Address by the Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor MP, at the book launch of the HSRC's 'State of the Nation, 1994 - 2014: a twenty-year review of freedom and democracy', Cape Town

Members of Parliament;
Ambassadors and High Commissioners;
Chief Executive Officer and staff of HSRC;
Directors-General and Heads of Departments;
Academics and Students;

I have had a long and congenial relationship with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), which plays such an important role in our broader research community. I'm delighted to be here to share some reflections on academic publishing and the role of the HSRC in our science, technology and innovation system.

The HSRC Press plays an important support role in the HSRC and in the wider social science community. The HSRC Press pioneered what is called the open access model, a model that allowed free downloads at the same time as books appeared in book shops. That model has since been revised, I see, and free downloads now have to wait months or more while books have a chance to sell to libraries and individuals.

The 'free download' innovation was a revolution in academic publishing in South Africa. You have to remember that university presses struggled to make ends meet in South Africa. There were only a handful of them in any case, and academics always preferred a US or UK publisher to originate a book that might then be sold back into the small South African market. There were international university presses selling books here, but curiously enough they operated in the school text book market.

The HSRC Press changed all that. It originated books here and sold them on to the US and UK academic or university presses. Often it was able to publish in the South African market alone. For the first time we had a national university press. It changed the way academics thought about their work and is partially responsible for the increase in publishing books in South Africa. Remember our incentive system encourages the publication of papers and articles but not books.

But it was the digital download that was the real innovation. Let me say that again because I do not hear, as often as I should, credit being given to the Press. Academics in the social sciences know they have to publish or they won't get promoted. Before the HSRC Press they had to compete with the rest of the Commonwealth to be published in the academic metropoles. The HSRC Press has done much to decolonise that link in producing new knowledge. It's all very well for me to pronounce on our need to train more and more PhDs in the social sciences. But that call is pointless, if candidate and graduate PhDs have nowhere to publish other than to go abroad.

Knowledge is valuable and academic publishers do not generally make new research available online for free.

Most path-breaking social science research is locked up by academic publishers, a small group of academic publishers who exercise a monopoly over journals and magazines, and require users to pay them and not the authors for knowledge.

George Monbiot, a leading UK environmental writer, calls them the 'most ruthless capitalists in the western world' (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialist)

The very odd thing is this: much of the research that is locked up behind academic publishers’ paywalls is funded from the public purse.

So we subsidise academics to undertake research, they publish it in long established journals owned by international publishers, who then sell it back to us for a fee!

That's not right.

Some universities have begun to refuse to allow academics to give copyright to international publishers. Others have developed open access repositories on their university web sites. Under advice from ASSAf, our science academy, the DST is championing the open access route in South Africa. And our academic community is immensely enriched by having the HSRC Press.

This brings me to the 'state of nation' series of books, a flagship HSRC annual publication.

I can tell you that I have in the past received a number of complaints from individuals and organisations about HSRC publications. The purpose of the complaint is usually that I, as the Minister, have the authority to call the HSRC to heel because the HSRC is a publicly funded body. I usually respond that the HSRC adopts a non-partisan approach in the research it undertakes. That is in any case how the HSRC defines itself. I quote:

“The HSRC is a non-partisan, public-purpose organisation that generates scientific knowledge through its research and analytical work in the social and human sciences. It undertakes and promotes research that is often large-scale, multi-year, and collaborative in nature. It produces high-quality scientific evidence to inform further analysis, debate, advocacy and decision-making by role players in government, the media, academia, and community-based groupings. Through its work the HSRC aims to inform policy development and good practice, thereby making a difference to the lives of people in South Africa and in the mother continent.... “

However, 'non-partisan' in this context means that research is not party-political specific. It doesn't mean that commissioned research should be even-handed on ideology or policy issues. Our primary expectation is that research should be scholarly. But that does not mean that research should be bland, boring and uncommitted. We certainly do not expect the HSRC to toe the government of the day’s political position on any particular issue.

In fact, HSRC research has come in for heated criticism from government in the recent past – I think of the 'state of the nation' series and the research into HIV/AIDS. In my view the touchstone for HSRC research is peer review. If research is scholarly, it will be accepted for publication in respected academic journals.

This evening we are here to launch the State of the Nation. South Africa 1994-2014: a twenty-year review of freedom and democracy.

You will be relieved to hear that I am not going to offer you a review of the book, nearly impossible as it is to review a book written on such a vast theme by so many authors. But I will say this. The HSRC has made the study of inequality a consistent focus of its work. I think this reflects a contemporary truth: inequality has emerged as a key challenge for our young democracy, and it is a threat to social cohesion and stability. While we can rightfully take some pride in reducing absolute poverty levels, recent analyses show an increase in both intra-group and inter-group inequality. Not only are our levels of inequality unusually high, but the contours of the inequality continue to reflect our racially divided past.

Having said that, I do have one small criticism to make. Why is there no mention of Thomas Piketty, the French economist, in this rich and engaging HSRC book? Piketty's work on historical patterns of global inequality has been a publishing phenomenon in the English-speaking world over the past year. No other academic work has been so widely discussed or so frequently bought online or from book shops.

Piketty has shown us that inequality is worse now than fifty years ago in the developed world. Is it true for South Africa as well? Piketty also tells us that inequality arises from inherited wealth and not from innovative and 'disruptive' technology. Piketty's work is so important because it is a major intervention in economic policy debates.

I'll leave you with that thought on what is bound to be another success in long line of successes in the HSRC's flagship publication.

Thank you.

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