Institutional and National Policy Implications for Adopting Open Access, Open Data and Open Science Strategies - South Africa

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1 Institutional and National Policy Implications for Adopting Open Access, Open Data and Open Science Strategies - South Africa Lazarus Matizirofa Knowledge Management Corporate NATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION Forum on Open Data, Open Science and Open Access to Information in Agriculture in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Avani Hotel, Windhoek Namibia, 18 April 2016

2 History of the National Research Foundation The NRF was established through the National Research Foundation Act (Act No 23 of 1998) of South Africa. As an entity of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the NRF promotes and supports research through funding, human resource development and the provision of National Research Facilities in all fields of natural and social sciences, humanities and technology. The NRF provides services to the research community especially at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Science Councils, with a view to promote high-level human capital development. The NRF aims to uphold excellence in all its investments in knowledge, people and infrastructure.

3 Academic, Economic and Societal Impacts of Open Science The academic case for Open Access Open Science/Open Data The economic case for Open Access The societal case for Open Access Jonathan P. Tennant et al. have published an e-print for review of "The Academic, Economic and Societal Impacts of Open Access: An Evidence-Based Review" in F1000 Research

4 Background: Implementation of Open Access in South Africa On the African continent, South Africa plays its part in terms of OA adoption among its public research and teaching institutions In alignment to the Global Reach Council (GRC), the National Research Foundation (NRF) released an open access statement on January 30, 2015 that requires funded researchers to deposit their articles into an open access repository with an embargo period of no more that 12 months (for public good) The NRF conducted a national OA survey in 2015 to determine the technical requirements - repositories alignment and associated standards - to guide the implementation of OA initiatives in South Africa Seminars: National Postdoctoral Research Forum/Regional Postgraduate Seminars/ Research Administrators Workshop (HEI Research Offices)

5 NRF s OA Statement Ranking: COAR/SPARC Joint COAR/SPARC conference, April 15-16, Portugal 2015 ranked the NRF s OA Statement no. 5 globally Based on the following recommendations Must deposit Cannot waive deposit Must make item Open Access Link to research evaluation The NRF OA Statement is mandatory! NRF GLOBAL MEMBERSHIP

6 Funder Mandates Global Perspective

7 NRF OA Statement Mandatory Source:

8 Data Supporting a Publication (Dataset) Research Data Sharing that underlies the findings reported in a journal article/ conference paper/thesis as set out in the NRF Open Access Statement - grant holders will be required to submit Data Management Plans (DMPs) as part of the grant applications - Datasets will therefore be submitted and archived in trusted repositories recommended by the NRF The NRF is the national member in DataCite: registers DOIs for all datasets produced in the country (workflow is currently being implemented)

9 NRF OA Statement: Versions for Repository Archiving Open Access (journals, conference proceedings & books/book chapters) Publisher PDFs/ HTML Authors accepted manuscripts Pre-prints/Post-prints Open Data (Datasets) All applicable formats PhD/Masters ETDs PDFs

10 NRF recommends author retains copyright

11 NRF Funded Grantees should have ORCID

12 Research Processes: Openness of Science In order to achieve openness in science, each element of the research process should: Be publicly available - it is difficult to benefit and use knowledge hidden behind username and password barriers, or if it does not contain the right metadata to make it discoverable. Be re-usable - research outputs must be licensed appropriately so that prospective users know clearly any limitations on re-use. Induce collaboration between researchers through better access and better online tools; Be transparent and have appropriate metadata to provide clear statements of how research output was produced, and can be re-used

13 SA Transition to OA: Berlin Declaration Signatories (South African Institutions) to date University of Stellenbosch University of Johannesburg University of Pretoria Library and Information Association of South Africa University of Cape Town University of South Africa Academy of Science of South Africa University of KwaZulu-Natal University of the Witwatersrand Durban University of Technology Tshwane University of Technology University of the Western Cape Rhodes University North-West University National Research Foundation of South Africa Cape Peninsula University of Technology

14 NRF OA Statement Survey: 2015 The NRF conducted a survey and a stakeholder workshop (primarily HEIs, National Facilities, and Research Councils)

15 NRF OA Statement Impact Survey Which of the following policies have been approved at your institution? Which of the following policies have been approved at your institution? Answer Options OA Mandate/statement OA Policy IR Policy Digitisation policy Intellectual property policy Preservation policy Other (please specify) Response Percent Response Count 22.2% % % 8 5.6% % % % 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% answered question 18 skipped question 5

16 Example: Joint Funder OA Requirement

17 South African National Electronic Theses & Dissertations

18 NRF Funded Theses & Dissertations

19 NRF s OA Statement: Implications for Practice Achievement of the MDGs requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders, including governments, the international community and the civil society. It is therefore imperative that libraries and information centres in Africa plan to actively contribute to the attainment of the MDGs (Benson Njobvu, 2008) Open access impacts on decision making due to free flow of information and data on the Internet Librarians should take a lead in communicating important OA-related developments to user groups and administration Librarians can play major roles in connection with the Global OA Movement COAR, SPARC, ORCID, ICSU etc. Researchers should be motivated to pursue OA publishing to obtain wider exposure for their work Academic and research institutions generally should support the OA concept to increase availability and lower costs of access to scholarly literature

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21 References Open Science: Open science, open data, open access White paper/ David Ball nal. Open access, open data, open science/ Melissa Cheung Njobvu, B. (Ed.) & Koopman, S. (Ed.) (2008). Libraries and Information Services towards the Attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Berlin, Boston: K. G. Saur. Retrieved 15 Apr. 2016, from Albert KM. Open access: implications for scholarly publishing and medical libraries. Journal of the Medical Library Association. 2006;94(3): (2015) Promoting Open Knowledge and Open Science: Report of the Current State of Repositories

22 THANK YOU Lazarus Matizirofa Team Leader: Data, Content & Curation Management Service Knowledge Management Corporate (KMC)