Promoting Discoverability of African Scholarship

The OpenUCT Initiative, in collaboration with the Carnegie Corporation, will host a two-day workshop in Nairobi on 10-11 March 2014 to address practical strategies for increasing the discoverability of African scholarship. Proceedings have been designed to surface and address the needs of a wide range of Africa-based research agencies, with a specific focus on network building and linking to international initiatives

Exploring ‘Impact': New approaches for alternative scholarly metrics in Africa

The relationship between insitutional values, scholarly impact and alternative metrics is explored in the following presentation, presented as part of UCT's Open Access Week 2012

Altmetrics and Emerging Measures of Impact

The internet has transformed the way we seek and use information, enabling scholars to communicate research findings more rapidly, broadly and effectively than ever before. This evolution has placed scholarly communication at the centre of the research endeavor, raising challenging questions around how to optimally assess the impact of scholarship. This is particularly relevant as expressions of scholarship become more diverse. Traditionally published research articles are today increasingly accompanied by: The sharing of ‘raw science' like datasets, code, methodology and tools. Semantic publishing (or ‘nanopublication') where the citable unit is an argument or passage rather than an entire article. Widespread self-publishing via blogging, comments and annotation. This seminar will provide an introduction to the Altmetrics movement, which aims to expand our current view of what ‘impact' means and better understand what kinds of scholarship are making an impact. Exploring implications for both traditional and non-traditional outputs, it will introduce participants to new tools and approaches for impact analysis, and examine implications for traditional peer review and citation

Alternative metrics in Africa: An Interview with Cameron Neylon

The Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) recently hosted Cameron Neylon on his first visit to South Africa for a week of activity and discussion around alternative metrics and research evaluation. Based at the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, Neylon is a leading thinker in open science, open access and open data. He is one of the original authors of the Altmetrics manifesto, co-author of the Panton Principles for open data in science, and founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Open Research Computation. He visited UCT in his capacity as a member of the SCAP Advisory Panel and to participate in discussions around defining and measuring the impact of academic research – a core strand central to all SCAP activity. SCAP Research Lead Catherine Kell interviewed him briefly

Case study: Feminist Africa

This case study describes the use of ICTs in the publication of a journal, Feminist Africa, in the context of an academic department at the University of Cape Town. The journal is of particular interest, because, being situated in the African Gender Institute (AGI), it provides insights into challenges and opportunities that are faced when a university unit takes on the role of journal publisher. This case study is enriched by the fact that the journal aims to pull together the research dimensions of the AGI’s interests in the development of curriculum and teaching materials for African feminist studies in the context of its outreach work through the GWS African feminist network. The case study reveals the difficulties faced by volunteer editors in a university departmental context. While the journal received donor support, the main difficulty transpires as the lack of support from the university for publishing activities. This leads to a level of ‘invisibility’ except when it comes to bureaucratic control and to levels of overwork in dedicated staff trying to juggle multiple roles

Case study: South African Review of Sociology

This case study describes the use of ICTs in the publication of a scholarly society journal, the South African Review of Sociology, in a context in which the Scientific Editor is a senior member of an academic department at the University of Cape Town. It provides insights into the challenges and opportunities that are faced in society publishing in a South African context.and explores the problems faced when editorship of a journal is held by a senior academic who receives little or no institutional support in the publishing endeavour. The case study reveals the difficulties faced by small society publishers struggling to ensure the survival of established journals that represent significant knowledge capital, but which are undermined by an environment characterised by a lack of national and institutional support for scholarly publishing; rapid technological development; shrinking library budgets and increasing international competition

Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Collaborative, sustainable models for transformation and student involvement

This is a panel presentation by the Digital Open Textbook for Development (DOT4D) initiative members Dr Glenda Cox and Michelle Willmers at the Siyaphumelela Conference in June 2022

The Open Access Continuum: Open Research and Altmetrics

Presentation presented at Stellenbosch University in celebration of South African Library Week 17- 24 March 2012, Open Access Seminar.Presentation presented at Stellenbosch University in celebration of South African Library Week 17- 24 March 2012

Sustainable, collaborative models of open textbook production for social justice and student co-creation: Open textbooks at the University of Cape Town

This is a workshop presentation by Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative members Michelle Willmers and Bianca Masuku at the SASUF Goes Digital Workshop in September 2022. This interactive session provided an overview of open textbook development approaches, focusing on sustainability and collaboration. The workshop session also drew attention to the capacity building and support required at an institutional level to support this work as part of institutional transformation efforts to address social injustice in higher education. This workshop was organized by the SASUF-funded Open Education for Social Justice initiative and was presented in partnership with collaborators from University West and University of Gothenburg