A publishing modality to advance social justice: an African experience

Abstract

There are many Africans who hold the view that the philanthropic underpinnings of the openness movement have been hijacked by commercial publishers, violating the altruistic principles of open access to advance a business model that guarantees exorbitant profits. To address these challenges, the University of Cape Town (UCT) developed a diamond open access publishing alternative via the continental publishing platform whose core goals are to advance inclusivity, equity and diversity. The platform uses the tenant infrastructure model as it offers participating institutions the prospect of enhancing their prestige through showcasing their academically sound scholarship. This paper spotlights the success of one of its publications to showcase the impact of library publishing from two perspectives, firstly, the advancement of OA movement and secondly, the contribution of the publication to student success. Both perspectives demonstrate how libraries can reclaim the philanthropic underpinnings of OA and accelerate inclusivity, equity and diversity. The platform demonstrates its potential to disrupt the current alienating publishing ecosystem and resurect the founding philanthropic principles of OA.