Open access directory added to accredited journal list

The South African government has included a directory of open access journals in its officially recommended list of subsidy-bearing publications, opening up much greater access and sharing of information in higher education.

This is the first time an open access listing has been recommended to South African university academics, encouraging researchers to publish in open access titles and to make use of the free quality content available in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

DOAJ is a UK-based non-profit organisation. On its website, DOAJ describes itself as a “community-curated online directory that indexes and provides high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals”.

DOAJ announced in a statement that Gwebinkundla ‘Gwebs’ Qonde, the director-general of South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training, informed the directory that it had been included on the list of approved indexes.

“Every December, all department of higher education and training-accredited journal indexes or lists are contacted and requested to provide the department with an updated list, which are then provided to the universities,” stated the letter.

The South African research outputs policy recognises scholarly books and book chapters, published conference proceedings and articles in accredited journals for subsidy purposes.

DOAJ joins six other accredited journal listings, including Web of Science, Scopus and SciELO South Africa, which are recognised in this manner.

The inclusion of DOAJ was effective from January 2021.

Lars Bjørnshauge, managing director of DOAJ, said his organisation was delighted to receive recognition from the South African government and looked forward to a close and productive relationship.

“Open access is the future of scholarly publishing. The South African government’s recognition of the need for free and quality research to be widely available is an important milestone in our collective efforts to improve access to scholarly knowledge for all,” he said.

According to Universities South Africa, even though open access is now a shared vision of the world’s academic communities, research councils, and funding bodies, nearly 85% of the world’s scholarly outputs are still locked behind the paywalls, inhibiting the full impact of research and putting enormous strain on institutional budgets.

The cost of procuring reading access to journals and other information databases is prohibitive for most South African universities and, hence, for a significant number of students.