Open access scholarly communication in South Africa : current status, significance, and the role for national information policy in the national system of innovation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:South African science shows a decline in its global competitiveness in that its scholarlypublication rate has not kept pace with that of other countries, both developed anddeveloping. This, together with a decline in publication rate especially among junior SouthAfrican scholars, suggests a structural problem in the South African national system ofinnovation. A declining publication rate indicates a problem of knowledge diffusion forSouth Africa, and hints at a possible knowledge generation problem. This assignment limitsitself to the dynamics of knowledge diffusion with specific reference to Open Accessscholarly communication. Open Access scholarly communication is an overt interventionregarding knowledge diffusion. The marginalisation of science in and of developingcountries, leading to a state of knowledge imperialism and knowledge dependence, isaddressed, and it is argued that knowledge diffusion and generation are at the heart of longtermeconomic growth.This assignment has been structured around two core sections, a theoretical frameworkbased in the literature, and empirical study. The central concepts of scholarlycommunication and Open Access, national information policy (NIP), and national systemof innovation (NSI) are elaborated upon in the theoretical framework (Chapters 2 and 3).The empirical part of this study (Chapters 4 and 5) in turn consist of two parts. Both partsused the survey method, however the first part made use of a questionnaire instrument,and the second part made use of a structured record review. Both empirical studies wereused to assess levels of activity and extent of adoption of Open Access within a definedSouth African scholarly community, one discipline-based, the other institution-based.The aims of this study were two-fold: to assess levels of awareness of and investment inOpen Access modes of scholarly communication within defined scholarly communities;and to create a benchmark document of South Africa's involvement to date in variousOpen Access initiatives. The argument is made for the openness of scholarly systems, andfurthermore that the disparate and uncoordinated nature of Open Access in South Africaneeds a policy intervention. The policy intervention so identified would exist within anenabling policy environment and would be minimally disruptive to the South Africanscience system. Said policy intervention would constitute a National Information Policysince it would address the storage, dissemination, and retrieval of scholarly research output. This assignment recommends the amendment of the current statutory reportingmechanism - used by scholars to report and obtain publication rate subsidies - whichwould require that scholars make their research available via an Open Access mode ofscholarly communication, and moreover, would require scholars to report on having doneso.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University