South African National Library and information Consortium (SANLiC) Signs Open Access Agreement with Wiley
March 31, 2022 – Cape Town – The South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) announced today the signing of a four-year agreement with Wiley under a new open access publishing model. The landmark agreement combines reading and publishing services in a single agreement for participating SANLiC institutions.
The deal guarantees full reading access to Wiley’s more than 1 400 closed and hybrid journals. At the same time, authors in participating institutions will be able to publish accepted articles open access in Wiley’s hybrid journals from the start of the agreement in early 2022 without financial or administrative burdens. This open access publishing benefit is extended to all gold open access Wiley and Hindawi journals for 2023-2025.
Laila Vahed, Chairperson of the SANLiC Board says “This is a landmark agreement for SANLiC because Wiley is one of our most important reading and publishing venues”. She elaborated further that “with the exception of a handful of closed journals, under this agreement, our researchers will be able to continue to publish in the Wiley journal of their choice but now with full and immediate open access rights. Furthermore, they will retain the copyright with a CC-BY license and will not incur APC author facing charges. South Africa’s research will become more visible as Wiley’s hybrid journals transition toward full open access”.
This ground-breaking transitional agreement is a leap forward for the visibility of South African research without any compromise in quality or disruption for researchers. The overall cost in terms of this agreement is equivalent to a relatively normal inflationary increase on the prior read-only services, yet it includes the following:
- Reading access to all Wiley journals. Participating institutions that were on smaller packages have been upgraded.
- A single fee covering all the reading and publishing services included in the agreement.
- Researchers may publish accepted articles open access in Wiley’s hybrid journals from the start of the agreement in early 2022 up to a cap which is 20% more than the previous equivalent research output. A handful of fully closed journals are excluded from this entitlement.
- Should authors agree to publish open access, they will retain their copyright with a CC-BY license and there will be no author facing article processing charges (APCs).
- From January 2023, as part of a pilot scheme, researchers will also be able to publish in Wiley’s fully gold open access portfolio, including journals published by Hindawi.
To amplify inclusive scholarship across the country, and break down barriers, Wiley will work closely with SANLiC members to deliver additional support to researchers, including comprehensive research publishing training workshops, online access to the Wiley Researcher Academy and bespoke editorial resources.
The agreement ensures no disruption to the normal article submission workflow for authors; they need only confirm acceptance of the OA entitlement under this agreement at the point when their article is accepted for publication. South Africa’s research will become more visible as Wiley’s hybrid journals transition toward full open access.
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.
About Wiley
Wiley is a global leader in research and education, unlocking human potential by enabling discovery, powering education, and shaping workforces. For over 200 years, Wiley has fuelled the world’s knowledge ecosystem. Today, our high-impact content, platforms, and services help researchers, learners, institutions, and corporations achieve their goals in an ever-changing world. Visit us at Wiley.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Laila Vahed
Chairperson
SANLiC Board of Directors