1

Be Seen! Be Cited!

Have Impact!Open Access and the Role of the

Academy of Science of South Africa

Ina Smith, Louise van Heerden

22 October 2014

What is Open Access?

Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles,

coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment.

Why Open Access?

• Research is expensive

• Publishing on WWW comes at minimal cost

• OA accelerates the pace of scientific discovery, encourages innovation, enriches education, stimulates the economy

Why Open Access?

• Increased visibility, citations, impact

• Encourages scientific dialogue, collaboration

• Continuous review process

• Rapid dissemination

Open Access Saving Lives

Fifteen-year-old high school student Jack Andraka has created a pancreatic cancer test that is 168 times faster and considerably cheaper than the gold

standard in the field.

Open Access Advancing Innovation

“Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent

lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.” – Elon Musk, CEO

Open Access Informing Society

Open Access Influencing Policy

2013 Article published in Food Control (Elsevier)

27 Feb. 2013 uploaded

12 Nov. 2013 984 downloads

13 May 2014 1 534 downloads

21 Oct. 2014 1 950 downloads

21 Oct. 2014 15 citations

Open Access Routes

• Green: Institutional Repository (IR)Submit a 2nd copy of research output (articles), theses, dissertations, data sets, open educational resources (OERs), etc.

• Gold: Open Access Journal Titles- Publish in OA journal titles - Offer OA journal hosting service

Institutional Repository

• Central online archive

• Collecting, digitally preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output (research) of an institution

• More accessible (open), more researchers, more impact

Institutional Repository Landscape

Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) 3 817 (SA 43)Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR)

2 600+ (SA 24)

Webometrics Ranking Web of Repositories 1 983 (SA 22)

Example: SUNScholar

Open Access Journal

• Peer-reviewed

• Serve as forum for introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research & critique existing research

• Available online to reader without financial, legal, technical barriers

Scholarly Journal Publishing Landscape

Database Titles

Genamics JournalSeek 102 139

Thomson Reuters Master Journal List 16 970

Scopus SCImago Journal & Country Rank 29 385

JURN Directory 3 000

Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory 336 000+

Open Access Scholarly Journal Publishing Landscape

http://doaj.org/

10 032 titles

10 032 titles

SA Open Access Scholarly Journal Publishing Landscape

AOSiS26

AOSiS26

ASSAf47

ASSAf47

SU20SU20

AJOL86

AJOL86

OASPA

Non-OASPA

HMPG11

HMPG11

Sabinet95

Sabinet95

Institutional Scholarly Journal Publishing Landscape

Example: Stellenbosch University

Open Access 59Subscription 47Total 106

http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNJournals/list

THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF SOUTH AFRICA (ASSAf)

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) receives funding from

the Department of Science and Technology, along with the NRF, CSIR,

HSRC and the SA National Space Agency.

(Universities in turn receive funding from DHET)

ASSAf’s Mission:

Using science for the benefit of society

ASSAf EVIDENCE BASED REPORTS

THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF SOUTH AFRICA (ASSAf)

The 2006 Academy of Science of South Africa’s Report on a Strategic

Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa revealed the

invisibility of South African Research

INVISIBILITY

-Papers published in 60 SA journals received not even 1

citation in any of the 9 000 WoS (TR) journals over a 15-year

period

-About 75% of SA scholarly research is not internationally

visible or accessible

•Of the 270+ South African scholarly journals accredited by

DHET, only ±70 are indexed in the Web of Science (Thomson

Reuter) (formerly known as ISI) academic citation index

INVISIBILITY (continued)

•Journals from Africa & the Middle East comprise 1% of the Web of

Science

•Furthermore, articles (journals) published by commercial publishers

are not available to researchers who cannot pay for the subscription

fees which renders them invisible to the majority of South Africans

-Journals that are mainly print based are not accessible via the Web

-Quality of the content was very low at the time – not adhering to

international standards

RESPONSE FROM GOVERNMENT

•Department of Higher Education & Training (DHET): Encouraging

journals to adhere to international editorial standards. ASSAf now

evaluated the quality of SA journals for accreditation purposes on behalf

of DHET

•Department of Science & Technology (DST): The creation of an

open access collection with optimal indexibility to promote South

African scholarly research through enhanced visibility of and easier

access to South African research, leading to higher citation rates and

greater collaboration.

DST & DHET approached the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) for

help

DST & DHET approached the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) for

help.

Within the countries’ National System of Innovation (NSI) ASSAf’s

Scholarly Publishing Programme has been mandated to focus on the

QUALITY

VISIBILITY

ACCESS

INDEXIBILITY of peer-reviewed South African scholarly publications

Review

SPP(Scholarly Publishing

Programme)

REPORTS

e.g.Report on Research

Publishing in SA

ASSAf EVIDENCE-BASED

REPORTS for decision making

Peer Review Panels

National Scholarly Editors’ ForumBook Study

Online Scientific Writing

SciELO SA

1st – QUALITYTowards a new quality assurance system in

SA

• In 2009 DHET approached ASSAf to undertake the quality evaluation of

the content of South African journals

• ASSAf is facilitating the external peer reviewing of SA journals

• Aim: To establish their quality and their role in the nation’s knowledge

capital and to provide journals with advice on how to improve their

journals

Improving the quality of South African journals

PEER-REVIEWING OF SA JOURNALS

– +/- 270 SA journals divided into broad subject (discipline) groups

– ASSAf has appointed panels and reviewers (from the ASSAf

membership or other experts in the field)

– Formulated process guidelines and editor questionnaires

– Published 6 Reports: Social Sciences; Agriculture; Theology; Health;

and Law

– Rolling out the 8 groups as by end-2014

2nd VISIBILITYIncreasing visibility of SA scholarly

research

• Based on the Recommendations of the ASSAf Report on a

Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa

DST decided on the creation of an open access collection to

improve the visibility of SA publications both locally and

internationally

• The collection would include SA journals recommended by the

ASSAf Peer Review Panels for inclusion in the collection

• The creation of a an open access SA collection is a service to the

South African research community towards the development of a

knowledge economy and new innovation in South Africa

2nd VISIBILITYIncreasing visibility of SA scholarly

research

• ASSAf selected the SciELO publishing model

• In 2009 the SciELO SA open access platform was established

• Currently: 45 titles in the collection

• The journals that are peer-reviewed by ASSAf and indicate

proven quality (peer review, international indexing) are invited

to join the SciELO SA collection

• Aim: to invite ± 180 titles out of 270 SA journal titles to join the

collection

WHAT IS SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) ?

•A digital library of open access journals

•Portal to all the SciELO articles

•A cooperative electronic publishing model aimed at developing countries

•Originally from Brazil, currently in 12 countries with 3 more in development

WHY SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) ?

Open access

South African research becomes searchable through the SciELO network portal which feeds into the Web of Knowledge portal

Exchange of metadata with other international databases

Designed for the needs of developing countries

The SciELO Network focuses on promoting the scientific publications from countries in the South, whereas the well-established ‘Web of Science’ has until recently been focused mainly on the scientific publications of developed countries in the North.

ORIGIN OF THE SciELO INDEX

Research from developing countries are being excluded from the

WoS/TR (JCR) indexing and citation system

Few journals of developing countries are read in or outside their

country

Scientific American, v.237, p.76-83. 1995

So in line then with the mandate of the

Academy of Science of South Africa

to apply scientific thinking

in the service of society

one of these “Service to Society” projects is the creation of an

open access full-text database

of prestigious academic South African journals to improve access &

visibility

• Managed by the Academy of Science of SA

• Mainly funded by the Department of Science & Technology

• Partially funded and endorsed by the Department of Higher

Education & Training

• Only high quality journal are included (ASSAf Peer Review Panels)

• Strengthens the scholarly journal evaluation and accreditation

systems in South Africa

www.scielo.org.za

3rd ACCESS SciELO Growth

SciELO SA September 2014

Titles 47 titles

Issues 598 issues

Articles 9 721 articles

Growth in SciELO SA site visits

41

Growth in cities visiting SciELO SA

42

INTERNATIONAL USAGE OF

THE SCIELO SA RESEARCH

INCREASE IN VISIBILITY OF PRINT-ONLY JOURNALS

Journal title Articles viewed

From 2010 to date

South African Orthopaedic Journal 136 951

Kronos: Southern African Histories 60 254

Psychology in Society (PINS) 32 678

4th INDEXABILITY – MAXIMIZING LINKS

The creation of optimal links from SciELO Journals to the main international databases increases the visibility and citations of these journals on national and international levels

SciELO IS WELL OPTIMISED FOR

SEARCH ENGINES – AN EXAMPLE

IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS TO ENSURE CONTINUED QUALITY ASSURANCE, VISIBILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY FOR SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNALS

• SciELO SA collection certified in April 2013

• Included on the Web of Knowledge platform

• Have a signed a Memorandum of Agreement with DHET to quality peer

review ALL South African journals

• Proposed change in the DHET policy for the automatic accreditation of

SciELO SA journals for subsidy purposes. Waiting for final notification from

Parliament for 2015 publications

ACTION

•Encourage researchers to publish in open access journals

•Encourage editors to join ASSAf’s National Editor’s Forum

Ina Smith, Planning Manager: SciELO SA

Louise van Heerden, Operations Manager: SciELO SA

www.assaf.org.za

Thank you

Website: www.assaf.org.za

50