[BOAI] Fwd: Open Access first for South African Journal of Science

[Iryna Kuchma]

[Forwarding from Susan Veldsman]

*Open Access first for South African Journal of Science*


The *South African Journal of Science (SAJS)* is one of the first South
African journals to be hosted on the fully Open Access platform, SciELO
South Africa. This represents a major achievement in South Africa that will
benefit researchers and scholars in providing a free-to-publish,
free-to-access platform for the best scientific thinking the country has to
offer.



SciELO focuses on developing countries where few end users have access to
traditional peer-reviewed academic journals either online or in print form.
Access to journals is subscription-based and can be very expensive. Only
certain libraries carry them, meaning that there have been severe
restrictions in accessibility and affordability up to this point. The Open
Access platform for these journals aims to combat these restrictions, while
simultaneously enhancing the international visibility of South African
research.



Open Access publishing allows research literature comprising academic
peer-reviewed journals, conference papers and theses to be placed in an
online portal from which they can be downloaded for use. The authors do not
have to pay any type of publishing fee. However, it is important to realise
that open access by no means equates to ‘self-publishing’ – all articles
conform to the traditional process of journal publishing, entailing critical
reading by several peer-reviewers who ensure that a rigorous standard of
research is upheld. Open Access publishing merely makes these research
results available and affordable to a wider audience.



The *South African Journal of Science, *published by the Academy of Science
of South Africa (ASSAf), is the first of a number of leading existing
peer-reviewed journals to be fully Open Access on the SciELO platform. Other
scientific journals which are in the process of being uploaded are *Koedoe*,
the *South African Journal of Education*, and *HTS: Theological Studies.*



Journals selected to be part of SciELO South Africa must first go through a
rigorous process of quality appraisal, in which journal accreditation by the
Department of Education is considered, along with IBSS and ISI rankings and
peer-reviewing processes. This will ensure that the most reliable, credible
and innovative research by South Africa’s top researchers will be available
in full to any person with internet access and the desire to learn, at no
cost. Actual usage by scholars and scientists is monitored by the indexing
system in various ways, including journal impact factors, and article
citation and download statistics.



The initiative is led by Susan Veldsman, a specialist in the field of Open
Access and Director of the Scholarly Publishing Unit at the ASSAf. She has
been working in the information science sector for over twenty years, with a
recent focus on Open Access journals.



The implementation of this open and freely accessible online journal
platform has been pioneered by the Scientific Electronic Online Library
(SciELO) project, based in Brazil. Fully indexed, it has been successfully
implemented in eight countries, mostly in Latin America, with others being
in the developmental phases. SciELO South Africa is the first site of this
growing system on the African continent.



Visit www.scielo.org.za.

*Issued by:*

* *

Andrea Meyer

Communication Officer

Academy of Science of South Africa

Tel +27 12 843 6576

Cell + 27 83 754 7215

E-mail: andrea at assaf.org.za

www.assaf.org.za



*About the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)*

* *

*The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) **is the official national
academy of science and represents the country in the international community
of science academies. As collective resource, the Academy enables the
generation of evidence-based solutions to national problems. *

* *

*The strategic priorities of the Academy are closely matched to those of the
nation, focusing particularly on the need for the greatly enhanced
availability of high-level human capital and an increased use of the
country’s best intellectual expertise in generating evidence-based policy
advice that is practical and feasible.*
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