The Scholarly Publishing Programme (SPP) plays a pivotal role in strengthening South Africa’s National System of Innovation (NSI). Positioned as a strategic enabler, the SPP aims to build robust national capacity for research production and dissemination, while simultaneously elevating the quality, visibility, and global competitiveness of South African scholarly output. By aligning with national priorities for knowledge advancement and innovation, the SPP contributes to the broader agenda of inclusive, sustainable development. Strategic oversight of the programme is provided by the Academy’s Standing Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa (CSPiSA), under the leadership of Prof Keyan Tomaselli.
Following the publication of the 2006 Academy report, A Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa (read the summary), ASSAf established the Scholarly Publishing Programme (SPP) in 2009 to drive implementation of the report’s ten key recommendations. With multi-year funding secured from the then-Department of Science and Technology (DST), the SPP was mandated to transform the national scholarly publishing landscape. This strategic groundwork reshaped South Africa’s publishing ecosystem to what it is today – making it more inclusive, agile, and globally aligned.
The SPP’s core strategic priorities include:
ASSAf – through the SPP – is a signatory/supports the following:
Through the SPP, ASSAf is driving the implementation of the following strategic initiatives:
SPP Enquiries
Susan Veldsman
Director
Scholarly Publishing Programme, ASSAf
Email: susan@assaf.org.za
ASSAf, through its SPP, actively advances Open Science principles by promoting equitable access to South African research and fostering a transparent, inclusive scholarly communication ecosystem. From hosting open access platforms like SciELO SA and Khulisa Journals, to publishing the diamond open access South African Journal of Science, the SPP ensures that high-quality research is freely accessible and globally visible. Through initiatives such as the ASSAf Research Repository, the National Scholarly Editors’ Forum, and the African Scientists Directory, the Programme drives national capacity-building, ethical publishing practices, and cross-border scientific collaboration. ASSAf’s strong commitment to Open Science is further demonstrated by its support for international declarations and its leadership in developing national policies and guidelines that embed openness, equity, diversity, and innovation across the research lifecycle.
ASSAf further actively promotes Open Science across the African continent. This in collaboration with its Strategic Partnerships Programme. Through the African Open Science Platform Landscape Study (2016–2019), ASSAf mapped key opportunities and challenges and developed four strategic frameworks to support Open Science adoption. ASSAf also co-hosted the Democratising Knowledge through Open Science workshop on 27 August 2024, in collaboration with academies from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, highlighting the critical role of African science academies in advancing equitable access to knowledge. In addition, ASSAf led the drafting of the NASAC Open Science Statement, which has since been approved and launched (early 2025), reinforcing Africa’s commitment to inclusive, transparent science.
Access the ASSAf Portal for Open Science (work in progress).
The CSPiSA – governed by the CSPiSA Terms of Reference (2023) – adopts a strategic and comprehensive approach to scholarly publishing in all its forms. It addresses a broad spectrum of interrelated issues, including access to copyrighted materials, quality assurance of scholarly output, questionable publishing practices, peer review, open science, open access publishing models, and national and international publishing standards.
The National Scholarly Book Publishers’ Forum (NSBPF) was established in 2011 by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) to strengthen the scholarly book publishing system in South Africa. It was created following a key recommendation in ASSAf’s 2009 consensus report Scholarly Books: Their Production, Use and Evaluation in South Africa Today. The NSBPF serves as a strategic platform for academic publishers, university presses, and stakeholders to collaborate, set standards, and shape national policy for scholarly book publishing.
The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) plays a pivotal role in advancing the quality and integrity of South Africa’s research publishing ecosystem. At the heart of this effort is the National Scholarly Editors’ Forum (NSEF), a strategic platform managed by ASSAf that unites editors of accredited South African scholarly journals. The NSEF serves as a professional and advisory body that fosters editorial excellence, upholds ethical publishing standards, and facilitates collaborative responses to challenges within the scholarly communication system.
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).
The South African Journal of Science – established in 1903 – is an electronic-only, diamond open access, multidisciplinary journal published bimonthly by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). Its objective is to promote the visibility and impact of South African and African research by publishing high-quality original research from Africa or on African-relevant issues that will be of interest to readers in any discipline and be for the benefit of scholars, educators, the general public and policymakers.
The Scholarly Publishing Programme at the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) plays a pivotal role in strengthening the national research publishing ecosystem through rigorous, periodic peer review and quality audits of South African scholarly journals. Conducted in five-year cycles, these evaluations are organised by broad disciplinary groupings to enable system-level insights and actionable recommendations that enhance journal performance within both national and global contexts. This strategic, quality-assurance driven review process assesses critical dimensions of scholarly publishing, including editorial and peer review standards, alignment with journal scope and purpose, visibility and indexing within global scholarly databases, financial sustainability, and publication scale. Through this work, the Programme aims to support continuous improvement, international competitiveness, and the credibility of South African scholarly journals in an evolving research landscape.
The African Scientists Directory (ASD) seeks to provide relevant information on African experts in the natural and social sciences, humanities, engineering and mathematics. This directory aims to: (i) facilitate the free flow of scientists and scientific knowledge across the borders; and promote the participation of African scientists in activities of the global scientific community; (ii) ensure efficient information transfer from the global scientific community to the scientific community in Africa; and the collection and dissemination of any valuable scientific information for Africa; and (iii) promote and facilitate the formation of scientific societies and academies within the continent as well as sub-regional partnerships on the continent.
Khulisa Journals is a federated journal management platform powered by the open-source Open Journal Systems (OJS) software from the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). The word “Khulisa”, from the Nguni languages, means “to grow or nurture” – capturing the platform’s mission to foster the development of South Africa’s peer-reviewed, open access scholarly journals. Managed and hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), Khulisa Journals applies international best practices in scholarly publishing. It serves as a reliable home for SciELO SA, ASSAf peer-reviewed journals seeking sustainable, standards-aligned journal management. More than just infrastructure, Khulisa Journals is a growing community dedicated to advancing African research visibility and strengthening the national scholarly publishing ecosystem.
Quest – Science for South Africa is a full-colour, quarterly popular science magazine strategically designed to foster a scientifically literate society by engaging youth and the broader public in the excitement and relevance of science. Funded by the SA Dept of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), and published by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) as an open access (free) resource, Quest plays a vital role in science communication and engagement, showcasing the country’s foremost scientific work in an accessible and compelling format.
The ASSAf Research Repository (RR) is an institutional platform that provides open access to all research products by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), significantly enhancing their visibility, usage, and impact. Serving as a central digital archive, the repository ensures the long-term preservation of ASSAf’s knowledge outputs since 2015 and into the unforeseeable future. The repository includes both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications and event outputs produced by ASSAf and its members. As a critical resource management and record-keeping tool, the ASSAf RR supports the monitoring of research usage and impact in line with the objectives of the ASSAf strategy. The digital, full-text, open access content contributes to academic discourse and informs global conversations and decisions around science.
The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) initially developed a Code of Conduct for Research under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) to provide guidance tailored to researchers and institutions. Following extensive stakeholder engagement and feedback, this initiative evolved into a more flexible and user-friendly voluntary POPIA Compliance Framework for Research. The Framework offers practical tools and guidance to promote ethical data handling, transparency, and accountability in research, while supporting responsible data sharing and collaboration aligned with Open Science principles.
The ASSAf Scholarly Publishing Resources site serves as an open, evolving space to support South Africa’s research and higher education community in navigating scholarly publishing practices. By providing guidance that is platform-neutral and principle-driven, the site promotes responsible, ethical, and high-quality research dissemination without being prescriptive or restrictive. It offers researchers, journal editors, librarians, and institutional leaders a trusted reference point for recommended practices that align with South African priorities while connecting to global standards. In doing so, it contributes to strengthening the visibility, credibility, and impact of South African research locally and internationally.
ASSAf SPP is also involved in/coordinates the following:
SPP collaborates with national (eg DSTI science entities and other SA government departments), regional (eg SADC), continental (eg NASAC, TCC-Africa, AfricArXiv, AAU, AOSP, etc) and global (DOAJ, EIFL, IAP, ISC, etc) stakeholders on all aspects of Open Science, Open Access and scholarly publishing. For more information, contact:
Susan Veldsman
Director
Scholarly Publishing Programme, ASSAf
susan@assaf.org.za
The International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development 2022/23 celebrated the importance of the basic sciences for advances in medicine, industry, agriculture, water resources, energy planning, environment, communications and culture, and how basic sciences rupture technologies to respond to the needs of humankind by providing access to information and increasing societal well-being, and promoting peace through improved collaboration toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ASSAf coordinated IYBSSD SA 2022-23 on behalf of the DSI and NRF.
Open Science (incl. Open Data) is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods. An initiative to better understand what is happening on the African continent, and to promote the value and exploit the potential of specifically Open Data, was initiated and announced by the SA Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs Naledi Pandor, at the Science Forum South Africa (SFSA) 2016. The four focus areas that were explored during this project included the following: Open Science policy, Infrastructure in support of Open Science, Skills required and building capacity in support of Open Science, and Incentives for sharing science and data. The deliverables for this project included creating awareness about the importance of Open Science and Open Data, as well as frameworks applied to the various focus areas. The outcome of this project was a landscape study, which can be accessed here.