Scientific information, which is still accessed through high subscription fees in many parts of the world, is being democratized by some universities in Africa in line with the principles of “open access.” Pioneering institutions in countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal are developing a new understanding of academic publishing against traditional publishing monopolies. This development concerns not only the African continent, but all countries where access to information is limited.

The system created by large publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley often makes access to research outputs difficult even for university budgets. Researchers pay a fee to publish their articles and then have to pay again to access these contents.

Some universities and research organizations in Africa that have stepped outside this structure have adopted open access policies, setting an example for both their students and the global academy.

Pioneering Institutions and Initiatives

• University of Cape Town (South Africa): In 2023, it developed a policy encouraging academic staff to publish their publications in open access journals. The university has made hundreds of master’s and doctoral theses publicly available through its open access repository called OpenUCT (https://open.uct.ac.za/).
• University of Nairobi (Kenya): It has made thousands of academic publications open access through the UoN Digital Repository (https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/), which has been active since 2021. The institution has also managed to reduce spending on publishers such as Elsevier and Springer by 40%.
• SPARC Africa (https://sparcopen.org/): This network, which supports open access movements in Africa, supports the development of open science policies together with SPARC Global. Many universities from countries such as Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda are part of the network.
• UNESCO Open Science Recommendation (2021): Many countries in Africa have become party to this global document and have begun to develop open science policies at the national level. In this context, it is aimed to make scientific data and publications as accessible as possible (https://www.unesco.org/en/open-science).

Many academics in developing countries cannot even access the literature that will form the basis of their research. While this situation increases scientific inequality, the experience of universities working with open access models provides an important source of inspiration.

Although some steps have been taken in Turkey in recent years through the National Thesis Center and institutional open access archives within the Council of Higher Education, there are still serious restrictions on access to international publications. Examples from Africa show that more courageous and systematic steps can be taken in this area.

One of the most striking initiatives developed against profit-oriented publishing giants is “Plan S” (https://www.coalition-s.org/). This plan, supported by funders in Europe, aims to make it mandatory for all research supported by public funds to be published open access. Some countries in Africa have declared their support for this initiative.

In addition, open access platforms such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ, https://doaj.org/) and AfricArXiv (https://info.africarxiv.org/) play a major role in bringing academic production from Africa to the international arena.

The idea that access to scientific knowledge should be a global right is taking shape in Africa with a rising academic movement. This movement is not only contributing to the development of the continent, but also showing that alternatives to the exploitative system in publishing are possible.

Breaking out of knowledge monopolies is not only the responsibility and interest of Africa, but of all developing countries.