ASSAf Scholarly Publishing Blog

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING PROGRAMME

SciELO SA: Collection and Usage Growth

Over the past quarter three scholarly journal titles have been added to the collection, bringing the total to 76. There are currently 1 641 South African open access journal issues on the SciELO SA platform, 25 731 articles and 76 journal titles. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_alphabetic&lng=en&nrm=iso

The usage of the articles in the platform attests to the value the platform offers:

The total number of views of South African open access research via SciELO SA totals almost 14 million to date (September 2018).

The SciELO Network celebrated its 20-year anniversary in September 2018 in São Paulo, Brazil. Mrs Susan Veldsman and Mrs Louise van Heerden attended the national collection meeting and conference and Mrs Van Heerden presented a paper on SciELO SA: Past, Present and Future.

The ASSAf Institutional Repository (IR)

The ASSAf IR currently includes 80 ASSAf publications: http://research.assaf.org.za/

The advantage of making ASSAf publications available in an institutional repository is that the usage can be monitored.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) keywords are now being included in the metadata of each publication. This will allow harvesters to pick up the keywords and link it to ASSAf publications. Furthermore, these keywords will assist in grouping together publications that relate to specific SDGs.

Grouped Peer Review of South African Scholarly Journals

The Report on Grouped Peer Review of Scholarly Journals in Humanities II: Visual and Performing Arts was finalised in September 2018 and published in http://www.assaf.org.za/index.php/publications/evidence-based-reports.

The Communications and Information Science Journals Peer Review Report is currently being compiled.

National Scholarly Book Publishers’ Forum (NSBPF)

The forum’s annual meeting was held on 28 August 2018 at the Wanderer’s Club in Johannesburg to coincide with the meetings of the Publishers’ Association of South Africa (PASA). The Scholarly Publishing Programme’s Director, Mrs Susan Veldsman, reported on the CREST/ASSAf study on scholarly journal and book publishing (2005 – 2014) which will result in a publication that will be launched later this year. Other points of discussion included follow up on the forum’s motivation for a national scholarly book fund and possible research into policies on open access book publishing in South Africa.

African Open Science Platform Project

A high-level Uganda Open Data/Open Science National Dialogue with government officials brought together data-intensive initiatives across all disciplines, to advance work towards an open data/open science policy for Uganda.

Two AOSP workshops were hosted by the DST, discussing the future AOSP. Although there was agreement that there is a need for an actual platform aligning policy, incentives, capacity building and infrastructure, it was felt that more work was still required.

The work done as part of the African Open Science Platform is aligned with the new SA Draft White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), the African Union (AU) STI Strategy for Africa 2024, and work done globally, also as part of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), a very important partner for AOSP.

During a meeting on 14 May 2018, National Research Education Networks (NRENs) indicated willingness to explore offering data-related services in addition to connectivity services.

ASSAf-hosted OJS Journals

Plans to introduce a Twitter page for the ASSAf OJS journals platform are underway. A memorandum of agreement has been drawn up and sent to the editors of the five other journals on the platform to formalise the hosting agreement between the journals and ASSAf.

Science Engagement

The Quest: Science for South Africa magazine is growing in popularity both as a tool in science engagement and outreach and as support material in the classroom.

The Gauteng Education Department has subscribed for 2018 for all curriculum leaders in the sciences; they are using the magazine to inform curricular activities and to examine possible contributions in the near future.

Altogether 11 340 magazines were distributed at various events across South Africa.

END

SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING PROGRAMME

FIRST QUARTER REPORT (1 April 2018 – 30 June 2018) SUMMARY

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. SciELO SA: National Platform for Open Access High-quality South African Scholarly Journals

1.1 Growth

Over the last quarter 2 titles have been added to the collection. There are now 74 titles: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_alphabetic&lng=en&nrm=iso

1.2 Usage

The usage of the articles in the platform attests to the value the platform offers. Since its inception in 2009 the total number of views of South African open access research via SciELO SA has been more than 12.6 million. When comparing the 1st quarter of 2018 with the 1st quarter of 2017 there has been a 76% increase in the number of page views of South African articles via SciELO SA.

April to June 2017 April to June 2018

709 210 page views via SciELO SA

1 251 371 page views via SciELO

1.3 Best Practice

All SciELO SA journals assign digital object identifiers (DOIs) to articles to provide a persistent link to their location on the Internet. Most of the journals have been included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Those that are not, are in the process of applying.

2. Discipline-grouped Peer Review of South African Scholarly Journals

The Report on Grouped Peer Review of Scholarly Journals in Visual and Performing Arts was approved by the ASSAf Standing Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa (CSPiSA) and Council and is currently in production.

The version 2 draft reports of the journals being evaluated in the Communications and Information Science discipline groupings were sent to the journal editors for comment and the reports are being revised with updated information.

3. Discipline-grouped Peer Review of South African scholarly Journals: New Panels

Reviews in the following three subject groups are currently being conducted: Education (17 journals); History, Philosophy and Politics (25 journals); and Maths and Science (22 journals).

All three panels have recommended names of potential reviewers. After being cleared for conflict of interest, three reviewers for each journal are appointed. Reviews of the journals are underway.

4. National Scholarly Editors Forum (NSEF)

The annual NSEF meeting is in planning and consideration is being given to having the official launch of the ASSAf Report: Twelve Years Later: Second ASSAf Report on Research Publishing in and from South Africa (2018) at this meeting with invitations being extended to other important stakeholders and not just journal editors.

The NSEF Code of Best Practice was revised and then approved by the CSPiSA and Council. The new Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review will be made available to journal editors and will be officially launched at the annual meeting.

5. Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa (CSPiSA)

The Committee gave their feedback and approval of the Report on Grouped Peer Review of Scholarly Journals in Visual and Performing Arts and the revised NSEF Code of Best Practice.

The Committee met on 10 April 2018 to discuss the activities of the Scholarly Publishing Programme.

6. The ASSAf Research Repository (RR)

The ASSAf RR currently includes 77 ASSAf publications: http://research.assaf.org.za/
The following collections are included in the IR:
• ASSAf Consensus Study Reports
• ASSAf Workshop Proceedings and Other Reports
• ASSAf Policymakers’ Booklets
• Quest: Science for South Africa
The overall repository usage for 2018 up until the end of June 2018 was as follows:
Views: 110 930;  Downloads: 65 659

The relevant sustainable development goals (SDGs) descriptors will soon be added to each of the publications on the repository. This is useful as the keywords will be picked up by harvesters, and can be used to group together publications on a specific SDG.

Other investigations that are underway is the inclusion of altmetric and dimension data badges to the repository (which will provide article level metrics), and adding machine readable CC-licenses to individual publications.

7. African Open Science Platform (AOSP)

7.1 Development of Frameworks to Guide African Governments on the Implementation of Open Science

The development of the four frameworks to guide African countries to implement open science policy, make provision for an ICT and research infrastructure in support of data sharing and other activities in the data lifecycle, training all relevant people involved in the creation and management of research data (IT, researchers, librarians, research officials, funders, and more), as well as ways to incentivise researchers for sharing data, are receiving priority.

7.2 Strategic Direction for AOSP: Phase 2

A second phase for the platform will be announced during the upcoming SFSA meeting in December 2018. The project team has provided major input into the documentation for the proposed framework, as well a 2nd strategic meeting to be held during September 2018.

7.3 Making the African Voice Heard – Opportunities for Collaboration through Open Data

The 11th Research Data Alliance (RDA) Plenary brought together data scientists, experts and practitioners engaged in the advancement of data-driven science and economy from across the globe. The theme of the conference was From Data to Knowledge.

7.4 Libraries as Important Stakeholders in Data Management: AOSP Participation during Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa Library and Information Association (SCECSAL) XXIII, Entebbe, Uganda (23 – 28 April 2018)

ASSAf – through the AOSP project – contributed to raising awareness amongst librarians during the conference, hosted by the Uganda Library and Information Association.

7.5 National Dialogue on Open Science and Open Data, 25 – 27 April 2018, Kampala, Uganda

Uganda hosted a high-level Uganda Open Data/Open Science National Dialogue and associated meetings in April 2018. AOSP was a funder of the event which was coordinated together with the African Union of Conservationists, with great support from the Uganda National Council of Science and Technology (UNCST). The meeting was well attended by more than 60 people.

7.6 Technology Adaptation, Innovation and Research Capacity with the Focus on Botswana

AOSP had the opportunity to participate in the recent IST-Africa2018 conference. The message shared during the IST-Africa2018 conference in Botswana from 9 – 11 May 2018 was that researchers and government are committed to turn research into knowledge products, implementing policies to strengthen human resource development, towards sustainability and more people becoming entrepreneurs and creating jobs. The conference had high-level support from the Botswana government.

7.7 Reliable ICT Infrastructure a Condition for Research Data Sharing

All participants during the AOSP ICT Infrastructure meeting held on 14 May 2018 in Pretoria, South Africa were in agreement that a document guiding African countries in preparing ICT infrastructures in support of research data sharing, will be of benefit to all. The one day meeting brought together key stakeholders.

7.8 Brief feedback on the SA-EU Open Science Workshop, 15-16 May 2018, Pretoria, SA

The DST has – in partnership with the European Union (EU) – started a dialogue on an Open Science policy framework for the country. The first of the meetings took place in December 2016, followed by a workshop from 30 November to 01 December 2017. An expert task team was assigned and compiled an interim report following input from all relevant stakeholders, to further direct the process and the drafting of a framework, supported by the DST steering committee.

8. Quest – Science for South Africa

8.1 Science Engagement
With the advent of the DST Science Engagement Strategy, all promotions and popularisation events are expected to align and speak to outlined objectives and aims. Each entity of the DST is expected to have at least engaged with 80% of the ‘publics’ by the end of each year and outlined the budget in line with the recommendations of the strategy.

Against this background, Quest has sought to reach all publics in every event per term. Quest has partnered with event organisers to strategically plan events to reach 50 –60% of the public.

Quest participated in various Science festivals and events throughout the country.

9. South African Journal of Science and other ASSAf-hosted OJS Journals

The South African Journal of Science announced the launch of the Associate Editor Mentorship Programme in April 2018. The call for this one-year mentoring programme was open to early career researchers with a PhD who have a strong publication record but little or no editorial experience. The first Associate Editor mentees for the South African Journal of Science were appointed in May 2018. The successful candidates are Dr Maitumeleng Nthontho from the University of Pretoria (for Social Sciences & Education) and Prof Yali Woyessa from the Central University of Technology (for Earth & Environmental Sciences).

Altmetric – a programme which provides a score or article-level metric that indicates engagement via Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking, blogs and general news coverage – was introduced for all journals on the OJS Journals platform in May 2018. To accompany the metric, social share buttons were activated for the other five journals to allow readers to be able to share the articles via social media.

The first User Group Meeting of the ASSAf OJS Journals was held on 4 – 5 June 2018 in Pretoria. The Editors and Journal Managers of the six journals on the platform comprise the User Group. The meeting included discussions on the future of the platform, a formal memorandum of agreement and business plan, as well as OJS technical training.

END

Date: 18th March 2018
Venue: Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) offices, Baobab boardroom, Pretoria
Time: 10:00 – 15:00

ATTENDANCE:

Committee members in attendance:
Dr John Butler-Adam; Prof Robin Crewe (Chairperson); Prof Tania Douglas; Prof Wian Erlank; Prof Wieland Gevers; Dr Leti Kleyn; Mrs Veronica Klipp; Prof Andries van Aarde.

ASSAf secretariat: Linda Fick; Mmaphuthi Mashiachidi; Tsepo Majake; Ina Smith; Desré Stead; Louise van Heerden; Susan Veldsman.

Apologies: Prof Voster Muchenje

1. Matters arising from previous minutes

1.1 Scholarly Publishing Unit (SPU) Funding

The Scholarly Publishing Unit held the books and conference proceedings evaluations in 2014 and 2015. The DHET notified ASSAf in writing that they did not have funds for 2016 and beyond and that they would be conducting the evaluations themselves. Other programmes within ASSAf managed to generate some funds in terms of contract research and that allowed ASSAf to reprioritise its funds so that a large portion of the main stream of funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) was allocated to SPU.

1.2 National Site License

ASSAf was requested by the DHET to conduct an investigation on the possibility for South Africa to have a National Site Licensing initiative, meaning that central licences are negotiated for all universities, and for research councils and researchers.
ASSAf made a presentation to Universities South Africa (USAF) whereby the risk group chairperson requested ASSAf to come up with a business case. Another presentation was made to the DST which the executive management accepted. The Minister also endorsed the business case. The letter will be sent to the new DHET Minister Naledi Pandor for endorsement because she is well aware of the work already done and its background.

1.3 Investigations into publishers not based in South Africa: study

Background: The matter was raised in the Humanities peer review group where it was found that a large number of the Humanities journals were published by international publishers and were not listed on Web of Science. The DHET policy provides that if the seat of the publisher is outside the country then that particular journal should not be recommended for accreditation. As a result, some journals had not been recommended.

A visiting scholar was appointed by CREST to undertake the study and to make recommendations to ASSAf with a view to inform the DHET’s policy development. This study was eventually put in abeyance in favour of the broader study.

1.4 SPP publication

A task team including some members of the CSPiSA and SPU staff have drafted a ‘Second ASSAf Report on Scholarly Publishing in and from South Africa’ which spans twelve years (from previous SPP publication published in 2006) of research publishing in South Africa. The publication incorporates the commissioned study undertaken by CREST which focused on the last ten years of journals, books and conference proceedings publishing in South Africa, looking at the effect the policy has had on scientific publishing in South Africa. The draft report will be sent to the Committee and the final document will be sent to the ASSAf Council for approval, after which it will be published online in May.

2. Report back on SPU Activities

a. Discipline-grouped Journal Peer Reviews

The report on Architecture, Built Environment and Engineering has been published and is being disseminated to all stakeholders. The two groups, Communication and Information Science, and Humanities II: Visual and Performing Arts, are coming to a close and the reports are due to be published in May and June.

Currently there are three groups that are under review, namely: Education; History, Philosophy and Politics; and, Maths and Science. One report of these three groups must be published by March 2019. There are two groups remaining: Economics and Business Management (26 journals) and ‘Other Disciplines’ group (48 journals). These two groups must be set up before the end of March 2019.

b. SAJS and ASSAf hosted journals

The print version of SAJS was discontinued in 2016 and since then the focus has changed to creating an advanced digital version of the journal. Article-level metrics were introduced on the website as well as citation export and social share buttons to give the journal an enhanced online presence. SAJS was re-indexed by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and also received the DOAJ seal. CrossMark was also introduced (digital tool for linking corrections to articles to help identify updates). The SAJS changed its policy to allow submission of preprints which were previously excluded. At the end of 2017 the SAJS migrated to Open Journal Systems (OJS) and a new website was created. Recently, a call was sent out for a mentoring opportunity for early career researchers to gain experience working with an Associate Editor of SAJS.

There are now six journals hosted by ASSAf on OJS. The five journals hosted on OJS by ASSAf as a pilot project were upgraded to a new version which has a more user-friendly interface and article-level metrics in the form of views and downloads. ASSAf has a new relationship with the Journal of Energy in Southern Africa (JESA) which is funded by the DST.

c. Open Science Programme (AOSP)

The African Open Science Programme (AOSP) is sponsored by DST and managed by ASSAf. ASSAf manages this project with direction from CODATA and ICSU (International Council for Science). AOSP tries to understand what is happening on the African continent in terms of Open Science policy, infrastructure, skills and incentives. The focus is specifically on data and the sharing of data. AOSP is in the process of developing an expert database across the disciplines. Other deliverables include frameworks and roadmaps to guide African countries on Open Science initiatives.

d. SciELO SA

The SciELO SA project has been running for nine years and is now automatically an accredited index. This year is the 20th anniversary of SciELO and there will be five-day event in Brazil including an international conference with the theme ‘Moving towards Open Science communication’.
The SciELO SA annual meeting will be held this year.

e. ASSAf Institutional Repository

So far, more than 70 ASSAf publications have been added to the ASSAf Institutional Repository.
There are fewer printed publications, everything is now available online, and usage can be monitored.

f. NSEF

The annual meeting will be hosted this year.
The Code of Best Practice was revised because the previous one was published in 2008 and many things have changed in the journal publishing environment. The new Code will be a searchable electronic document with links to resources. The document was approved by the Committee and will now be sent to the ASSAf Council for approval.

g. NSBPF

The document on Best Practice for Peer Review of Scholarly books was approved by the CSPiSA and ASSAf Council and was sent out to all stakeholders in the publishing sector. It was also endorsed by all the major publishers on the book publishers’ forum.

h. Quest

Quest is a quarterly themed publication. In 2016, 13 000 copies were printed (scaled down from 25 000 copies because of budgetary challenges). The magazine is distributed to schools in all nine provinces, to public libraries, government departments and science centres. The set-up of the magazine is such that there are four cover stories, four features, three articles and three regulars. The cover stories and the features will be in line with the theme that is chosen for that term.

3. Collaborative research

The panel conducted research on international practices for ‘Incentivisation of collaborative research’ and conducted a study on what collaborations are taking place in South Africa and where, with whom and why. Recommendations will be discussed at the next meeting. The report will be peer reviewed, and the CSPiSA will endorse it before it can be approved by the ASSAf Council.

4. CSPiSA membership

Four Committee members who need to rotate as members: Dr Leti Kleyn who is now an ASSAf employee, Gert Kruger who is no longer a journal editor and NSEF representative, Daisy Selematsela and Nthabiseng Taole who were both NRF representatives and are no longer at the NRF. There must be nominations from the NSEF, NRF, CHE, USAf and the National Ethics Committee.

5. Confirmation of date of next meeting
The next Committee meeting will be before March 2019.

How to identify questionable journals? (Friday 02 November, 11:00 – 12:00)

Presented by Tom Olijhoek, DOAJ

After the closure of Beall’s list, there are still many ways to identify journals that publish low quality research without meeting basic publishing standards.

Biography of presenter:

Tom Olijhoek – Editor-in-Chief
Tom has a PhD in molecular microbiology and has spent several years in Africa doing research on malaria, sleeping sickness and meningococcal epidemics. He has been actively advocating open access and open science since 2012 when he joined the Open Knowledge community. At around the same time he became a member of the DOAJ advisory board. His current research interests are development of quality systems for the assessment of scholarly journals and articles, and research in the area of soil microbiology in relation to soil health and human health.

Click on the link below to access the PowerPoint presentation of the webinar.

How can we identify questionable journals