A presentation by Daisy Robert of the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) at the 2015 biennial Taylor & Francis Editors Indaba on 20 March in Midrand
4. Africa Global Research Council activities
• 24 November 2011 (South Africa)
• Theme: Principles for global merit (peer) review – Eastern,
Central & Southern African Countries workshop
• Objective: “develop a foundation for international scientific
collaboration, elucidating acceptable merit review principles
with a subsequent goal of establishing mechanisms that put
them in place “ – inspired virtual GRC formation
• Countries: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique,
Uganda, Zambia, US (National Science Foundation)
• Co‐hosted:
– US NSF
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6. Africa Global Research Council activities
• 29 November 2012 (Addis Ababa)
• 1st Africa GRC Regional meeting
• Theme: “Integrating National Science Institutions with
Regional and Global initiatives: Open Access and Research
Integrity”.
• Objective: to obtain inputs to best practices and standards
on research integrity and open access for publications in the
African region;
– Outputs to serve as preparation for the annual GRC global meeting of
May 2013 (Berlin)
• Co‐hosted:
– TWAS, AU, USA NSF & German Research Foundation
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8. Africa Global Research Council activities
• 25 – 26 November 2013 (South Africa)
• 2nd Africa GRC Regional meeting
• Objectives:
– Consider Review template for implementation of GRC Open Access
Action Plan (supplemented by the background document Action plan
towards open access to publications endorsed at Berlin Summit).
– Consider Statement of principles for funding the future.
– Participants:
• AU, Kenya (NCST), CODESRIA, China (CAS), Japan (JSPS), Lesotho,
USA (NSF), South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) and
SA (NRF)
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10. Africa Global Research Council activities
• 23 – 25 November 2014 (South Africa)
• 3rd Africa Regional Consultation of the Global Research
Council
• Theme:
– “Research Funding for Scientific Breakthrough” and
– “Building Research and Education Capacity”
• Co‐hosted:
– South Africa (NRF) and Namibia (Namibian Council on Research, Science
and Technology ‐ NCRST).
• Participants:
– 26 Heads of Africa Research Councils / representatives
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17. What Funding Agencies can do!
• Develop open access
statement/policies
• Address copyright
• explains reasons to have research
results made openly available.
• Important guidance for all
grantees.
• Funding guidelines modified in a
manner that prevents researchers
to transfer copyright exclusively
to a publisher.
• Provide legal basis for deposit of
research articles in an OA
repository.
• Within a grant proposal, allow
grantees to apply for an
earmarked budget to cover
publication fees etc.
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20. What Funding Agencies can do!
• Define re‐use rights
• Support open access journals
run by academia
• agree on specific criteria that
need to be fulfilled for the
reimbursement of article fees!
– re‐use of OA articles as
defined by CC‐BY licenses.
• ONLY then researchers' will be
able to exploit full potential of
digital publications, including
text and data mining.
• Consider options to support
OA journals sustained by
institutional/organisational
funding
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