Susan Murray, Director, African Journals OnLine (AJOL)

1. Susan Murray
susan@ajol.info

3.  “Science, technology and publication form a
triad which is essential for the survival of
developing nations.” F Salager-Meyer, 2005
 Research capacity
 Absorption & production capacity
PUBLISHING capacity

6. Lor, PJ “Bridging the North-South Divide in Scholarly Communication in Africa – a library and
information systems perspective” 2006 http://www.ascleiden.nl/Pdf/elecpublconflor.pdf

7. Lor, PJ “Bridging the North-South Divide in Scholarly Communication in Africa – a library and information
systems perspective” 2006 http://www.ascleiden.nl/Pdf/elecpublconflor.pdf

9.  HUGE range ... Periphery countries & journals
NOT homogenous
 Professional commercial “old-style”
publishers - some
 Professional commercial OA publishers - few
 Society publishers - some
 University press publishers - few
 Scholar publishers

10. http://www.venturevalkyrie.com/2010/12/19/dont-ask-dont-tell/1504/rock-hard-place-road-sign-with-dramatic-clouds-and-sky

11.  Doing an astounding job, given challenges
 Aware of NBance of “finessed” appearance &
language of the publication (online or in print)
 2nd language English / French speakers but few
have language editors.
 Few have skills in
formatting, layout, typesetting AND technical
skills for interoperability, etc.
 RESULT >>> journals go to overseas
publishing services (and authors also)

12.  “Local journals struggle to survive and have very poor
visibility due to high costs of publication and distribution”
Chan, Kirsop, Arunachalam, 2005 https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/4415/1/Open_Access_Archiving.pdf

13.  Institutional support
 Quality indicators – clarity on what to attain
 Self-determination in these
 Skills development & training of....
Authors, Editors, Reviewers
 Journal publishing software - OJS
 Aggregators for
visibility, altmetrics, interoperability, OA
data, etc

14.  Open Access Institutional Repositories not
enough
 Support for all types of research
communication, notably peer-reviewed
quality Gold OA journals
 Some libraries doing wonderful work
 Foster research culture; explicit attention to
research communication and publishing
 Awareness-raising; encouraged (not
mandated)

15.  Establishing what these are
http://www.surf.nl/en/actueel/Pages/Internationalscientificcommunityagreeonneedforqualityindi
catorsfornew%28OpenAccess%29journals.aspx
 Journal familiarity with these
 Transparency of peer-review process
 Transparency of masthead – full Editorial
Board names and contact details
 Trusted aggregator inclusion
 Professional OA journal publishers - quality

16.  Awareness & knowledge of quality criteria
 Training in online publishing tools (OJS, OA)
 Awareness & use of CC by African OA
journals
 Embracing Information Age & OA – for
example, students journal training senior
University staff
 Peer-to-peer learning & self-determination
of best practice & quality criteria

17.  Scholar journals from Africa paying MedKnow
in India for “finessing” services
 African journals and authors moving to
overseas publishers
 But, AOSIS in South Africa doing great work
 Academic Journals in Nigeria, Kenya on an
international watch list of predator OA
publishers, but do they really deserve that?

18. “I would like to thank AJOL for providing a
platform through which we realized our aim of
combining subscription-based hard copy journal
with open access online – the best of both.
The vision of combining the two would have been
extremely difficult without AJOL.”
2,500,000 visits; 6.6 million (2011); 40% African
Top article from AJOL2011: downloaded 27,430
VERY exciting emerging country-level platforms

19.  Transparent & visible inclusion criteria and
process
 Resolve tension between inclusionary and
exclusionary role
 Better showcase and share what IS
successfully being done
 Collaborate better, with mutual awareness-
raising efforts

20.  Research partnerships (S-S and S-N)
 Journal to journal (S-N and S-S)
http://www.ajpp-online.org/
 Journals aggregating in partnership (S)
http://www.ajol.info/
 Publisher to publisher ?? A role for BMC ??

21. AJOL appreciates support from:
www.ajol.info
INASP
susan@ajol.info
Sida