COPPHA
PublishNow

An innovative initiative focused on advancing Diamond Open Access publishing across Africa.

COPPHA: Enhancing Equitable Research Dissemination in Africa

The Coalition for Open Access Publishing of Public Health in Africa (COPPHA) is an innovative initiative dedicated to advancing Diamond Open Access publishing and high-quality open access publishing practices in Africa. Led by WACREN in collaboration with PublicHealth.Africa (PHA), Peoples-Praxis, AFREhealth, the West African Institute of Public Health (WAIPH), and the Somali Health Action Journal. COPPHA’s mission is to promote equitable public health research dissemination and accessibility.

COPPHA PublishNow

COPPHA PublishNow is an open review platform operated by WACREN implementing the PRC (Publish, Review, Curate) model. Researchers can engage in open review of preprints with transparent feedback, supported by ORCID integration. Reviewers can choose between open or anonymous reviews. Tools are available for assigning reviews and monitoring progress — fostering high-quality, community-driven open peer review.

The Publish-Review-Curate (PRC) Model

The PRC model addresses the limitations of traditional scholarly publishing by dividing the scholarly communication process into three distinct phases: Publish, Review, and Curate. This structure enables rapid dissemination, transparent evaluation, and a focus on the scientific quality of research articles rather than the prestige of the journals in which they are published. By decentralizing control and placing researchers at the forefront of the publication process, the model fosters greater inclusivity in the research dissemination process.

Publish Phase

The publish phase empowers researchers to make their work publicly accessible, bypassing traditional journal gatekeeping. Researchers can publish their articles in open-access repositories like BAOBAB or on preprint servers relevant to their field, enabling decentralised dissemination. Upon publication, they are assigned persistent identifiers such as ARK or DOI, ensuring they are openly available with clear metadata to enhance discoverability and reuse, aligning with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). This phase promotes rapid dissemination, increases visibility, and supports open science by making research accessible to a broader audience. It also gives authors the opportunity to make their work freely available under open licenses, such as CC-BY 4.0(Creative Commons Attribution), allowing unrestricted access and reuse.

Review Phase

The review phase involves openly evaluating a preprint or article to provide constructive and actionable feedback on its strengths and weaknesses. Unlike traditional peer review, where the process is often hidden, the open review enhances transparency and accessibility. In this phase, reviews are openly available, each review is assigned a persistent identifier, and they remain permanently linked to articles.

Curation Phase

The curation phase involves organizing reviewed preprints into thematic collections to improve discoverability based on their perceived quality. It includes applying quality assessments to reviewed preprints or articles, such as editorial assessments, which summarize an article's strengths and weaknesses. Editorial assessments provide readers with a clear evaluation of an article's contributions, limitations, and overall significance in the field. This process does not involve binary decisions about acceptance or rejection but rather seeks to highlight the research’s value and offer a deeper understanding of its impact.

Publishing in Traditional Journals

You can submit your preprint to a traditional journal with an archiving policy that supports preprints. Many Diamond OA journals have such policies, as their core principles such as no fees and free access for readers align with the open access nature of preprint servers and repositories. When submitting to a journal, you can attach an openly available review report of your preprint or provide a link to its open review, demonstrating prior evaluation and transparency to journal editors. COPPHA’s publishing initiative also aims to support the curation of reviewed articles into overlay journals, further integrating open peer review into scholarly publishing.