Assessing the demand for scholarly publishing in South Africa

It is often assumed that African scholarly publishing is poorly resourced and unappealing to authors, both African and otherwise. While the resource constraints are real, is it true that authors are avoiding African publishers in favour of those based in the North? An exploratory study was undertaken to assess the demand for scholarly publishers based in South Africa but serving the continent as a whole. The qualitative survey, though not based on a large and widely generalizable sample, indicates some clear trends and, in so doing, explodes the myth of the African publisher as the site of last resort for academic authors. Rather, the results show broad support for locally based publishers, and many respondents expressed a need for far more publishers, wherever they may be based. Certain guidelines are derived from this survey to indicate trends for scholarly publishers working in this region.