Opening Access to Southern African Research: Recommendations for University Managers

Open access to research is no longer a fanciful notion promoted by a small group of advocates: it has become a mainstream concept embraced by governments, funders, institutions and researchers. It is an enabler of knowledge societies. UNESCO and the World Bank have endorsed the potential benefits of open access to the whole world. Open access has been shown to increase the impact of research on other sectors, notably the small business, education and health sectors. It improves effciencies in the research process wherever it is undertaken – in academia, in industry and commerce, in the cultural heritage sector and by independent researchers. Research moves more quickly and more effciently if there are no barriers to locating and accessing information. Open access also saves money and this, coupled with effciency gains, means that the future system of scholarly communication will be cheaper and better, with payoffs for producers of research and for those who can – given free access – use it