Skip to main content
South African Researchers To Benefit from IOP Publishing OA agreement

South African Researchers To Benefit from IOP Publishing OA agreement

May 2023

NISO Member News

Bristol, UK | May 17, 2023

IOP Publishing, and the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) have finalised a three-year transformative agreement as they work towards breaking down open access (OA) publishing barriers for researchers in the global south. The agreement, which is IOP Publishing’s first in South Africa, enables researchers at participating member institutions to publish their research openly with no costs at the point of submission. The agreement also provides reading access to IOP Publishing’s entire journal portfolio and most of its partner journals.  

Julian Wilson, Chief Sales Officer at IOP Publishing said: “SANLiC share our commitment to opening up research and addressing inequalities in publishing. Our partnership will simplify OA publishing, ensure that cost is not a barrier and enhance the sharing of African scholarly output with the global scientific community. A sector-wide shift towards OA has truly begun in Europe, the US, Asia and Africa where agreements such as this are helping to drive the transition.”  

Transformative agreements stimulate uptake in OA publishing by making it the default choice when articles are submitted. Broader access to research is key to accelerating scientific discovery: IOP Publishing data shows that content published OA is downloaded 80% more than paywalled content and cited 30% more, demonstrating the substantial benefits to publishing OA. 

This agreement adds to IOP Publishing’s rapidly expanding portfolio of ‘read and publish’ agreements which now consists of more than 900 institutions in 33 countries.   

About These Organizations

About SANLiC 

The SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL LIBRARY AND iNFORMATION CONSORTIUM (RF) NPC is a not-for-profit company. It serves the interests of its member libraries which include the 26 public South African higher education libraries and six national research council libraries. Its mission is to facilitate, on a non-profit basis, affordable access to scholarly electronic information in support of the learning, teaching and research activities of its members. SANLiC is committed to promoting open access (OA) for the advancement of South African research and research production through increasing access to scholarly information, reducing the overall cost of library subscriptions, and seeking alternative forums for the distribution of South African scholarship. 

To learn more about SANLiC, visit the SANLiC website. 

About IOP Publishing   

IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher, delivering impact, recognition, and value to the scientific community. Its purpose is to expand the world of physics, offering a portfolio of journals, eBooks, conference proceedings and science news resources globally. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit society, IOP Publishing supports the Institute’s work to inspire people to develop their knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of physics. Go to http://ioppublishing.org or follow us @IOPPublishing.