Overview of the activities of the Scholarly Publishing Unit (SPU) at the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)

1. DATAD-R
training
Academy of Science of South Africa: Scholarly
publishing
11 September 2017
S Veldsman

2. Agenda
Background on ASSAf’s Programmes
Background on the Scholarly Publishing Programme
SciELO SA: Background and Benefits
South Africa Journal of Science

3. ASSAf overview(1)
Recognise scholarly achievement & excellence
Mobilise members in the service of society
Conduct systematic & evidence-based studies on issues of
national importance
Promote the development of an indigenous system of South
African research
Publish science-focused journals

4. ASSAf (2)
Develop productive partnerships with national, regional and
international organisations to building capacity within the
National System of Innovation (NSI)
Create diversified sources of funding for sustainable
functioning and growth of a national academy
Science engagement
Communicate with relevant stakeholders

5. 5
Secretariat
Governance,
Administration,
Communication,
Finances,
HR
Liaison
Activities
(National &
International)
Scholarly
Publishing
Programme
Science
Advisory
Programme
ASSAf
Programmes

6. 6
Scholarly
Publishing
Programme
NSEF and
NSBPF
Quest
Magazine
SciELO
SA
African
Open
Science
Platform
South
African
Journal of
Science
Peer
Reviewing
of SA
Journals
Science
engageme
nt
Open
Science
ASSAf’s
Institution
al
repository
IRs

7. 7
Support
to the
NSI
Hosting and
Training in
Open Journal
Systems (OJS)
Criteria for high
quality OA
journals
Ambassador for
Directory of
Open Access
Journals (DOAJ)
International
best practices
i.e ORCiD;
DOIs
Research on
research
output i.e
DHET policy;
NRF policies
General
advise and
support

8. SciELO – Scientific Electronic Library Online
A platform of open access (free full-text access) journals.
The platform originated in Brazil http://www.scielo.org/php/index.php
(BRICS cooperation)
Now distributed across 12 South American countries as well as Portugal,
Spain and South Africa www.scielo.org.za

10. Benefits of the
SciELO SA Collection (3)
DHET accreditation:
Journals appearing in the SciELO SA Collection have since 2016 been
automatically accredited.
Collaboration:
The SciELO Network provides opportunities for south/south collaboration
between researchers.
Future growth:
The SciELO Network Portal is fast becoming a promising multinational journal
indexing and publishing model in the developing world.

11. SciELO SA
visibility, indexibility, findability
Benefits
852
21849 30317
20187
50358
83264
163740
195855
199964
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
Aug 2009 Aug 2010 Aug 2011 Aug 2012 Aug 2013 Aug 2014 Aug 2015 Aug 2016 Aug 2017
Number
Month
Growth in views of articles via SciELO SA (August 2009 – August 2017)

12. 12
SciELO SA
benefits
Government
Endorsement
High Visibility
& Accessibility
SciELO
Citation Index
International
Collaboration
International
Best Practice

13. South African Journal of Science
SAJS raises the bar of scholarly publishing through striving for greater:
Openness
Through transparency, visibility, accessibility, searchability and interoperability
Quality
By implementing best practice and through using digital tools

14. Editorial
• Best practice
– Editorial Advisory Board and Editorial Team
– Transparency of guidelines, processes,
policies, all open and online
– Double blind peer-review
• Tools
– Online content management system that is
automated with vast reporting functionality
– Transparency of turnaround times, rejection
rates and submission statistics
– Similarity checking through iThenticate

15. Publication
• Best practice
– Open Access
– Published under Creative Commons licence
– Archived through Portico
• Tools
– CrossRef for visibility, searchability and interoperability:
o Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)
o Cited-by-linking
o CrossMark
– Citation Export for accessibility
– Multiple file formats for accessibility and
searchability: PDF, EPUB & XML
– Social share buttons for accessibility and searchability
– Views and downloads for transparency

16. Distribution & marketing
for increased visibility, accessibility and searchability
– eDistribution through Mailchimp (with highlights for each issue)
– Media releases to national and international journalists
– Profiles on Social Media
– Popular articles
– Reader’s and Editor’s choice

17. Indexing and harvesting
for increased visibility, accessibility and searchability

18. Thank you!!
Scholarly Publishing team
susan@assaf.org.za