Interns at Scholarly Publishing Unit June 14, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing , add a comment
Mohau Moja is a University of Pretoria, information science graduate born in Mokopane (Limpopo). Along with this achievement, Mohau is also an IT-inclined computer technician whose interest is mainly to troubleshoot both the physical and operating systems involved in end-user computing. As from 1 April 2011 he has been appointed as an intern on a 12-month contract through the DST-NRF Internship Programme 2011-2012. His responsibilities include SciELO markup and e-publishing as well as other Scholarly Publishing Unit activities.
Goodwin Khuli
SciELO SA UPDATE June 13, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing, Press , add a comment
The Scholarly Publishing Unit of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) has recently added the following prestigious scholarly journal titles to the SciELO SA Open Access platform:
- Acta Theologica;
- SA Orthopaedic Journal; and
- Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research
This brings the total number of titles on the platform to 17. Approximately 1 additional title and 100 articles are added to the platform per month. Over the last six months the platform has, on average, been visited 690 per day. At this stage the countries that visit the platform the most are South Africa, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
Visit the SciELO SA database : www.scielo.org.za
Public lecture on open access: Prof Tom Cochrane March 14, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Events, International Relations, Open Access Scholarly Publishing, Publications , 2comments
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). (more…)
UNESCO OPEN ACCESS WORKSHOP HOSTED BY ASSAf March 10, 2011
Posted by Louise in : International Relations, Liaison, Open Access Scholarly Publishing , add a commentUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in collaboration with the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and eIFL (Knowledge without Boundaries), presented a workshop on the benefits of open access for research dissemination, usage, visibility and impact.
Back row: Jaco du Toit (UNESCO), Linda Fick (ASSAf) Denise Nicholson (WITS), Paul Nampala (Uganda), Eve Gray (UCT), Charles Batambuze (Uganda), Khaled Fourati (IDRC), Vasco Lino (Mozambique), Enyinna Nwauche (Nigeria), Mogodisheng Sekhwela (Botswana)
Front row: Susan Veldsman (ASSAf), Elsabe Olivier (UP), Louise van Heerden (ASSAf), Luci Abrahams (WITS), Mapiti Matete (Lesotho) , Iryna Kuchma (EIFL), Marietta Dlamini (Swaziland), Tefetso Mothibe (Lesotho)
TWAS & OWSDW Thesis Repository February 9, 2011
Posted by Linda in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing, Uncategorized , add a comment
The Scholarly Publishing Unit of the Academy of Science in South Africa (ASSAf), has created an open accessible Institutional Repository(IR) for theses resulting from TWAS, the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World and OWSDW (Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World), particularly for those by African students or carried out in African institutions.
TWAS is an autonomous international organization, based in Trieste, Italy, that promotes scientific excellence for sustainable development in the South.
The repository was developed by using the DSpace software. Currently 22 theses have been loaded onto the repository covering the Heath, Medical, Natural and Agricultural Sciences, and more to be added on a monthly basis. Theses accessible on the database were produced from countries like Nigeria, Sudan, Brazil and South Africa.
The purpose of the IR is to:
a) showcase the TWAS funded research as a collection
b) make them easily accessible for the TWAS community
c) serve as a record what has been funded over the years by TWAS
d) ensure open accessibility of research to all users
To visit and search this site : http://twas.assaf.org.za:8080/jspui/
To learn more about TWAS: http://www.twas.org
Open Access Week: 18 – 24 October 2010 October 19, 2010
Posted by Andrea in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing , add a comment
The week of 18-24 October is global Open Access Week.
- What Open Access is: The Open Access research literature is composed of free, online copies of peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles and conference papers as well as technical reports, theses and working papers. In most cases there are no licensing restrictions on their use by readers. They can therefore be used freely for research, teaching and other purposes.
- What Open Access is not: It is not self-publishing, nor a way to bypass peer-review and publication, nor a kind of second-class, cut-price publishing route. It is simply a means to make research results freely available online to the whole research community.
- How is Open Access provided? A researcher can place a copy of each article in an Open Access archive or repository (known as the green route), or can publish articles in Open Access journals (known as the gold route). In addition, a researcher may place a copy of each article on a personal or departmental website. Whilst all three routes to Open Access ensure that far more users can access such articles than if they were hidden away in subscription-based journals, the first two constitute much more systematic and organised approaches than the third and maximise the chance of other researchers locating and reading articles.
2010 is the 4th time Open Access Week is being celebrated.
SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) invited Prof Robin Crewe, the President of the Academy of Science of South Africa, to create a video clip for their Open Access Week initiative.
Click here to open the Word transcript
The Academy of Science of South Africa, through its Scholarly Publishing Programme, has created the SciELO South Africa platform to promote open-access publishing of the best South African journals. This online platform is free-to-publish and free-to-access and will benefit both authors and readers by increasing the visibility and accessibility of research outcomes.
The State of Clinical Research in South Africa September 6, 2010
Posted by Phakamile in : Uncategorized , add a commentA 13-member consensus panel of experts, chaired by Prof Bongani Mayosi (UCT), have compiled a 11 chapter report on the Revitalization of Clinical Research in South Africa (SA). This report provides a review of the overall state of clinical research in SA.
The report looks at: why clinical research is important, it’s history in SA, the national culture supporting it, the public’s engagement, the ethical issues, the funding issues, the published outputs, the workforce and the institutional arrangements. It also looks at what kind of interventions have been successfully used elsewhere in the world to address the kind of challenges SA clinical research is facing.
Based on the report’s findings it is clear that clinical research in SA needs to be revitalized.
The panel then proposed recommendations/solutions and also identified which stakeholders/government departments need to attend to these. The overall recommendations state that there’s a need for:
- National Strategic Planning, Regulation and Co-ordination of Clinical Research
- Human Infrastructural Capacity
- The creation of Clinical Research Centres and Research Institutes as national hubs in the academic health complexes and other sites
- National Funding Schemes for Clinical and Health Research
- Monitoring and Evaluation of the Clinical and Health Research Enterprise
The report has been positively received and stakeholders are currently being engaged in order to ensure that the recommendations are implemented. The concise version of the report is available on ASSAf’s website.
National Science Week 2010 August 16, 2010
Posted by Philistas in : Events, Liaison, National Relations , 2commentsThe Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) in collaboration with the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA), held lectures during the National Science Week from 2 to 7 August 2010 in all nine provinces.
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. (more…)
SAJS: Land-cover change puts biodiversity at risk August 12, 2010
Posted by Andrea in : SAJS, Uncategorized , add a commentLand-cover transformation poses one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity and, in light of extensive land-cover change, protected areas are often viewed as a ‘Noah’s Ark’ for conservation. However, there has been growing awareness that formally protected area systems are failing to protect global biodiversity effectively.
Conservation initiatives have had to look beyond reserve fences, to the actual management of the surrounding landscape, to enhance the functioning of protected areas. Land-cover transformation beyond the borders of the protected areas may have potentially devastating impacts on the ongoing conservation efforts undertaken within these, should it continue unchecked. (more…)
Women still under-represented in S&T, is consensus at TWOWS Conference July 12, 2010
Posted by Andrea in : International Relations, Liaison , add a commentRepresentatives from the South African chapter of the Third World Organisation for Women in Science (TWOWS) attended the TWOWS Fourth General Assembly and International Conference on “Women Scientists in a Changing World”, which was held in Beijing, China on the 27-30 June 2010. (more…)
