The University of Cape Town (UCT) makes its scholarly publications and research outputs automatically and freely available to the public through institutional open-access platforms: OpenUCT, UCT’s open access institutional repository (which preserves and provides free online access to theses, dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, open educational resources and other publications).

UCT also publishes open-access monographs and journals and provides open research data via ZivaHub (Open Data UCT), ensuring that books, articles and the data that underpin research are accessible worldwide without charge.

Physical access to UCT’s campus libraries is also available to external users through a transparent “Day Visitor” and subscriber/membership system — day visitors may register and use library reading facilities for a modest fee and external membership options exist — so on-site use is facilitated for researchers who need print access.

Taken together, UCT’s open repositories (automatic, free online access to publications and data) plus its formal on-site access arrangements demonstrate comprehensive public access to books and publications.