Scholarly Journal Publishing in South Africa
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Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 3 2. BACKGROUND 3 2.1. Access to knowledge and the Development of SA 3 2.2. The Universities: 4 2.3. Commercial Publishers: 5 2.4. The South African accreditation system – the heart of the problem: 6 3. POSSIBLE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: 7 4. CONCLUSION: 9 5. REFERENCES: 9
SCHOLARLY JOURNAL PUBLISHING IN SOUTH AFRICA
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with the scholarly publishing industry, which is one of the backbones of the research and innovation infrastructure in South Africa. It is specifically focused on academic journal publishing. Being an Academic Librarian this is a topic closely linked with the purpose of my profession, that is, to facilitate access to relevant knowledge and information that is of a high quality.
Academic journal publishing is a complex issue and its growth and development over the years have had many implications for universities, academic libraries, researchers and students. One of the major problems that this paper will discuss is how the South African (SA) scholarly publications system encourages SA authors to publish their research in overseas journals, thereby locking away our research heritage in commercial publisher repositories, to which institutions have to pay exorbitant prices to access. Even within the current economic climate commercial publishers continue to increase the prices of journals each year, putting extreme pressure on the funding requirements of academic institutions, academic libraries and researchers. On the surface of it, this may seem to be a narrow problem that could be dealt with by individual journal subscribers or institutions. However this issue is a systemic and pervasive one that is linked with and has implications for the
| NUMBER OF PAGES (Excluding the cover): 10 | | | |
OFFICE USE ONLY: | DATE RECEIVED: |
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 3 2. BACKGROUND 3 2.1. Access to knowledge and the Development of SA 3 2.2. The Universities: 4 2.3. Commercial Publishers: 5 2.4. The South African accreditation system – the heart of the problem: 6 3. POSSIBLE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: 7 4. CONCLUSION: 9 5. REFERENCES: 9
SCHOLARLY JOURNAL PUBLISHING IN SOUTH AFRICA
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with the scholarly publishing industry, which is one of the backbones of the research and innovation infrastructure in South Africa. It is specifically focused on academic journal publishing. Being an Academic Librarian this is a topic closely linked with the purpose of my profession, that is, to facilitate access to relevant knowledge and information that is of a high quality.
Academic journal publishing is a complex issue and its growth and development over the years have had many implications for universities, academic libraries, researchers and students. One of the major problems that this paper will discuss is how the South African (SA) scholarly publications system encourages SA authors to publish their research in overseas journals, thereby locking away our research heritage in commercial publisher repositories, to which institutions have to pay exorbitant prices to access. Even within the current economic climate commercial publishers continue to increase the prices of journals each year, putting extreme pressure on the funding requirements of academic institutions, academic libraries and researchers. On the surface of it, this may seem to be a narrow problem that could be dealt with by individual journal subscribers or institutions. However this issue is a systemic and pervasive one that is linked with and has implications for the
Citations: ASSAf. 2006. Report on a strategic approach to research publishing in South Africa. Pretoria: ASSAf. Bergstrom, CT and Bergstrom T.C Department of Arts Culture, Science and Technology. (1996) White paper on science and technology. Gray, E Hoskin, R and Stilwell, C. 2010. Journal cancellations in university libraries in SA. SA Journal of Library and Information Science. 76(1). Proquest The Government of the Republic of SA. 2002. SA’s national research and development strategy. Pretoria: The Government of the Republic of SA.