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UFS talks Open Access 2020

28 November 2019 | Story Legopheng Maphile | Photo Supplied

The Library and Information Services of the University of the Free State (UFS) and the Central University of Technology,Free State (CUT) jointly hosted an Open Science Colloquium on 19 November 2019. The colloquium was in response to the national and international developments in what is referred to as ‘the Open Access 2020 (OA2020) movement’. This movement calls on all parties involved in scholarly communication to take action to make their scholarly outputs open and freely available to all citizens of the world. It is a move against the current subscription-based model of publication, which has proved to be costly and unsustainable, and which limits access to knowledge to a few, making it unacceptable.

Welcoming more than 200 delegates to the UFS, Ms Betsy Eister, Director: Library and Information Services, referred to OA2020 as a disruption in the publishing arena.

Endorsing the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities

The colloquium comes as an endorsement of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities that the two universities signed eight years ago. As signatories, the UFS and CUT have committed to the wide and free dissemination of its scholarship by means of open access platforms. This declaration was confirmed by the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen.

“When the UFS signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities in 2011, this university committed itself to the wide and free dissemination of its scholarship by means of open access platforms. At that point, we have already made that commitment to open access platforms.”

Open access vs subscription

Prof Petersen said challenging the current status quo will bring equity into the system, which will “ensure that our younger cohort of researchers and scholars have the ability to freely conduct research, to freely access material, so that we can produce high-quality researchers and scholars for our system”.

Also present was Prof Ahmed Bawa, Chief Executive Officer of Universities South Africa, who echoed Prof Petersen’s message by making a case for management, researchers, libraries and research funders to work together to make OA2020 a reality. “These discussions are very important because it provides us with an opportunity to build international consensus on these things, which is critical in moving forward.”

Prof Ahmed Bawa, Chief Executive Officer of Universities South Africa addressed delegates on the importance of open access.

Mr Glenn Truran, Director of the South African Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC), and Ms Eister addressed the national and local roadmaps, respectively. SANLiC, a consortium that negotiates deals for electronic resource subscriptions on behalf of all 26 public universities and eight research councils, has already started transformative agreement negotiations with international publishing company Taylor and Francis.

The colloquium ended with a declaration signed by members present, hoping that it would be signed by all concerned as a commitment to taking action towards open access. The two universities will ultimately sign the OA2020 Expression of Interest.

• The UFS and CUT Libraries are thankful to Mr Gareth O’Neill and UFS colleagues (Mr Charlie Molepo and Mrs Cornelle Scheltema-Van Wyk), who shared information with the attendees on transformation agreements (also referred to as Plan S) and AmeliCA, respectively. Plan S deals with transformation agreements to be signed with publishers, which are about negotiations with publishers to change from subscription-based to open-access journal publishing models. Mr Molepo and Mrs Scheltema-Van Wyk showcased the open access model that the UFS Library has already implemented, which is what AmeliCA is all about. This involves the publication of nine accredited UFS journals on the Open Journals System platform, which enhance its discoverability and accessibility. It was also a pleasure to listen to Prof Abdon Atangana from the UFS Institute for Groundwater Studies – a classic example of an activist and beneficiary of open access publishing – who was recently named as one of the top-10 cited researchers in the Web of Science, thanks to open access publication.

Betsy Eister, Director: Library and Information Services at the UFS.

News Archive

UFS responds to media reports about UFS101

2012-08-18

The UFS101 is a cross-disciplinary module of the University of the Free State (UFS) that encourages critical thinking and offers access to knowledge beyond the specific qualifications for which students are registered. This is a multi-disciplinary academic curriculum that includes topics in astronomy, nanotechnology, history, law, anthropology and religion.

Throughout the seven units students are taught to think broadly rather than narrowly, and critically rather than through rote-learning.

The core curriculum module raises some difficult questions about science, humanity and the universe that have occupied human beings for centuries. There is considerable effort put into the module to enable balance, respect, and independent thinking. Students are not taught what to think but are offered different perspectives on difficult issues.

“In my unit on the question ‘how should we deal with the past?’ every effort is made for students to examine the perspectives on history held by people from different communities in South Africa,” said Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS.

Students are then encouraged to speak in class, online and in tutorial groups where they are given ample opportunities to take a position and defend it not through emotion and anger, but through logic and reason.

The objective of the module is to equip students to deal with “the present past” in constructive and empathetic ways. They are also prepared to become active citizens outside the classroom and gain skills they can use anywhere in the world.

Some students find the module difficult at first, since most of them are not used to the practice of critical thinking and dealing with difficult questions from the past, the present and the future. Most students gradually come to enjoy the core curriculum module as they become accustomed to a new style of teaching and learning.

There are 700 first-year modules at the UFS. This is the only one module offered to students in English so that all students, local and international, can engage with one another directly on the subject matter discussed in the module. However, the module material is also available in Afrikaans online.It is a pity that AfriForum Jeug Kovsies did not discuss their concerns with the presenters of the module, but chose to do it through the media.

It is a pity that AfriForum Jeug Kovsies did not discuss their concerns with the presenters of the module, but chose to do it through the media.

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