Giving back

In the giving spirit of the holidays, we wanted to take this time to make you aware of some ways you could support open access publishing around the world! If the last two years have shown us anything, it is that we are all very connected and dependent on one another.

We work with several truly inspiring nonprofits who accept donations to help them in their endeavors to develop their continents’ research infrastructure and foster open access. Each organization has a resource or contact for you to find out specifically how your contribution is being used. Below we have given a description of the organization and links to donate through. Additionally, we have just become the hosting platform for Pluto Journals who have switched to being a fully open access publisher. Their membership programme may interest you as a way to support one of their journals, which cover a wide variety of social justice matters. Moreover, all of these institutions’ research supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through their respective missions.

Support the Sudanese Researcher Foundation

The Sudanese Researchers Foundation is a Sudanese, scientific, voluntary, non-governmental and not-for-profit organization, that aims to create a common platform for interaction between Sudanese learners and researchers to establish and advance the momentum of research and education in Sudan. It was founded in 2009 through the efforts of a small group of Sudanese students and researchers, led by Dr. Anwar Dafa-Alla, Founder and Chairperson, who are passionate about Sudan’s development, and has expanded rapidly until it became the largest digital platform in social media networks for Sudanese researchers and students with over than half a million members. ScienceOpen has worked with SRF to help them launch the African Journal of Engineering & Technology (AJET). To support AJET and learn more, go here.

Contribute to AfricaArXiv

A partner we are very proud to work with is AfricaArXiv, the pan-African open access research portal. AfricaArXiv provides a non-profit platform for African scientists to upload their preprint manuscripts, accepted manuscripts (post-prints), and published papers. AfricArxiv is dedicated to speeding and opening up research and collaboration for African scientists and helping to design the future of scholarly communication globally. To learn more about their projects and principles, go here. To contribute to their work, go here.

Donate to the Ecological Society

Founded by the visionary ecologist, economist and ornithologist Shri Prakash Gole, the Ecological Society has carved a name for itself in the field of ecological approach to sustainable development and nature conservation. The genesis of the Society goes back to March 1982, when a group of concerned individuals held discussions and formulated plans to set up a trust to further ecological research and education in Pune, India and beyond. Go here to learn more.

Become a Pluto Journals Member

As all Pluto Journals transitioned to Open Access, Pluto Journals decided to create a membership programme which brings together individuals’ passion about research, activism, and policy to build communities around the journals to affect change. Five of the Journals took up the programme immediately with enthusiasm, namely the Journals with a clear focus on Fair Trade, Disability and Social Justice, Cuban Studies, Arab Studies and Political Economy. The five membership Journals are aiming to raise funds to develop their important work on the topics of sustainability and equality, through webinars, scholarships, annual conferences and much more. If you would be interested in supporting Pluto Journals and receiving the benefits of their membership programme, go here.

Pluto’s Member Journals

• Arab Studies Quarterly
• International Journal of Cuban Studies
• Islamophobia Studies Journal
• Journal of Fair Trade
• Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Best wishes going into the New Year!

We want to send a huge thank you to anyone who found it possible to donate to any of these fantastic organizations or sign up for a membership to Pluto Journals. ScienceOpen is proud to work with publishers and organizations from all over the world, of all sizes, and of all categories of the publishing community. We wish everyone a wonderful New Year and holiday season and hope to see you following along the #ScienceOpenSDGs Holiday Countdown!