International Open Access week is celebrated every year globally during the last week of October. The theme this year is “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge”.

In celebration of Open Access week the Academy Science of South Africa in partnership with the Library and Information Service will be hosting a dialogue on Open Access publishing lead by Prof Jonathan Jansen. More information on the event is available here.

During Open Access week the Library also uses the opportunity to draw attention to our own Open Access initiatives, which are the following:

  • SUNScholar institutional repository
    • Launched in 2008
    • Provides access to over 55 800 research outputs of SU (including theses, dissertations and articles)
    • Approximately 600 000 visits and 250 000 downloads per annum
  • SUNJournals open access journal hosting platform
    • Launched in 2011
    • Currently hosts 25 journals affiliated with SU
    • Over the last three years these journals collectively hosted more than 300 research outputs contributed by Stellenbosch University researchers
  • SUNDigital Collections digital heritage repository
    • Launched in 2013
    • Showcases library Special Collections
    • 12 917 items in 30 collections
    • Approximately 14 000 visits and 10 000 downloads per annum
  • SUNScholarData research data repository
    • Launched in 2019
    • A repository for SU researchers to share and disseminate their research data in accordance with good research data management practices
    • Facilitates the findability, accessibility and reusability of the university’s research data

Article by : Mimi Seyffert-Wirth