The Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa (CSPiSA), established in 2005 in response to the fragmented state of scholarly publishing in the post-1994 era, has played a central role in shaping a more coherent and policy-aligned publishing landscape. Governed by its 2023 Terms of Reference, CSPiSA has evolved from a forum focused on descriptive updates of emerging government policies to a consultative, research-driven, and policy-influencing body.
CSPiSA adopts a strategic and comprehensive approach to scholarly publishing in all its forms. It addresses a wide range of interrelated issues, including access to copyrighted materials, quality assurance of scholarly output, questionable publishing practices, ethics, Artificial Intelligence, peer review, open science, open access publishing models, and national and international publishing standards. With a forward-looking perspective, the Committee monitors and comments on the rapidly evolving scholarly publishing landscape, offering informed advice to government, universities, and research institutions – particularly in relation to the sustainability and equity of publishing cost models.
The Committee oversees several strategic initiatives, including the National Scholarly Editors’ Forum (NSEF), the National Scholarly Book Publishers Forum (NSBPF), the SciELO SA Advisory Committee, journal accreditation panels, and special projects such as planning NSEF webinars. These structures collectively support efforts to foster editorial excellence, strengthen quality assurance mechanisms, and align publishing practices with international standards while remaining grounded in the national context.
A unique contribution of CSPiSA is its leadership in the regular assessment of accredited journals. Through collaboration with the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), this work has generated an extensive dataset that enables comprehensive monitoring of scholarly output across South African journals and researchers. The South African Journal of Science and the open-access SciELO SA platform are frequently cited as exemplars of best practice and successful local–global integration.
CSPiSA’s emphasis on best practice guidelines and robust quality assurance is closely linked to the DHET’s funding incentive scheme and the broader need for regulatory mechanisms to ensure transparency, prevent misuse of funds, and uphold publication quality. While CSPiSA is not a policing body, it plays a critical role within this regulatory ecosystem by contributing to policy development and the continuous improvement of the scholarly publishing environment.
CSPiSA’s work is increasingly important in the context of broader global pressures, including geopolitical developments that affect academic institutions worldwide -such as changes in U.S. foreign aid. These dynamics underscore the urgent need to strengthen local scholarly infrastructure and governance systems.
CSPiSA Enquiries
Mmaphuthi Rametse
Senior Project Officer: Scholarly Publishing Programme, ASSAf
Email: mmaphuthi@assaf.org.za
CSPiSA Members (2025 – )
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3998-6159
Roshan Cader is the Publishing Director at HSRC Press (since 1 February 2025). Prior to her position at HSRC Press, she spent 13 years at Wits University Press. As Commissioning Editor since 2011, she played a key role in shaping the Press’s reputation, with notable titles like Dance of the Dung Beetles and Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa. She revitalised the Press’s playscript publishing and spearheaded impactful projects, such as the Democratic Marxism series. Beyond editing, Roshan mentored scholars and contributed to the broader publishing community through her work with ASSAf.
Phillip De Jager
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2431-7729
Prof Phillip de Jager works at the Department of Finance and Tax, University of Cape Town. Phillip does research in Accounting Scholarship, Financial Economics and Monetary Economics and is a National Research Foundation rated scientist (C2).
Gideon Els
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0763-7605
Prof Gideon Els has been a lecturer for more than 21 years (currently at the University of Johannesburg) and is au fait with issues of research of publication. He is the editor of two DHET (Dept. of Higher Education and Training) accredited academic journals and have published 12 academic articles. He reviewed 10 academic journals and is the editorial board member of one. Over the years he has successfully supervised 43 Master’s students and 7 Doctoral students. Having been tasked in 2005 to start an academic journal for use by South-African academics in the broader field of accounting and finance, proved to be an incalculable learning experience. With the expansion of the journal’s national and regional/African footprint in the past 4 years, he has come to believe that a quality South African listed journal can also cater for research published by African colleagues.
Karen Esler
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6510-727X
Prof Esler is a B-rated NRF researcher and a distinguished professor at Stellenbosch University with a long and successful academic history; she has published 250+ peer reviewed papers and book chapters, and several books. She has been the African Associate Editor for the prestigious journal “Conservation Biology” for the past seven years and regularly assists with reviews and assessments. Beyond her academic disciplines of ecology and conservation ecology, she has published (through her students) bibliometric and scientometric analyses of the state of play in her disciplines, including a focus on the “knowing-doing gap” in academia (i.e. disconnect between what is known through research and theory and what is implemented in practice). She has a deep understanding of the scientific publishing process and is concerned about the lack of African scholarly representation on the global stage.
Pradeep Kumar
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8640-4350
Prof Kumar is a full Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Wits University. He has over 15 years of scholarly publishing experience in the fields of pharmacy, biomaterial design, tissue engineering, and nanomedicine research. He has published over 335 publications in over 100 journals (Citations: 13,000; H-index: 55) and has written 50 book chapters. He has reviewed over 1,010 manuscripts from 110 journals and has edited over 300 manuscripts from 10 journals. He is passionate about publishing (including a research paper in Nature), scientific contributions, and the history of scientific terms, and is a big proponent of scholarly reviewing as a duty and responsibility.
Victor Mlambo
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0799-3899
Prof Mlambo (University of Mpumalanga) is a distinguished scholar and an active contributor to high-level scientific discourse in the field of animal science. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Animal Feed Science and Technology, a leading journal published by Elsevier B.V. with an impact factor of 2.5, a position he has held for over a decade. In addition, he has been an Associate Editor for the South African Journal of Animal Science (impact factor: 0.7) for the past 10 years, demonstrating his long-term commitment to maintaining and enhancing research quality in his field. As a C1-rated researcher with the National Research Foundation (South Africa) and a member of ASSAf, Prof Mlambo has made significant contributions to research development and postgraduate training. His extensive supervision record, comprising 33 Masters and 18 Doctoral graduates, attests to his dedication to cultivating the next generation of scientists. Beyond direct supervision, he actively contributes to capacity-building through annual workshops aimed at equipping junior researchers with essential skills in research methodology, postgraduate supervision, and academic writing. These initiatives support the establishment of a critical mass of well-trained researchers across disciplines and institutions, strengthening national and continental research ecosystems.
Given his extensive editorial experience, research leadership, and commitment to academic mentorship, Prof Mlambo is well positioned to support ASSAf’s mission of advancing high-level scholarship, fostering research excellence, and expanding training initiatives through inter-academy collaborations. His expertise aligns with the Academy’s strategic goals of enhancing South Africa’s global research competitiveness and contributing to the broader scientific community in Africa.
Denise Nicholson
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8591-3276
Denise Nicholson is a Scholarly Communications and Copyright Consultant at Scholarly Horizons Consultancy. She was the Scholarly Communications Librarian, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa from 1996 to 2020. Since 2002, Denise has served a number of terms on the International Federation of Libraries and Institutions (IFLA)’s Advisory Committee for Copyright and Other Legal Matters and is currently an Expert Advisor to this Committee. She was a member of its Workgroup on a Treaty for Libraries and Archives (2007-2015). She is also on IFLA’s e-Lending Workgroup and is a resource person for the Access to Information Network – Africa (ATINA). In 2006, she was the first librarian from a developing country to attend a WIPO General Assembly and gave a presentation on ‘Libraries and the Development Agenda’. She was the SA representative on the Electronic Information for Libraries Network (EIFL) (2005-2010) and contributed to the EIFL Model Copyright Law.
Omwoyo Onyancha
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9232-4939
Prof Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha is a Research Professor at the Department of Information Science, University of South Africa. Prof Onyancha was the Chair of the Department of Information Science, University of South Africa, from July 2011 to September 2015. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Science from Moi University Kenya (1992), Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Zululand (2002) and a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Zululand (2007). He holds the National Research Foundation (NRF) C2 rating, which he obtained in 2013. His areas of research include Informetrics/Scientometrics/Bibliometrics/ Webometrics/Altmetrics, Information Resource Management (IRM), Management of Information Services, Knowledge management and organisation, and ICTs in LIS education and training.
Ansurie Pillay
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9174-0543
Prof Ansurie Pillay lectures in English Education in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal and has supervised and graduated 27 Honours students, 18 Masters (full thesis) students and 7 PhD students. She serves on 2 Editorial Boards. In 2017, she was conferred with the UKZN Distinguished Teacher Award. In 2021-2023, she was awarded a US Embassy Grant, serving as the Principal Investigator for the Expanding Academic Literacy project run in collaboration with Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Linda Richter (Deputy Chair)
Prof Linda Richter’s interest in scholarly publication goes back a long way. In 1998, she co-investigated, with Dr A Pouris, government funding for science journals on contract to the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. This was the basis of a later published paper Pouris, T. & Richter, L. (2000). Investigation into state-funded research journals in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 96, 98-104. From the beginning of her career, she has published her work, some with colleagues – and currently list 344 journal publications on her CV, including an invited paper in Science. She has served and continue to serve on the Editorial Boards of several journals and regularly review articles for high-profile journals, including The Lancet.
Leslie Swartz
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1741-5897
Prof Leslie Swartz (Stellenbosch University) is a prolific academic with over 350 academic outputs to his credit. He has supervised over forty PhD`s, many of them black, women, and disabled South Africans. He has played a leading role in developing the field of disability studies in South Africa and his path-breaking work on disability assessment processes was fundamental in developments in the field. Central to Swartz`s approach is the development of research capacity in people previously excluded from the academy and to making principles of scientific engagement accessible to the broader community. He is sought after as an academic mentor and contributes regularly to training of more junior researchers at a range of South African universities. His work is regularly prescribed in academic courses in South Africa in psychology and other disciplines. Swartz is also an activist who takes scientific community engagement and linkages seriously. In 2018 and 2019 he has worked closely with the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre alongside the Deadly Medicine exhibition, which focussed on the abuse and murder of disabled people during the holocaust and the links between these practices, eugenics in South Africa and contemporary concerns. As part of his work on care, illness and disablement issues, Swartz has provided free consultation services and he is also supervising the first ever study of mental health issues amongst Deaf children conducted on the African continent. Swartz has a keen interest in access to services for people who are excluded in various ways. In this regard, he heads a research team which has worked with the Western Cape Government to train, support and trial the use of language interpreters in a number of health care settings in the Western Cape. Swartz`s work has had impact both on the African continent and further afield. In this regard, he has provided various academic writing and research training and assisted scholars in a number of African countries to publish their work in accredited, high impact international journals. His first book Culture and mental health (Oxford University Press) has been highly influential internationally and has been cited over 400 times. His h-index is 52, the highest by far of any scholar in disability studies in South Africa. Across an academic career which started in the 1980`s Leslie Swartz has made his mark locally, on the African continent, and globally. In his field, he is recognised as a leading scholar and alongside his own contributions, he has a long and sustained track record of meaningful capacity building, of contributing to diversifying the academy, and to producing work which improves the lives of vulnerable and excluded people.
Keyan Tomaselli (Chair)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2995-0726
Prof Keyan Tomaselli is a Full Professor and a Fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Tomaselli started his media career in the film and TV industry in 1974, and then taught in the Wits School of Dramatic Art. In 1981, he joined Rhodes University’s Journalism and Media Studies. He completed his PhD in 1984 and relocated to Durban in 1985 to establish what is now known as CCMS. He worked in the film industry and was co-writer of the White Paper on Film. His seminal books include The Cinema of Apartheid and Appropriating Images (1996). He was a Smithsonian Research Associate in its Department of Anthropology. His interests are political economy, African cinema and visual anthropology