Hi all
LOVING this conversation, thanks so much for the input! I forwarded it to the guy who started my trolling mission :) - Thomas King, and include his response here. (Note the "Stellenbosch
is a pioneer amongst HEI in SA when it comes to Open Access...") :)
I then thought duplicating this as a debate of sorts in 2016 will be a great, spirited way to educate people around the issues. (For a more current activity, consider coming to this on Friday, 10 October:
http://openuct.uct.ac.za/events/open-access-week-2014-event-uct-debating-union-public-forum-debate .)
Then Thomas suggested: "As for the debate ... If you’re willing to mix things up a bit and get REALLY innovative (such as, and I’m spitballing here, a debate where I/someone from UCT argues why STELLENBOSCH’s policy is better, and Wouter argues why UCT’s is better) then even better. Remember, the point for me anyway is quite literally the opposite of competition – it’s about collaboration. But we have lots of time to talk about it "
thoughts? :D
B
From: Thomas King <thomas.king@uct.ac.za>
Date: Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 4:06 PM
Subject: RE: (Off-topic-ish) Openness... UCT vs Stellenbosch ... and google.
To: Bernelle Verster <bernellev@gmail.com>
Dear Bernelle
Fascinating!
Stellenbosch is a pioneer amongst HEI in SA when it comes to Open Access (scholarly publications). They’ve been doing this for a long time, and are to be commended for it.
Two points I’d like to address quickly:
3. We are the only HEI in SA to have an Open Access Publication fund (to assist researchers pay the fees needed to publish in Open Access journals).
- UCT now also has an APC fund (article processing charges) fund. You can check it out here: http://www2.lib.uct.ac.za/oapfund/
4. To date we are the only HEI in SA to establish a Self-archiving policy which will mandate the researchers to deposit a copy of their publisher-approved manuscript in our institutional repository. That fact that copyright belongs to SU has simplified the process of adopting the policy, which in turn will give more access to research articles and therefore indirectly support the principles of Open Access.
- UCT has also recently adopted an OA policy which requires journal articles and theses & dissertations to be deposited, but also allows for and encourages teaching and learning materials, grey literature, and other academic outputs. It’s available here: http://www.openuct.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/UCTOpenAccessPolicy.pdf
I think talking about competition here is… well, partly inevitable when it comes to UCT and Stellenbosch’s rivalry, but also fundamentally not the point when it comes to the meaning of openness. For me (once again, this is my personal opinion, and not a UCT statement), openness is about the public-at-large and the benefits THEY will receive from making our publicly-funded work openly accessible. The means or mechanisms that make this come about are decidedly secondary to greater public engagement, education, and use of the quality research that both institutions are well-known for producing.
Tl;dr (too long; didn’t read): both institutions are engaging in openness, but have different approaches and are constantly shifting and re-evaluating as we receive feedback from academics, users, administrators, the works. BOTH are doing awesome work, and should be commended for that! J
Lastly, thanks so much for engaging with this! It’s always great to meet a fellow open academic, and I’d love to continue talking about this with you. Contact me any time!
Kind regards
- Thomas King
Thomas King
Research Administation of the ROER4D Project
Coordinator of the Vice Chancellor’s OER Adaptation Project
CILT - Centre For Innovation in Learning and Teaching
(A merger of HAESDU and CET in January 2014)
Centre for Higher Education Development
Room 7.55, PD Hahn Building
University of Cape Town
Tel: 021 650 5191
Email: thomas.king@uct.ac.za
From: Bernelle Verster [mailto:bernellev@gmail.com]
Sent: 30 September 2014 02:26 PM
To: Thomas King
Subject: Fwd: (Off-topic-ish) Openness... UCT vs Stellenbosch ... and google.
Hi Thomas
I greatly enjoyed your presentation to the EBE SeaTEACH students, and promptly went to stir up my colleagues at Stellenbosch (the whole thread is included) - we're organising a Debian conference in 2016, and they're BIG into openness.
I boasted about UCT's awesomeness, and then Wouter hit back with these points. Care to comment? I would eventually like to compile a little webpage or something showcasing the best of the open source movement, or something like that for
the conference, as we are also showcasing South Africa, Cape Town in particular, so while competition is good, I don't see it as a zero-sum game! :)
best regards
Bernelle
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Klapwijk, WOUTER <wklap@sun.ac.za> <Wklap@sun.ac.za>
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 2:44 PM
Subject: RE: (Off-topic-ish) Openness... UCT vs Stellenbosch ... and google.
To: "Gibson, Hilton <hgibson@sun.ac.za>" <hgibson@sun.ac.za>, Jan Groenewald <jan@aims.ac.za>, Bernelle Verster <bernellev@gmail.com>
Cc: DebConf Cape Town Bid <debconf-bid-capetown@lists.debian.org>
Hi Jan, et al.
Sorry for only replying on this topic now, but I think it is important to stress a couple of issues related to SU and Open Access that might have been overlooked up to now:
1. SU was the first SA university to sign the Berlin Declaration on Open Access - http://www.sun.ac.za/english/Documents/Rector/speeches/BerlynVerklaring.pdf
2. We hosted the Berlin10 conference on Open Access – to date the only HEI in SA to do so (http://www.berlin10.org/). Was hosted at STIAS – great venue.
3. We are the only HEI in SA to have an Open Access Publication fund (to assist researchers pay the fees needed to publish in Open Access journals).
4. To date we are the only HEI in SA to establish a Self-archiving policy which will mandate the researchers to deposit a copy of their publisher-approved manuscript in our institutional repository. That fact that copyright belongs to SU has simplified the process of adopting the policy, which in turn will give more access to research articles and therefore indirectly support the principles of Open Access.
5. To date we are the only HEI in SA to accept theses/dissertations in electronic format only – once again assisted with the copyright policy.
6. We are the only HEI in SA who’s library hosts Open Access journals – http://www.journals.ac.za (the journals.ac.za domain is registered to SU).
So even though the copyright policy might seem restrictive, it’s actual stipulation has assisted in adopting new service models in support for Open Access. One can debate this issue either way I guess, but nonetheless.
For what it’s worth the SU is now also implementing the Kuali Foundation’s (Open Community) open source campus software infrastructure platform. Hopefully some of this put the SU’s stand on OA in the right perspective. Even so the OpenUCT initiative is great, and a shining light for other HEI in SA.
Regards,
Wouter
____________________________________________________________________
Wouter Klapwijk
Deputy Director (IT and Digital Services) / Adjunkdirekteur (IT en Digitale Dienste)
Library and Information Service / Biblioteek- en Inligtingsdiens
Stellenbosch University / Universiteit Stellenbosch
Tel: +27 21 808-4378, Fax: +27 21 808-3723, Mobile: 083 3888 270
From:
Hilton Gibson [mailto:hgibson@sun.ac.za]
Sent: 16 September 2014 10:49 AM
To: Jan Groenewald; Bernelle Verster
Cc: DebConf Cape Town Bid; Klapwijk, WOUTER <wklap@sun.ac.za>
Subject: Re: (Off-topic-ish) Openness... UCT vs Stellenbosch ... and google.
Hi Jan
Yes. This is a sore topic for me.
I am not in the management "loop" about this.
Wouter Klapwijk is, but what I know is that our "self-archiving" policy as they call it, is up for review by our senate. Wouter has the details.
We are hoping for an "open access" policy, then to be followed by a digital preservation plan/policy.
See:
http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/Open_Access
And:
http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/Repository_Preservation
We are looking into more "open" things. See:
http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/OpenCampus
OER's, Open Data etcc. are on the radar. So we will be "open" like UCT, but the first hurdle is the "self-archiving" policy.
Wouter may agree or disagree, he has more info.
Cheers
hg
On 15/09/2014 18:33, Jan Groenewald wrote:
Hi Hilton,
This is the Debconf cape town bid mailing list. Hilton is a sysadm at the SU library (afaik).Can you enlighten us on open access initiatives at SU?
Regards,
Jan
On 15 September 2014 15:11, Bernelle Verster <bernellev@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all
I admit this may be a bit of a trolling exercise, perhaps, but after the entertainment around google this morning and then encountering this in a teaching course I'm doing on the same day, I couldn't resist. :)
Apparently, UCT and Stellenbosch - which STIAS is linked to - have widely divergent thoughts on open access and copyrights.
UCT is open, see their open knowledge initiative (http://open.uct.ac.za/), and, importantly and by the sounds of it fairly uniquely, assign copyright to the creators of the work:
http://www.rcips.uct.ac.za/rcips/ip/copyright/uct_copyright (relevant bits copied below)
http://www.uct.ac.za/continuinged/col/while Stellenbosch, on the other hand, pilfer these:
http://library.sun.ac.za/English/howdoi/Pages/Comply-with-copyright.aspx (relevant bits below)This is a bit tongue in cheek as I acknowledge these things are always more complicated and I don't know the details (this article may help? http://sajlis.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/29) but if we can kick up a fuss over google, I can kick up a fuss over academic freedom.
So with this I wish to say that Stias dropped a lot of points in my venue preferences. I do think that the UCT Breakwater campus may have different IP clauses than the main UCT clauses, being more business minded... so I'm not sure how long one can take the moral high ground on this and still get anywhere.
That is all. (If you feel this violates this mailing list, I'm sorry, won't do it again)
B
UCT:
Category 2 Examples - Assigned Automatically to and Owned by Authors
- Scholarly & literary publications (incl. theses, where students own the copyright)
- Paintings, sculptures, drawings, graphics and photographs produced as an art form
- Recordings of musical performances
- Musical compositions
- Teaching/Course materials produced by staff - unless commissioned by UCT. Condition: perpetual royalty-free licence to use, copy and adapt for teaching and research.
- Film
Where academics wish to include examination questions in a textbook that they wish to publish, permission for their use should be sought from RCIPS.
- See more at: http://www.rcips.uct.ac.za/rcips/ip/copyright/uct_copyright#sthash.vdYjrH8k.dpuf
Stellenbosch:
Who owns the copyright of my work at Stellenbosch University?
Paragraph 2.2.2 in the Policy now reads as follows:
Students assign to SU their copyrights in all works that may be created in the course of the execution of their study obligations (including all research conducted as part of such studies). These include, inter alia, all presentations, assignments, test and examination scripts, papers, dissertations, theses, sound recordings, video recordings, software, databases, designs and models developed by students in the course of their studies. In this regard, the requirements of the SU yearbook regarding the insertion of copyright notices and authorship declarations into academic materials, such as dissertations and theses, must be complied with. SU may decide in certain cases to assign ownership of the whole or part of the copyright to the student, or may authorise him or her otherwise to utilise the work commercially or otherwise.
--
.~.
/V\ Jan Groenewald
/( )\ www.aims.ac.za
^^-^^
--
Hilton Gibson
Ubuntu Linux Systems Administrator
JS Gericke Library
Room 1025C
Stellenbosch University
Private Bag X5036
Stellenbosch
7599
South Africa
Tel: +27 21 808 4100 | Cell: +27 84 646 4758
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