to information access.
- 2013: The South Africa SciELO database was established as an independent national collection, further enhancing access to scientific literature.
- 2015: The National Research Foundation (NRF) implemented a mandate requiring authors funded by governmental grants to deposit their research in institutional repositories, with an embargo period not exceeding 12 months.
- 2016: The Dakar Declaration on Open Science in Africa was launched, advocating for rapid advancements in scientific practices across the continent.
- 2017: The African Open Science Platform (AOSP) was officially launched, promoting collaborative tools and concepts for the practice of open science.
- 2018: Representatives of Universities South Africa (USAf) convened to align their strategies with the OA2020 Project during a focused meeting.
- 2019: The Department of Science and Innovation released a pivotal White Paper, placing a strong emphasis on the importance of science, technology, and innovation within the national agenda, highlighting Open Access as an essential component.
- 2024: The upcoming Open Science in the South 2024 conference, co-hosted by the NRF in Cape Town, aims to assess the publishing practices of African scientists and the broader publishing ecosystem on the continent.
Several initiatives in South Africa have laid foundational infrastructure and essential tools to bolster Open Access. Notably, the SciELO platform provides comprehensive access to a wide array of OA journals. Additionally, the enthusiastic support seen in declarations like the Dakar Declaration and the White Paper underscores a collective aspiration to advance open science methodologies throughout the country.
Current Open Access Laws in South Africa
South Africa grapples with an inequitable higher education framework, characterized by substantial disparities among various institutions. Concurrently, the nation is facing the impact of sharply escalating journal subscription costs.
Despite gradual progress on OA initiatives from the government, significant developments have been recorded particularly over the last two decades. The focus has largely shifted towards establishing both institutional and national repositories alongside Open Access journals, which are integrated into the SciELO platform.
In 2015, the NRF, which is a governmental body dedicated to enhancing research and science development, instituted a requirement stating that:
[Authors receiving funding] should deposit their final peer-reviewed manuscripts that have been accepted by the journals, to the administering Institution Repository with an embargo period of no more than 12 months.
As such, authors are also encouraged to archive any supporting data in accredited Open Access repositories, further solidifying the commitment to accessibility.
Numerous institutional repositories have emerged across the landscape, contributing significantly to the open science ecosystem in South Africa. For example,
License Agreements
The South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) serves as the principal facilitator of access to high-quality scholarly electronic resources in the country.
SANLiC’s emerging open science policy seeks to mandate Open Access for publications derived from publicly funded research, with aspirations to extend this requirement to encompass all research financing sources. The guiding principle driving this policy is encapsulated in the phrase “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.”
The Consortium actively engages in negotiating collective licensing agreements with publishers and aggregators, thus enhancing the overall accessibility of academic information and promoting resource sharing among institutions.
International Initiatives
In 2018, USAf convened a meeting to align universities with OA2020, an international initiative aimed at accelerating the transition to Open Access. The initiative’s vision advocates “for an open, financially sustainable, and globally equitable scholarly publishing system.” The mission underscores how
The subscription paywall system propagates disparities. By repurposing their former subscription investments to support open access publishing, libraries and research institutions around the world are reducing disparities, enabling free and universal access to new knowledge for researchers everywhere.
Notable South African adopters of this initiative include:
- Central University of Technology, Free State
- National School of Government
- South African National Library and Information Consortium
- The Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management
- University of the Free State
- University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Furthermore, three major continent-wide initiatives are making strides to support African researchers and promote open science.
African Journals Online, launched in 1998, is a significant online repository of African scholarly journals. The platform offers guidance on journal publishing practices, standards, and technical training services, and is rooted in South Africa while encouraging Open Access models.
The African Open Science Platform (AOSP) is a collaborative initiative designed to equip African scientists with essential tools and concepts for engaging in open science, facilitating the discovery, deposit, management, sharing, and reuse of data, software, and metadata among various scientific disciplines.
AfricArXiv is a pan-African Open Access repository that operates as a community-driven platform for archiving diverse African research outputs.
Future Trends in Open Access
In 2023, USAf issued a comprehensive briefing document elucidating South Africa’s journey toward Open Access.
The document highlights the significant barriers that create deeply unequal access to scholarly journals and information databases across the nation. Prominent organizations including ASSAf pledged to ensure equitable access to academic resources for all South African scholars and students, simultaneously voicing support for OA2020.
The next steps outlined include:
- Convening collaborative meetings of academics, librarians, and research managers;
- Fostering ongoing collaboration with OA2020;
- Collecting and analyzing data regarding various publishing models;
- Transitioning from an institutional focus to a national perspective;
- Developing a cohesive national roadmap aimed at enhancing Open Access.
Overall, this document marks a significant turning point for Open Access in South Africa, reinforcing alignment with the 2019 White Paper and OA2020 objectives. It indicates a growing consensus among various organizations in the country, not only in ideology but increasingly in implementation strategies.
There is a strong likelihood that South Africa will soon adopt a national Open Access policy inspired by the OA2020 framework in the forthcoming years.
The Value of Open Access
- Open Access ensures that everyone can freely access and read the full text of all articles published in MDPI journals;
- It permits the reuse of published material, provided that proper attribution is given to the original source;
- Authors are supported by their respective institutions or research funders, which cover a relatively low Article Processing Charge (APC) for accepted articles.
Open Access democratizes access to vital information, enriching the global academic community and enabling scholars from across the globe to collaborate effectively. This is especially crucial for addressing pressing global challenges such as climate change and cancer research, which require urgent and coordinated efforts.
South Africa’s prominent scientific organizations are unifying their efforts to pave the way for a robust Open Access framework. Click here if you would also like to delve deeper into Open Access initiatives around the globe.
