The Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) South Africa (SA) is a national fulltext open access platform (global south index) that forms part of the global SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) Network, originally established in Brazil in 1997. Hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and funded by the SA Dept of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) since 2009 (certified in April 2013 as a regular operational and independent national collection indexed in the SciELO Network global portal), SciELO SA aims to increase the visibility, accessibility, and quality of selected and review panel approved South African open access scholarly journals and the research they publish. The first journal title made available on SciELO SA was the South African Journal of Science. The inclusion of SciELO SA journal titles in the SciELO Citation Index (SCI), accessible via the Web of Science search portal, significantly enhances their global visibility and discoverability within the international research community. Operating within South Africa’s broader strategy to strengthen its National System of Innovation, the platform supports both the Gold Open Access and Diamond Open Access models. Through supporting the Diamond Open Access model, it ensures that neither authors nor readers bear any cost, thereby enabling equitable participation across the research community. Journals included in the SciELO SA collection are rigorously evaluated through peer and expert panel review processes managed by ASSAf, ensuring adherence to high editorial and publishing standards. A journal is included following a recommendation by the review panels, and only if they adhere to the SciELO SA criteria. The collection currently (April 2025) indexes 113 journal titles, of which 21 titles (19%) are Diamond Open Access.
Beyond visibility, SciELO SA plays a transformative developmental role by offering ongoing technical support and capacity building to journal editors, particularly in adopting international best practices such as XML-JATS formatting and metadata management. As a decentralised, non-commercial initiative, SciELO SA contributes meaningfully to the decolonisation of scholarly publishing by fostering bibliodiversity, promoting multilingualism, and supporting the publication of research grounded in indigenous knowledge systems and local relevance. By integrating with global infrastructures such as ORCID, CrossRef, Portico, and DOAJ, the platform enables South African journals to maintain their scholarly identity while achieving greater global discoverability – thus advancing both epistemic justice and research excellence. SciELO SA journals are eligible to apply for hosting on Khulisa Journals, a 2-in-1 online journal management and website system, utilising PKP OJS open source software.
The SciELO SA platform is bi-anually assessed by the SciELO Network. The platform is governed by the SciELO SA Advisory Committee. The SciELO SA collection is a DHET (SA Dept of Higher Education and Training) automatically accredited index alongside Web of Science, Scopus, IBSS and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). South African open access journals that adhere to all the SciELO SA criteria are invited to be in contact with the Operations Manager (details below) to enquire about their eligibility for inclusion.
In 2024, SciELO SA marked its 15th anniversary.
Follow SciELO SA on social media
SciELO SA Enquiries
Louise van Heerden
SciELO SA Operations Manager: Scholarly Publishing Programme, ASSAf
Email: louise@assaf.org.za