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SAMRC - making open access to research publications a reality

Cape Town | The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has joined over twenty international research funders and charitable foundations in ensuring full and immediate access to research publications.

The international consortium of research funders (cOAlition S) will support Plan S, which was established in 2018 to ensure that scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms effective 2021. Plan S consists of 10 principles and sets out to resolve the limited access to current science literature – a challenge faced by many researchers worldwide.

“Scientific literature is one of the cornerstones of the clinical research that we conduct at the SAMRC and although there are some systems in place to make health information and evidence accessible, a collaboration between multinational research funders shows a commitment to even wider access to health and science information,” says SAMRC President and CEO Professor Glenda Gray.

The SAMRC has made some headway in making health information and evidence widely accessible. In June 2017 the organisation collaborated with Wiley and Cochrane South Africa to obtain a National Cochrane Library Licence, offering free access to the Cochrane Library throughout South Africa and enabling all South Africans to access evidence-based healthcare research. “This is our first commitment to providing easy access to health and science information as this licence means that healthcare practitioners, policy makers, researchers and the general public now have a sustained ‘one-click’ access to free, reliable and unbiased Cochrane Reviews,” says Professor Gray.

The SAMRC joins national and international funders such as the World Health Organization (WHO), The Wellcome Trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Research Council of Norway among many.

NOTE TO EDITOR:

For more information on cOAlition S, visit: https://www.coalition-s.org/about/

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