African Publishing

African Publishing is a new collaboration between PET, Pluto Journals and African Books Collective (ABC), an African owned, worldwide marketing and distribution outlet for books from Africa. PET is teaming up with ABC, acting as a fiscal host for a grant to increase its representation at international book fairs, recruit new publishers, engage in further cultural outreach and improve its marketing and digital communications.

African Books Collective was established over 30 years ago as a collective non-profit organisation by African publishers to make their books available outside the countries of original publication. It supplies the books of over 150 publishers from the African continent including literary, academic and children’s book publishers and titles in multiple languages. 

ABC’s core ethos is supporting African publishers and promoting African publishing and writing. It believes that literature is empowering for personal and cultural development in any society, and that this is particularly so in societies and/or languages that have suffered the consequences of marginalisation or oppression whether because of colonialism, apartheid, war, displacement or severe economic disadvantage. As part of this mission it remits 50% of net income from book sales back to African publishers. 

African Journals Initiative

The African Journals Initiative has been launched by Pluto Journals and the African Books Collective, in collaboration with a growing community of no-fee, diamond open access journals in the social sciences and humanities, based at African universities. The initiative is supported by ScienceOpen and JSTOR.

This three-year pilot programme aims to:

  • Enhance the profile and discoverability of African journals

  • Increase journal usage and submissions

  • Mobilise financial support from academic libraries and consortia

Each year, the initiative will work with six established African journals in the social sciences and humanities. In the first year, the selected journals are: 

A range of services to participating journals, including promoting their visibility and discoverability, indexing, user-friendly submission systems, detailed annual impact reports, and much more. Journal selection will be guided by an advisory board, and expressions of interest from other social science journals based on the continent are welcome.

The long-term vision is to achieve financial sustainability for African university journals in the social sciences and humanities, supported by international library and consortia support.