It emerged in 2003 from a conference on open access hosted in Berlin by the Max Planck Society. Organisations who share the vision of Open Access to Knowledge expressed in the Declaration are invited to sign the Declaration, committing their organisations to the promotion of Open Access to Knowledge. By 10 November 2011, 344 organisations had signed the declaration internationally. In South Africa the University of Pretoria, the University the Free State and the University of Stellenbosch signed the Declaration during Open Access events.

Susan Veldsman, the Director of Scholarly Publishing at ASSAf, was invited to speak on Open Access at the Open Access Week events held at the University of the Free State (24 October), the University of South Africa (25 October) and the University of Pretoria (27 October).

The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities was signed by Prof Jonathan Jansen, the Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State and an ASSAf member. Speakers at the Open Access event were: Front: Ina Smith (US), Prof Jonathan Jansen (UFS), Elsabe Olivier (UP), Monica Hammes (UP). Back: Wikus van Zyl  (SunMedia), Pierre de Villiers (AOSIS), Susan Veldsman (ASSAf) and Huibre Lombard (UFS)

There were 24 participants comprised of editors of local and regional scholarly journals from southern Africa (Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland). The aim of the workshop was to enlighten journal editors about the challenges and benefits of open-access publishing and empower them to adopt an open-access publishing model for their journal. 

The themes discussed and presented by the editors were:

• Challenges and problems facing journal editors today
• Sharing best practices in the editorial process
• Current open-access journals and developing an open-access model and business plan

The last session was devoted to a demonstration of Open Journal Systems, which is an open-source manuscript management and publishing system used to publish journals online – a gateway to open-access publishing.  

Presenters shared the challenges they face as editors of scholarly journals and in considering and adopting an open-access model, as well as possible solutions to these challenges.  

Whilst all editors in principle accepted the benefits of open access, it was acknowledged that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. A sub-committee of editors will be convened to discuss how some approaches can be implemented within South Africa.

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.

Brazilian mammal-like fossil find suggests link to South Africa 

The discovery of a 260-million-year-old Tiarajudens eccentricus in Brazil that was announced to the world in March this year may for the first time suggest that anomodonts roamed both continents in the Permian period. 

The Tiarajudens find in Brazil consists of a partial skull with an ~120 mm long, laterally compressed canine, 5 leaf-shaped incisors and 13 expanded palatal teeth that formed a grinding surface. Scientists were able to recognise a resemblance to Anomocephalus, a basal anomodont recovered in 1999 from the Tapinocephalus assemblage zone of the Beaufort Group of the South African Karoo beds, near Williston in the Northern Cape. 

Previously, the two continent s  have had only dinocephalians and an aquatic reptile, Mesosaurus, in common. Basal anomodonts have been found in China, Russia and South Africa. The discovery of  Tiarajudens represents the first basal anomodont from South America and its discovery contributes to understanding of the biogeographical distribution of the Anomodontia and the early radiation of the Therapsida.

Read more:

Chinsamy-Turan A. Tiarajudens: A significant mammal-like reptile. S Afr J Sci. 107(5/6), Art. #717, 2 pages. doi:10.4102/sajs. v107i5/6.717 

A focus on land use and soil organic matter in South Africa 

This in-depth look at land use and soil organic matter in South Africa takes the form of two articles in the latest SAJS. The first of the articles reviews spatial variability and the influence of rangeland stock production and the second, the influence of arable crop production. 

Degradation of soil due to land use poses a threat to sustainable agriculture in South Africa, With stock farming uses the majority of land in South Africa, restoration of soil is of the utmost importance. The article suggests a countrywide baseline study to quantify organic matter contents within and between soil forms.

The ultimate aim of the study is to develop a soil protection strategy and policy for South Africa. Such a policy is important because organic matter influences the characteristics of soil disproportionately to the quantities thereof. Development of such a strategy and policy require cognisance of the extent and impact of soil degradation processes.

Read more:
Du Preez CC, Van Huyssteen CW, Mnkeni PNS. Land use and soil organic matter in South Africa 1: A review on spatial variability and the influence of rangeland stock production. S Afr J Sci. 2011;107(5/6), Art. #354, 8 pages. doi:10.4102/sajs.v107i5/6.354

Read more:
Du Preez CC, Van Huyssteen CW, Mnkeni PNS. Land use and soil organic matter in South Africa 2: A review on the influence of arable crop production. S Afr J Sci. 2011;107(5/6), Art. #358, 8 pages. doi:10.4102/sajs.v107i5/6.358 

South Africa loses distinguished poet 

Well-known poet, Stephen Watson, has died at the age of 56 in Cape Town, the city most depicted in his writings, along with the Cederberg where he walked all his life. 

PR Anderson of the University of Cape Town salutes Watson who in the last decade was the powerhouse behind UCT’s emergence as a creative writing school. He reviews his diverse writings which reflect the landscape of the city, Cape Town, and the Cedarberg, and the social and historical worlds underlying them. 

Read more:

Anderson PR. Stephen Watson: Poet, scholar and critic (1954–2011). S Afr J Sci. 2011;107(5/6), Art. #744, 2 pages. doi:10.4102/sajs. v107i5/6.744 

The impact of acid mine drainage in South Africa 

Environmental damage caused by acid mine drainage (AMD) in South Africa is severe and likely to continue for decades, posing a serious threat to future generations of South Africans. 

A review on the impact of AMD related to gold and coal mining maintains that the longer-term impacts of these industries, and especially the coal mining industry, are likely to be far more severe in South Africa than in other countries. This is attributed to South Africa’s unique combination of geography, climate, population distribution and the scale of the deposits. The coal mining industry, in particular, has had an adverse impact on the water quality in the Olifants River system. 

The review which focuses on mining in the Vaal and Olfiants River systems, calls for acumen in especially allowing further coal mining in the catchments of the Vaal River and rivers draining the eastern escarpment. 

These are not the only areas in the country afflicted by this problem, but because of the particular local conditions, the problems these two basins are huge by comparison and pose a serious threat to future generations of South Africans. 

Read more:

McCarthy TS. The impact of acid mine drainage in South Africa. S Afr J Sci. 107(5/6), Art. #712, 7 pages. doi:10.4102/sajs.v107i5/6.712

SciELO SA is operating from the www.scielo.org.za domain. The SciELO SA site has went live on1 June 2009, and the following journals have been uploaded and are accessible: HTS, South African Journal of Science, Koedoe and the South Africa Journal of Education.

SciELO SA is modelled on SciELO Brazil, as it successfully combines the most desirable features , including effective mechanisms for the selection of journals to be included in the service (analogous to ASSAf’s envisaged peer review panels); free online open access publishing; a variety of features to facilitate contextual understanding and contact between readers and authors; and full mark-up and indexing, permitting direct online bibliometric analysis and  web-based usage statistics, etc.

The following journals are currently being uploaded on the platform but are not yet accessible: the South African Journal of Medicine, the South African Journal of Surgery, WaterSA and the Potchefstroom Law Journal.