/ 9 December 2016

Open access, Open data, Open science

Science for all: The barriers to entry present in the traditional academic publishing community privilege the developed world
Science for all: The barriers to entry present in the traditional academic publishing community privilege the developed world

In mid-December, a group of experts will meet with the department of science and technology (DST) in a high-level stakeholders’ meeting in Pretoria as the department prepares a new White Paper on Science and Technology to take the country forward as a leading African knowledge provider aligned with 21st century technology and 21st century thinking. The topic of this discussion will be open science, which encompasses open access to scholarly publications, open data, and open and collaborative research, all essentially related to the democratisation of knowledge.

At a time when South Africa has been rocked by two years of student protests, leading to the disruption of learning and the closure of some universities, one could question the relevance of these issues – why open science at a time of closed universities? Will open science address the issues that the students have raised about the need for the decolonisation, and the prohibitive costs of higher education?

An answer to these questions can be found in an apparently trivial discussion between students and academics. When the students asked the lecturers how they progressed from doing a doctorate to becoming a professor, the answer was “we publish journal articles … a lot of journal articles … in international journals”. What this reflects is a 20th century competitive environment, built primarily around a journal system in which scholars need to limit the local content in their articles to get published in international journals. In this world, individual performance is more important than collaboration, journals are more important than other publications, and scientific findings are kept copyrighted and kept secret.

This has over the years had a negative impact on the African-focused research priorities that the protesting students are seeking. The editor of the leading medical journal, the Lancet complained in 2009: “The incentive for me is to cut off completely parts of the world that have the biggest health challenges … citations create a racist culture in journals’ decision-making and embody a system that is only about us (in the developed world).”

It is not surprising in this context that Africa has lagged far behind the rest of the world in journal publication and the extent to which its researchers were acknowledged and cited. The relevance to student protests about decolonisation is obvious, and the potential for this system to create distorted racial and gender staff profiles in our universities is also clear.

As the DST seeks policy directions for a 21st Century system, it is clear that it will be doing so against the background of a much changed research policy environment. This 21st Century world is one in which openness in research communication, collaboration between countries in analysing open online data to solve, for example, major health crises and environmental issues, and the use of online networks to allow citizen science to help build scientific knowledge, are but a few of the ways in which open science is being advanced.

The first policy moves in this regard had to do with open access to research publication. Challenging the very high cost of subscription journals, the open access movement has sought to democratise knowledge through the provision of online repositories and open access journal publication.

In South African national policy, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) has become a key player in delivering open access in South Africa. It has had national support for its Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) South Africa open access journal programme, which provides an open platform for hosting scholarly journals, publication support through the provision of the Open Journal Systems online computer publishing programme and a systematic peer-review process for existing scholarly journals to build up a strong South African scholarly journal system with both local and international reach. The South African Journal of Science, for example, can now be accessed online, with Facebook postings attracting thousands of professional and lay readers to access its articles. In its links to the SciELO programme in Brazil, the ASSAf publishing programme connects with a very important Latin American network.

In the latest global developments in research communication, a more radical agenda is emerging through the promotion of open and collaborative science. This promises to go even further in ensuring more active participation by South African researchers in global networks. The European Commission has just launched the latest phase of its ambitious Horizon 2020 programme, in which the latest round of priorities for the next phase include an open science vision of integrated research publication, and open and collaborative science and innovation.

South Africa already has a lot to contribute to this international debate on open science. As the Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor reported at the 4th Ministerial meeting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South African ministers: “We are also pursuing the development of an ambitious pan-African infrastructure, the African Data Intensive Research Cloud, as we seek to strategically position our continent to embrace the opportunities of the data economy and the dynamics of the scientific enterprise in the era of open science. Moreover, our MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to the global Square Kilometre Array or SKA project, is making startling progress. MeerKAT is already delivering impressive results, specifically the discovery of more than 1 300 new galaxies.

“Another initiative that got international headlines recently was the discovery of a new hominid species, Homo Naledi, by Professor Lee Berger and his team. The research process was made open and published widely in learned publications and in popular media, and underlying data was shared.”

The minister summed up the advantages that could arise for South Africa in adopting open science when she addressed the International Conference on Research Infrastructures in Cape Town in October: “Responsible research and innovation is a process for better aligning research and innovation with the values, needs and expectations of society. It implies close co-operation between all stakeholders in various strands comprising: science education, definition of research agendas, access to research results and the application of new knowledge in full compliance with gender and ethics considerations.”

It is clear from these comments that an open science policy agenda could go a long way to addressing the student demands for a more democratic and more locally relevant university environment and at the same time, in putting South African research firmly on the map.

Eve Gray is a senior research associate, IP Unit, faculty of law at the University of Cape Town. She is a key role player in and former member of the Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa, Academy of Science of South Africa and a leading advocate of open licensing for scholarship and for research for development 

South Africa’s dropout rate is cause for concern

The massification of higher education has been fueled by the global demand for high-level skills needed in an increasingly knowledge-based economy and the drive to make higher education less exclusive. In South Africa, participation rates in higher education have increased from 15% in 2000 to 18% in 2010. This is below the set target of 20% and is considered slowly progressing. Although it is significantly higher than the average gross enrolment rate (GER) for sub-Saharan Africa, which is 6%, it is well below the average for Latin America (34%) and Central Asia (31%) (UNESCO 2010). This inadequate participation rate fails to meet the demand for high-level skills and is exacerbated by poor completion rates associated with student dropout at all study levels.

Local and international studies on retention of students in higher education, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels clearly demonstrate the complex interplay of factors leading to student retention. The most glaring of these factors is the impact of the socio-economic status of individuals. As in many developing countries; in SA, the realities of inequality are stark and form a barrier to higher education success, particularly affecting the majority of the population.

Some form of success has been attained since the introduction of policy interventions, but these have been inadequate, as judged by the persistent educational inequalities and dysfunction in many areas. One form of intervention that has been suggested in the past, is identification and thorough understanding of the factors, conditions and practices that impact on student performance. A number of factors identified were grouped into those liked to socio-economic factors; and to academic performance.

Socioeconomic factors: The recent postgraduate retention study completed by the department of science and technology (DST) clearly indicates that finance remains a key barrier to retention in higher education, particularly for the majority of black students. In terms of undergraduate education, previous studies report that students with lack of finance are also disadvantaged academically as they mostly come from under-resourced schools. However, there are also reports of attrition arising from academic exclusion in institutions that have a high proportion of self-funded students at higher-fee charging institutions. Such attrition amongst students capable of providing for higher education costs points to systemic academic obstacles to academic progression and learning. The issue of student dropout therefore cannot be attributed to financial issues alone. Some obstacles linked to academic and learning abilities come to play.

Often linked to socio-economic impact, is under-preparedness of students as a cause for dropout. This should not be equated to lack of ability. This factor needs to be thoroughly investigated and well understood, before any form of broader policy interventions are put in place. With the recent assertions that higher education teachers are not aligned with the 20th century student, by students themselves (in forums such as Going Global Conference (2015), the International Conference on Research Infrastructures, IRCI, 2016), the question of “what are students underprepared for?” becomes very real. It may as well be that, adding to the systemic failures of the education system, higher education is not ready to receive the type of student in the 20th century.

Lastly, one of the major causes of dropout is what has come to be known as the articulation gap. Understanding the nature of the articulation gap is extremely important. This is a not a phenomenon unique to the South African society, and has been experienced in a number of countries. It can be attributed to massification of higher education. In South Africa, it has been exercabated by an increase in the diversity of the student body in terms of educational and social backgrounds.

How do we as a nation in transition, deal with these complexities? A dropout of 60% for higher education entrants is a cause for concern.

Join the conversation at this year’s Science Forum South Africa in a discussion forum in which case studies will be presented.

Professor Thandi Mgwebi is executive head of research at the University of the Western Cape and director of the ‎South African Systems Analysis Centre