Presentation by panelist Pierre de Villiers, AOSIS, for OASPA hosted webinar: A Q &A with five publishers working with Open Access on 20 October 2009. www.oaspa.org

1. Open Access Publishing in
the African Context
Progress, challenges, opportunities
Pierre JT de Villiers
Managing director: OpenJournals Publishing
African Online Scientific Information Systems (AOSIS)

2. AOSIS - OpenJournals Publishing
(est. 2005)
• First open access publisher in RSA
• Portfolio – 22 journals
• Full publishing service
• Online, open source technology: OJS
• Article processing fees/sponsorship
• Continuing professional development
www.openjournals.net

3. Current situation (OA)
• African Journals Online (AJOL)
– 360 Peer reviewed journals - 26 countries
• Directory of Open Access Journals
(DOAJ)
– 4366 journals  54 African
– Nigeria (19), RSA (14)
• SABINET (RSA): 44/264 (17%)
• Own research 2009: RSA 59/253 (23%)

4. The impetus for OA in Africa
Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing
in South Africa. Academy of Science of SA, 2006
ARL statistics

5. Libraries brace for big cuts
In the face of the downturn, libraries and publishers brace for big cuts
By Lee C. Van Orsdel & Kathleen Born -- Library Journal, 4/15/2009

6. Internet access in Africa
RSA = 9.4%

7. Other Challenges
• Prestige of toll periodicals
– Established toll journals (ISI) with impact factors
– Pressure from institutions/review panels
– Misinformation on quality of OA journals
• Ability to pay “article processing fees”
– Limited research funding
– Poor institutional support
• Lack of computing skills
– editors, reviewers, readers

8. Opportunities
• Sharing African research with the world
– Exposure through OA
– Bypass “northern bias” in indexes
• Most journals small & sponsored
– OA viable for many
• OA can make a local journal truly
international

9. SA Family Practice (SJR)
0.038
SCImago. (2007). SJR — SCImago Journal & Country Rank.
Retrieved August 24, 2008, from http://www.scimagojr.com

10. South Africa – Government support
•Open access publishing platform
•Quality journals (auditing)
•Measuring impact

11. Costs, productivity (OJS)

12. AOSIS – OJP
“moving mountains in Africa”
www.openjournals.net