You are invited to the Master’s Defence of Ms Ina Maria du Toit (Department of Information Science).

 

Title: Towards a sustainable open access scholarly publishing model in the South African context

 

Supervisor:  Dr Beth le Roux

 

Date: Wednesday, 29 July 2015 

 

Time: 13:00

 

Venue: IT Building 4-64 (Tswelopele)

 

 

This study investigated the possibilities of a sustainable open access scholarly publishing model in South Africa.

 

The researcher defined the traditional scholarly publishing model as a foundation for scholarly publishing workflows and processes and the continuation of the publishing workflow as a sustainable business model. Using a literature study, business models used in open access scholarly publishing in the international context were identified and a set of factors contributing to sustainability in this environment was identified.

 

These factors were then used to evaluate and investigate typical examples of open access role players in the South African context. The study found that South African scholarly publishers find the shift from a traditional subscription model to an open access model difficult, because they are not addressing their new client segment and also not acknowledging their own expertise within the publishing cycle.The research also indicates that seeing subscription and open access models as being contradictory or oppositional hinders a sustainable open access publishing model, as the publishing community should instead encourage an approach a publishing environment that allows for both of these models to exist and function.