UCT welcomes NRF’s position paper on Open Access
To expand on its suite of OA services and to showcase UCT-produced knowledge for a global audience, UCT Libraries launched open access publishing last year, becoming only the fourth South African university to host open access journals. We have now become the only academic library in South Africa, and on the continent, that publishes scholarly monographs using the open monograph press platform. Publishing scholarly monographs at UCT means that the books are free to the reader and free for the author to publish.
In September of last year, several interested library staff members attended a virtual workshop facilitated by the Public Knowledge Project at Simon Fraser University, developers of Open Monograph Press (OMP). OMP is an open-source platform that improves the quality and reach of scholarly publishing. Building quickly on the knowledge gained in the workshop, the Libraries published its first two books in December 2015, The Quest for Deeper Meaning of Research Support and LIS Education and Research in a Dynamic Information Landscape: Proceedings of the Library and Information Studies Centre 75 Years Commemorative Conference. The Libraries will be publishing three more books in the next two months.
The Libraries officially launched this new open monograph publishing service on Friday, 29 January, at a tea attended by library staff, academics from the Library and Information Science Centre, and Professor Hugh Corder (special assistant to Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Francis Petersen). Ms Gwenda Thomas, Executive Director of UCT Libraries, said she was proud that UCT Libraries were now offering this innovative and integral service to the community. Professor Corder said that the Libraries are on the right track in adopting a publishing role, and that UCT academics should get to know about this new service and use it often.
To enquire about open access publishing at UCT Libraries (hosting of open access journals or publishing open monographs), please contact Scholarly Communications and Publishing at extension 1263 or email openuct@uct.ac.za