The Durban University of Technology (DUT) Library commemorated the International Open Access Week with colourful and creative displays, a public lecture, and the publishing and launch of an open-access book by HELTASA via the DUT Open Monograph Press platform.
Open Access (OA) week was celebrated in South Africa and globally from 24 to 30 October 2022. The International OA community celebrates this momentous week to encourage libraries, researchers, and institutions to deliberate and tackle critical issues about open access. The DUT public lecture, hosted by the library, was held virtually via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday, 26 October 2022 with Mr Romeo Matumba, Librarian: Marketing and Communication directing this exciting and intellectually stimulating event.
Dr Malefetjane Benny Phaladi, DUT’s Director: Library Services, began the proceedings by introducing the guest speaker as well as providing the background and outlining the nature of the event, while also highlighting DUT’s trajectory to strategically support the causes of open science and open access. He indicated that the DUT Library has established open-access publishing platforms for open-access books and journals with a total of 4 books published on the open monograph press platform thus far. This is an indication that DUT is on the right path to creating sustainable competitive knowledge production and distribution system.
“We have also reached great milestones in terms of journal publishing. The acclaimed African Journal of Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary Science (AJIMS) which is an approved DHET journal, is going strong, they are currently on volume 4, and issue 1 is hosted on our continental journal publishing platform. These initiatives are aligned to our ENVISION2030 and the Library Strategy in terms of sustainability of scientific knowledge production and distribution system, producing research that is immediately available, free of charge, and therefore ensuring just equitable and universal access to publicly funded research,” concluded Dr Phaladi.
The guest speaker for the event, Ms Osman, Executive Director: National Research Foundation (NRF) focused her lecture around the 2022 theme, Open for Climate Justice, in which she covered several critical issues, including the current African realities, which necessitate free access to publicly funded research outputs on the continent. One of her concerns was that many research outputs are published on subscription or payment platforms but are “not so open,” due to the high costs associated with publishing on these platforms. Ms Osman also commended DUT for its contribution towards the open-access philosophy and culture.
“DUT is very committed towards the open-access movement and has done a sterling job in terms of moving towards entrenching open access as a new normal in their environment and that is exactly the kind of progress we want to see,” said Ms Osman.
DUT Library also participated in the launch of an open-access book by the Higher Education Learning & Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) titled Critical Reflections on Professional Learning During COVID-19: Context, Practice, and Change on Thursday, 27 October 2022, which was also published on the DUT Open Books website. Mr Sean Carte, DUT Librarian: Digital Services, who served on the project’s planning committee, was thanked by members of the organising committee including the HELTASA president, for his significant contribution to the project’s success. Dr Malefetjane Phaladi, delivered a speech to set the tone before various guest speakers addressed the audience. He highlighted that, to continue making an impact and meaningful contribution towards the open science movement, we need to move forward from advocacy to active change.
“In 2022, according to data from the Research and Postgraduate Services (RPS) office, 25% of the articles that have been published by DUT staff are in open-access journals. If we compare this to 2021 publications, 50% of the articles were published in open-access journals (315 out of 627 articles). As part of ensuring the sustainability of the research enterprise, the DUT Library is also supporting these efforts through transformative agreements that allow our researchers to publish in some open-access publications without having to pay article processing charges (APC). Open Access enhances the visibility and discoverability of your authorship and research outputs as a researcher, resulting in increased citation rates and university rankings. I am sure you would agree with me that much of the recent university rankings can be attributed to the visibility and discoverability of our impactful authorship and research outputs,” said Dr Phaladi.
Ms Rieta Ganas, president of HELTASA, concurred with Dr Phaladi that publicly funded research should be freely available to all stakeholders provided it remains public material. She also urged institutions and research departments to fully embrace the libraries’ role as open scholarship publishers, to continue investing in more resources to support open science publishing models, and to develop strategic partnerships with research departments and other institutions.
“Publicly funded research should be freely accessible and copyright-free,” Ms Ganas added.
This was an exciting week for the DUT Library as it allowed the DUT community to add its voice to the global open-access movement.
Pictured: Attendees at the online book launch.
Romeo Matumba, Librarian: Marketing and Communication
