Greater international cooperation is required to remove financial and institutional barriers restricting researchers from developing countries from accessing and publishing scientific knowledge.
This assessment was made by Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) Chief Director for Overseas Bilateral Cooperation, Anneline Morgan, on the sidelines of the High-Level Conference on International Cooperation in Open Science underway in China.
The conference is a precursor to the 19th Pujian Innovation Forum at which South Africa is a Country of Honor.
The call comes amid an industry consensus that access to scientific research remains costly for academics seeking to publish their work and researchers trying to consult it.
During her address on Friday, Morgan also called on open science platforms to give greater recognition to African indigenous knowledge, traditional medicine and technologies while protecting the intellectual property associated with that knowledge.
“Open science is about ensuring that there is free access to scientific data. As you would know, it is quite expensive for any academic to publish in any journal. It is also quite expensive for any researcher to access that information because they have to pay for that data – they have to subscribe to various journals.”
Morgan added that international open-science cooperation should help close the knowledge divide between developed and developing countries.
She said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Recommendation on Open Science sought to “ensure that developing countries have free and equitable access to scientific data” and that there is no gap in knowledge generation between the Global North and Global South.
South Africa and the African Union’s partnerships with BRICS countries could play an important role in advancing free and equitable access to data, particularly scientific data, she said.
Indigenous knowledge
Morgan emphasised that open science was also important for increasing the visibility of indigenous knowledge research, which was not always given sufficient recognition by established scientific publications and researchers.
“There is an importance to advancing indigenous knowledge systems because a lot of scientific publications and other scientists across the world frown upon research in the area of indigenous knowledge, and that area is our strength.
“As South Africa, we have a rich biodiversity and, through that biodiversity, we do a lot of research and fund a lot of research in traditional medicine and traditional technologies, which the DSTI is supporting across the country.”
She said researchers working in the field sometimes encountered difficulties publishing their findings in scientific journals.
“If we get our researchers and scientists who are finding it difficult to publish in a number of journals because of the fact that this research is frowned upon, it is important to use such platforms to promote the importance of indigenous knowledge and traditional systems within the communities that we support.”
However, broader access to indigenous knowledge data has to be balanced against the need to protect communities and their intellectual property.
“This can only be possible when we ensure that this data is well known and accessible, while ensuring the intellectual property and protection of that data,” she said.
The Open Science Conference, an initiative of BRICS leaders, is positioned to advance open science in the Global South.
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Representatives of member states used the conference to deliberate on cooperation, scientific data, and measures to make publicly funded knowledge more widely accessible. -SAnews.gov.za
