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Beyond the repository? The CERN Innovation in Scholarly Publishing Workshop...
I was in a very expensive and sultry Geneva in late June to attend the CERN workshop on innovations in scholarly publishing, among a record attendance of over 260 delegates. Perhaps this level of...
View ArticleAccess to knowledge – the times they are a’changing
I am back in South Africa, after more intercontinental flights than I would like to recall, with an overwhelming sense that there is a decisive shift happening on a number of fronts in the area I work...
View ArticleLies, damned lies… and metrics
Two contradictory things are happening side by side in discussion of scholarly publishing right now. On the one hand, the discourse of open access – seeking to remedy the failures of the current system...
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OER in the mainstream – South Africa takes a leap into OER policy
2012 looks as if it might be the year that OER and open access reach the mainstream, globally and in South Africa. In the last few months in South Africa, the national department responsible for...
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UNESCO takes Open Access into the mainstream – but what about South Africa?
Paris sunset In 2011 the last event I attended was the UNESCO Open Access Forum held in Paris in November. I came away with the strong sense that open access was at last in the mainstream, a central...
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Open Everything at UCT Open Education Week
The first global Open Education Week took place from 5-10 March. One of the questions that I found myself asking when I was asked to participate in some of the UCT events was ‘What is open education?’...
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The policy gap – research communication in limbo in South Africa’s new Green...
South Africa has a shiny new Green Paper on Post-School Education. However policy weary we might be, this is, refreshingly, a good document, with the right ambitions for the overdue overhaul of the...
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Academic spring – open access policies take the world by storm
Photo: Eve Gray CC-BY I would normally count the Easter weekend as a quiet time with little happening online. I was proved very wrong, to my delight. At the same time I was proved right on another...
View ArticleFrom the IPA 2012 Congress to the Finch Report – publishers and open access
The Finch Commission report was released in the UK on 18 June. Entitled ‘Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications’, this report, by an independent...
View ArticleOpen access in Africa – green and gold, the impact factor, ‘mainstream’ and...
I have been following the debate raging in the UK and beyond about whether the Finch Commission and the Research Councils UK - and then the EC with a slightly different emphasis – were right in opting...
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Fast-tracking OER policy and practice in South Africa – Unisa on the move
The question of open access to research, teaching and learning resources in South Africa has for a long time been a somewhat paradoxical space in national and institutional policy. There has appeared...
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Giving Back in Cape Town
Volunteering. The act of giving back to those less fortunate than you is one of the most satisfying activities one can do. Being a good Samaritan is free as well! Volunteering is a popular holiday and...
View ArticleOpen Access and African Research
The choice of this focus on Open Access was triggered by an announcement that Elsevier was sponsoring the development of an open access African megajournal, in collaboration with the African Academy of...
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Reducing Africa’s Carbon Footprint
Open Access research into Africa’s increasing contribution to the world’s carbon footprint has revealed some interesting statistics that we at Gray Area feel should be addressed. Your carbon footprint...
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