Page 33 - SAMRC Strategic Plan

PART B: SAMRC STRATEGIC FOCUS
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10.4.1.9. Open Access (e) Strengthen existing and if necessary, develop new
The year 2003 brought publication of the Berlin fully accessible national open access platforms
Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the and repositories that will provide for all information
Sciences and Humanities which states that “The and knowledge produced through South African
Internet has fundamentally changed the practical public funding to be freely available.
and economic realities of distributing scientific (f) Engage with high quality South African journal
knowledge and cultural heritage. For the first time publishers to develop open access business
ever, the Internet now offers the chance to constitute models that will allow them to remain viable.
a global and interactive representation of human
knowledge, including cultural heritage and the 10.4.1.10. Open Science
guarantee of worldwide access” . In 2015 the Open Open science refers to an approach to research based
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Access 2020 (OA2020) initiative was established “to on greater access to public research data enabled by
propel open access forward by fostering and inciting information and communications technology tools
the transformation of today’s scholarly journals from (ICT) and platforms, broader collaboration in science
the current subscription (paywall) system to new open – including the participation of non-scientists – and
access publishing models that enable unrestricted the use of alternative copyright tools for diffusing
use and re-use of scholarly outputs and assure research results . This document further states that
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transparency and sustainability of publishing costs” . open science:
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(a) approach is required to enable greater access to
The Universities South Africa (USAF), an umbrella existing information
body that represents 26 public universities in South (b) is one avenue to realise the benefits of
Africa, resolved at the Higher Education conference collaborative, transdisciplinary approaches to
in 2019 to issue the draft national declaration on open knowledge development.
access, which states that the Universities and Science (c) and open innovation represent significant
Councils resolve to : opportunities for growing science Technology
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(a) Work as a national collective involving and Innovation output and impact.
government, universities, science councils and
other knowledge-intensive institutions to achieve 10.4.1.11. An open, responsive and impactful
the development of open access as a default for National System of Innovation (NSI)
all research produced with public funding. The Department of Science and Innovation Decadal
(b) Actively strengthen existing and develop new Plan 2022-2032 on the aspect of an open, responsive
affordable open access models that bolster the and impactful National System of Innovation
quality of scholarly publishing and the research identifies the “need to make publicly funded
enterprise in South Africa. research and the data generated open, accessible,
(c) Consider the importance of high quality, peer- transparent, collaborative and closer to citizens,
reviewed journals and to work constructively with and thus more responsive to the needs of society
other university and science systems around the and industry. Given (a) that societal problems know
world to produce new approaches to open access no disciplinary boundaries, (b) that many industrial
to these journals, in the first instance through a and technological solutions require different or
‘pay to publish model’ rather than a ‘pay to read’ converging disciplinary perspectives, and (c) the
model. importance of social and human dynamics in
(d) Insist that the ownership of copyright remain science research, transdisciplinary research is key.
with the authors and not be transferred to the Transdisciplinary research not only requires flexibility
publishing houses. and fluidity that allows for thinking across, beyond

7 Berlin Declaration | Max Planck Open Access (mpg.de). Accessed 2 September 2024
8 be informed – OA2020. Accessed 2 September 2024
9 Prof-Ahmed-C-Bawa_Open-Access.pptx (live.com). Accessed 2 September 2024
10 https://www.dst.gov.za/images/2019/White_paper_web_copyv1.pdf. Accessed 3 September 2019

32 SAMRC STRATEGIC PLAN 2025/26 – 2029/30