Open Access - The rapidly changing policy environment: Implications for

publishers and universities

Open Access Africa 2012 Cape Town

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A perfect storm?

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Open Access policy in the mainstream

..a surge in global, regional and government policies …

… a human rights approach …

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At the heart of the storm – a battle over IP rights and the freedom of the internet

UNESCO – Open Access to scientific information…

The goal is policy change, with the strategic focus on developing countries, especially Africa…

UNESCO OA brochure

Capacity is a major and systemic issue ….

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Technology infrastructure is not just about platforms

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The Impact Factor excludes developing country research…

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SARUA: Baseline Study of Science and Technology Framework and Higher Education in the SADC Region

SARUA: Baseline Study of Science and Technology Framework and Higher Education in the SADC Region

African universities are essentially consumers of knowledge produced in

developed countries. In essence what is being defined as ‘knowledge society'

means two different things to the developed world and the African

continent. The former are the producers and the latter are the consumers….

Blade Nzimande, SA Minster of Higher Education and Training, UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education 2010

The Finch Report in the UK – gold open access takes front of stage…

http://www.researchinfonet.org/publish/finch/

The central message ….

…investment in research communication and its

infrastructure is essential…

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Protest!

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The green route…

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… or the gold

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…the discussion is still largely

about journals…

…and the importance of the

published article as the version of

record…

… the cost of APCs remains a problem – are waivers really the

answer?

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Are international open access journals helping overcome the marginal status of developing country research?

… moving beyond the impact factor with new journal models and altmetrics?

For developing country publishing, are answers likely to be in regional

collaboration?

SciELO and SciELO South Africa have been incorporated into the

Web of Science

Alperin et al., 2008, Open access and scholarly publishing in Latin America: ten flavours and a few reflections revista.ibict.br/liinc/index.php/liinc/article/view/269/167

Funder mandates are beginning to change publishing behaviour….

But is this still a matter of access, or will it widen participation?

I think funding agencies need to rethink how they fund research. Rather than just

requiring publication of the research output, data gathering and sharing should

be integral to the entire process.

Leslie Chan – Interview with Hassan Masum: Center for Global Health R&D Assessment

New global policies beyond the journal article…

The Finch Report

…the infrastructure of subject and institutional repositories should be developed so that they play a valuable role complementary to formal publishing, particularly in providing access to research data and to grey literature, and in

digital preservation

Research for development

A lot of OA development-focused research outputs are in fact produced…

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African universities seek two major goals – global prestige and competitiveness…

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…and research contribution to national development. The biggest

challenge is achieving excellence and relevance.

Will WB and FAO style initiatives, taken together with the Finch

recommendations on repositories, add traction to national policy development

for development-focused research?

The Impact factor

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The implications in the developing world…

Our universities, in particular, should be directing their research focus to address the

development and social needs of our communities. The impact of their research

should be measured by how much difference it makes to the needs of our communities, rather than by just how many international

citations researchers receive in their publications.

Blade Nzimande, SA Minster of Higher Education and Training, Women in Science Awards. 2010

Do we want to advise our colleagues in the developing world to replicate a

journal system that we think is on the way out? Or do we want to encourage

them to adopt something that is far more current–that is cutting edge and is going

to lead the way?

Leslie Chan – Interview with Hassan Masum: Center for Global Health R&D Assessment

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The $64,000 question –sustainability in the developing world

Eve Gray Scholarly Communication in Africa

ProgrammeUniversity of Cape Town

http://www.gray-area.co.zaTwitter: graysouth