From left: Louise van Heerden (ASSAf), Adèle van der Merwe (CSIR), Hettie Groenewald (UP), Ria Groenewald (UP), Zweli Ndayi (ASSAf) and Susan Veldsman (ASSAf)

On Wednesday, 23 November 2011, the Scholarly Publishing Unit of ASSAf hosted a ‘Community of Practice’ meeting focussing on Digitisation. The meeting was arranged by Louise van Heerden, SciELO SA Database Coordinator and Zweli Ndayi, Project Officer and Institutional Repository Coordinator.

Twenty six people attended the meeting. They were from University of Pretoria (UP), North-West University (NWU), University of Johannesburg (UJ), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Sabinet, Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA), Vaal University of Technology (VUT) and the National Research Foundation (NRF). The first speaker was Adèle van der Merwe, the Records Manager and Archival Services Manager of the CSIR Library who gave a presentation on “Digitisation and migration activities at the CSIR: a case study”. The second speaker was Ria Groenewald, the Digitisation Coordinator of the E-Strategy Unit in the University of Pretoria Library who gave a presentation on “Digitisation and digital preservation sustainability issues to consider when digitising“. This was followed by time for questions and sharing experiences at the various organisations.

The participants outside the conference venue

Zarina Moola (Policy Advisory Programme) and Louise van Heerden (Scholarly Publishing Programme) from the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) were invited to participate in the Programme Officer’s Training Course organised by the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC), in collaboration with the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences. The training was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 3 to 6 October 2011. There were representatives from the academies of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Senegal, Morocco, Ethiopia and South Africa. The course was made up of four days of lectures and practical exercises designed to provide participants with practical skills and knowledge useful for the designing, planning and managing of academy activities and the dissemination of results. Participants were also familiarised with the functions, organisation and operations of other African academies and fostered an exchange of ideas on how science academies in Africa support policymaking in their countries. 

The training facilitators were Lauren Alexander Augustine (The National Academy of Science, U.S.A), Jackie Olang (NASAC), Doyin Odubanjo (Nigerian Academy of Science) and Nthabiseng Taole (ASSAf). The training was made possible thanks to generous support from the Royal Society (U.K.) and the National Academies of Science (U.S.A.) through the ASADI programme.

Louise and Zarina at ‘Lucy’s Restaurant’ (named after Lucy, the famous partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis  found in Ethiopia)

The theme this year was: “Changing landscapes of academic research and publishing”. 

The day-long Editors’ Forum was divided into two sessions; the first session was a closed meeting between ASSAf and Forum members or their representatives. ASSAf gave a progress report back on the activities/projects undertaken in the past year. 

The agenda for the closed session included report back and discussions on five topics:

1. Introduction and explanation of the role of the Organizing Committee and the further evolution of the Forum
2. National free-online e-publication platform: SciELO SA update 
3. Relationships/contracts between journals and SciELO
4. Ministerial project: Possible national licensing of core commercial databases
5. Discipline-grouped peer review of South African journals 

The second session included a discussion on the open access business models and a panel discussion on open access themes. 

The meeting was attended by 90 people, made up of scholarly editors, publishers, members of the Committee for Scholarly Publishing in South Africa and ASSAf staff.

The vision and mission of the National Scholarly Book Publishers’ Forum is to make the Forum a significant new stakeholder in the South African national innovation system (NSI), with a voice that helps shape policy and promotes excellence and high visibility of the country’s research activities through the promotion and proper resourcing of scholarly book publishing in and from the country.

The objectives of the National Scholarly Book Publishers’ Forum will be generally to support and promote high-quality scholarly book publishing in South Africa, and especially to assist in the efforts of the Academy bringing about the following:

I. the establishment of a set of parameters for the promotion of scholarly books, based on the findings of the ASSAf report (see clause 2) and further developments;
II. an improved mechanism for the accreditation by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) of scholarly books or individual chapters in such books (collected works);
III. the development of a new generation of excellent, publishing scholars;
IV. to enhance the visibility of scholarly SA books, and to promote collaboration with scholars everywhere, through the expansion of electronic platforms where appropriate (possibly but not necessarily including an expansion of Open Access publishing);
V. the establishment of sustainable business models, among others in relation to Open Access publishing;
VI. a sustainable national system of harvesting scholarly books in institutional repositories; sustainable, appropriate and transparent subsidisation mechanisms of high-quality scholarly books and collected works in South Africa; and
VII. information systems about scholarly publishing that are useful in planning and accessible by all.

An initial focus of the Forum will be to tackle the issue of public funding for scholarly books, and therefore, resolved that it would propose a beneficial and viable funding model that would improve intellectual capacity to the Department of Higher Education and Training.

In the long term the Forum will examine ways to accommodate other academic book publishers, such as textbook and discipline-based publishers, because of overlaps in the system. In an effort to ensure that the Forum operates smoothly has ASSAf offered to take responsibility for managing and ensuring that the mandate of the forum is carried out.

Prof Tinyiko Maluleke (Executive Director: Research, UNISA), Mrs Susan Veldsman (Director: Scholarly Publishing Programme, ASSAf) and Prof Cochrane (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Queensland University of Technology)

ASSAf hosted Professor Tom Cochrane from the University of Queensland to speak on The development of the open access paradigm in scholarly publishing, on 25 February 2011. Prof Cochrane is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Technology, Information and Learning Support) at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He outlined the research policy and practice developments at QUT in the context of the development of open access in scholarly publishing.  Furthermore, he discussed open access methods and the links between research profile and impact, and the greater visibility of research outputs through open access. The public lecture was attended by 80 people from many levels of the South African research community.

Podcast of lecture

Cochrane 1

Cochrane 2

Cochrane 3

Cochrane 4

Cochrane 5 (Questions 1)

Cochrane 6 (Questions 2)

Cochrane 7 (Questions 3)

Cochrane 8 (Questions 4)

The lectures were aimed at encouraging students to further their studies up to post-graduate level, highlight the contribution of published research undertaken at institutions to evidence-based policy making, and emphasise the role of science in economic development as well as the “International Year of Biodiversity” theme. 

National Science Week is an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The initiative is managed by SAASTA, a business unit of the National Research Foundation (NRF). It is aimed at highlighting the significant role that science plays in our lives and to encourage young people to enroll for careers in science, engineering and technology.

In addition to lectures, the Quest magazine was showcased at these events with the aim of promoting it to both learners and teachers. Quest: Science for South Africa is a quarterly, popular science magazine directed at a target audience comprising learners, educators and the general public. It aims to present the country’s foremost scientific work in an accessible form. It is widely distributed to public high schools with science departments and at national science events. 

Universities of Technology were targeted for 2010 and the following areas were visited:

Gauteng: Tshwane University of Techonology, Pretoria, Arcadia, Soshanguve and Garankuwa, campuses as well as the Vaal University of Technology

Mpumalanga: Tshwane University of Techonology, Emalahleni and Nelspruit campuses 

KwaZulu Natal: Durban University of Technology

Eastern Cape: Walter Sisulu University

Limpopo: Tshwane University of Techonology, Polokwane Campus

North West: North West University, Potchefstroom Campus

Northern Cape: National Institute of Higher Education

Free State: Central University of Technology

Western Cape: Cape Peninsula University of Technology

The Speakers were:

Drs Thandi Mgwebi, Stanely Liphadzi, Nomusa Dlodlo, Nthabiseng Taole, Linda Fick, Regina Maphanga, Velaphi Msimang, Sibusiso Sifunda; Thulani Dlamini; Bridgette Farham; Carol Nokwelo and Bheki Radebe

Prof’s Fred Otieno, Daniel Makinde, Fulufhelo Nelwamondo, Sibusiso Moyo; Richard Fuggle; Tshilidzi Marwala; Esta van Heerden, Mr Sershen Naidoo, Mr Maximus Sefotho and Mr Xolani Duba.

The Academy is made up of researchers wanting to benefit society through their research. Libraries play a crucial role in this endeavour.

During Library Week we acknowledge the role that libraries play in the production of research. Whereas the internet at large provides general information resources, libraries provide authoritative information resources such as books, journals and access to academic electronic resources.  Click here to read more about SALW2010.

The Minister of S&T, the honourable Naledi Pandor, will participate in a symposium on the “Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Research and Education in Developing Countries” together with her counterpart Ministers from India, Brazil and China.

Other symposia in which South Africa will feature strongly are those on “Astronomy in Developing Countries” and “S&T Education for Development”. The programme features a large number of invited presentations from distinguished scientists such as Michael Atiyah whose lecture is titled “Truth and beauty in mathematics and physics”, as well David Block and Monty Jones. The presence of a large number of eminent scholars in the country has prompted the DST through the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement  (SAASTA) to mount  a “Meet the Scientists” initiative which will connect TWAS fellows with teachers and learners in three KwaZulu-Natal centres in an attempt to promote science and careers in science amongst Grade 11 learners.  

ASSAf is proud to be hosting this prestigious conference, which is being held for the first time in South Africa, thanks to the generous support of the DST and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), the German Federal Ministry of Education and  Research.

TWAS is an autonomous international organisation, founded in 1983 in Trieste, Italy, by a distinguished group of scientists from the South under the leadership of the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam of Pakistan. Its mission is to promote scientific excellence and capacity in the South for the purposes of advancing sustainable development. TWAS operates under the administrative umbrella of UNESCO and receives generous core funding from the Italian government. Presently it has more than 900 members from 100 countries. Nearly 85% of its members live and work in developing countries.

TWAS also hosts and works closely with a number of Trieste-based international organisations that share the Academy’s broad-ranging objectives. These organisations include: Third World Organisation for Women in Science (TWOWS), InterAcademy Panel on International Issues, (IAP), InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) and the Consortium on Science, Technology and Innovation for the South (COSTIS).

Want to read more?

Check out Daniel Schaffer’s articles on the TWAS website (www.twas.org) on Science and Change in South Africa, and an interview with Minister Pandor on Science.

Tawanda is our new IT genius in residence (a much-needed one at that), joining us as our new System and Database Manager. Philistas will be our new (strongest) link between the Academy and its Members, taking on the position of Liaison Officer.

Welcome to you both, and we’re really happy to have you with us!