1. Open Access and the
Evolving Scholarly
Communication
Environment
Iryna Kuchma
Open Access Programme manager
OASCIR project final workshop, Faculty of Science,
University of Khartoum, 17th of November 2011
www.eifl.net Attribution 3.0 Unported

3. Removing barriers
to knowledge
sharing
EIFL-OA: open access

4. EIFL-OA
achievements
• 410+ OA repositories & 2,600+ OA journals in
EIFL partner countries
• OA policies have been adopted by 24 institutions
in the EIFL network
• 65 awareness raising, advocacy and capacity
building events and workshops in 2003-2011 in
33 countries with participants from over 50
countries

5. Why OA?
“Restrictive access policies drastically
reduces readership of electronic
research journal articles. OA provides
an environment within which literature
and scholarly research articles are
made freely accessible online without
license restrictions and without
charging users subscription or access
fees…

6. Why OA? (2)
“OA is a vital means of dissemination of
information which is crucial for national
development and in achieving MDGs, given
the crucial role that information plays in
achieving social, economic, cultural and
political development.”
Professor Frank Youngman, DVC, University of
Botswana

7. Open access (OA)
OA for researchers: increased visibility, usage
and impact for their work;
OA for research institutions: publicises institutes’
research strengths, providing maximum return
on investment; complete record of the research
output in easily accessible form, new tools to
manage institution's impact;

8. OA (2)
OA for publishers: increased readership and
citations, visibility and impact, the best possible
dissemination service for research;
OA for libraries: partnerships with scientists and
research managers to set up OA repositories, to
curate research data and to develop OA policies,
with scholarly publishers they publish OA journals
and books, and with educators – produce OERs.

9. OA journals
Use a funding model that does not charge
readers or their institutions for access.
Users can read, download, copy,
distribute, print, search, or link to the
full texts of the journal articles.

10. OA journals in Africa
Over 420 OA journals from Egypt, South Africa,
Nigeria, Tunisia, Kenya, Morocco, Ethiopia,
Uganda, Tanzania, Libya, Ghana, Mauritius,
Madagascar, Algeria, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire,
Sierra Leone and Sudan
58466 full text articles in African Journals OnLine

17. OA repositories
Contain research outputs
Institutional or thematic
Interoperable (OAI-PMH)
Commons metadata protocol allows web
applications (text and data mining)

19. OA repositories
Visibility, access, and preservation were the
most important motivations cited by
participating institutions to establish a
repository.
Other motivations included the need to evaluate
researchers and departments, and as a
response to requests from faculty.
(A survey “Open Repository Development in Developing and Transition
countries” conducted by EIFL and the University of Kansas Libraries)

20. OA repositories (2)
Publicize an institute’s research
strengths, providing maximum return on
research investment.
Provide an administrative tool for
institutions.

21. OA repositories (3)
Increase impact and usage of institute's
research, providing new contacts and
research partnerships for authors.
Provide usage statistics showing global
interest and value of institutional
research.

22. Open access
repositories (4)
FOSS to set up, free technical support.
Low installation and maintenance costs,
quick to set up and gain benefits.
Institutions can mandate OA, speeding
development.

23. U of K objectives
To provide modern educational and research
environments that will enable students and
researchers to face current challenges and to
focus on knowledge as a principle driving
force for development.
To reach international levels in standards,
contents and practices while maintaining local
values and culture.

24. U of K objectives
(2)
To keep up with the development and the
new innovations that occur in the different
fields of knowledge as well as to take the
initiatives in innovation and creativity.
To satisfy the increasing demand for
excellence in higher education and to
ensure the latest quality technology in all
its outputs.

25. U of K objectives
(3)
To promote libraries, laboratories and other teaching
facilities to the latest technical standards and
maintain their position as a place for interaction
between the different components of the university.
To employ information and communication
technology to improve University performance
with respect to education, research, capacity building,
and skills polishing.

26. OA advocacy
EIFL provided financial support to five
projects in Africa: national and
institutional open access advocacy
campaigns to reach out to research
communities in Botswana, Ghana,
Malawi, Sudan and Zimbabwe

27. OA advocacy in
Botswana
Advocacy for Open Access to
Researchers/Deans/Graduate
Students/Editors/Policy
Makers/Educators/Library
Professionals a project of Botswana
Library Consortium and University of
Botswana

28. OA advocacy in
Ghana
Open Access Institutional Repositories
Advocacy Campaign a project of the
Consortium of Academic and Research
Libraries in Ghana c/o Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology,
Kumasi, in partnership with Association
of African Universities

29. OA advocacy in
Ghana (2)
“Africa cannot attain sustainable
development without access to
knowledge and knowledge sharing,”
stated professor Olugbemiro Jegede,
Secretary General of the Association of
African Universities at a recent
workshop "Harnessing and
Disseminating Research Information as
a key to the Development of
Knowledge-based Economies in Africa"

30. OA advocacy in
Malawi
Awareness Campaign for Kamuzu
College of Nursing Library /
University of Malawi Research
Repository, a project of Kamuzu
College of Nursing Library / University of
Malawi in partnership with the National
Commission for Science and
Technology (NCST)

31. OA advocacy in
Sudan
Open Access awareness-raising
campaign among researchers at the
Faculty of Science, University of
Khartoum (UofK) implemented by the
Faculty of Science, University of
Khartoum Library with the partner:
GrandIR, CB, travel support provided by
Carlos III University Madrid

32. OA advocacy in
Zimbabwe
University of Zimbabwe 2011 Open
Access Advocacy Campaign
implemented by The University of
Zimbabwe library.
Effective faculty based advocacy and
trainings to research administrators.
ETDs will be OA, a task force has been
created to define processes & advance
operational issues related to OA Policy.

33. OA advocacy
results
Open access policies (mandates) ensure
that research funded by institutions is
made freely available.
Such policies have been adopted by
Strathmore University in Kenya,
Covenant University in Nigeria,
University of Pretoria and University of
Johannesburg in South Africa.

35. UP Open Scholarship
Programme
1. Theses and dissertations are available online
and OA based on a policy of mandatory
submission
2. Research and conference papers are available
online and OA and researchers actively contribute
based on a policy of mandatory submission
3. Researchers and students actively use OA
material

36. UP Open Scholarship
Programme (2)
4. Researchers publish in available OA journals
and the institution has policy and financial support
in place for that
5. Researchers actively manage the copyright of
their publications, inter alia with addenda to their
contracts or using Creative Commons contracts,
and the necessary policy exists
6. Publications from the institution's
press/publishing house are available in OA based
on policy

37. UP Open Scholarship
Programme (3)
7. The institution publishes its own online OA
journals OR provides infrastructure and support for
members of its community who are involved with
society publishing
8. Dissemination forms part of its publication
strategies.

38. Open licenses
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
adopted a proposal for the institute to use an
‘open’ license for its published outputs.
The aim is to encourage maximum uptake and re-
use of ILRI’s research.
Under this proposal, ILRI retains copyright over
each output. It also explicitly encourages wide
non-commercial re-use of each output, subject to
full attribution of ILRI and the author(s), and use of
an equally open license for any derivative output.

39. Setting up shared
repositories
REPOSITÓRIO SABER: www.saber.ac.mz; 6 institutions:
Centro de Formação Jurídica e Judiciária
Instituto Superior de Ciências e Tecnologia de
Moçambique
Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Universidade Pedagógica
Universidade Politécnica
Universidade São Tomás de Moçambique

40. Why OA?
“Access to relevant and timely information is
critical to support the University’s mission of
teaching, learning, research and the
managerial functions of the University. Access
to information is also an essential condition
for the economic and social development of
the country. Open access will enhance access
to local content and this goal can only be
achieved through collaborative efforts.”
Professor Kamau Ngamau, Dean Faculty of Agriculture, JKUAT

41. Why OA? (2)
“One of the key pillars of the University of
Botswana new strategic plan “Strategy for
excellence” is “Research Intensification”. OA
will help the University of Botswana,
Government, and research institutions to
achieve this pillar by ensuring online
accessibility to public funded research output
that can be freely shared by everyone, enhance
research quality, and improve visibility of the
institution and the nation globally. ” Prof. Frank
Youngman, DVC, University of Botswana

42. Is OA on the
agenda at the AU?
Is the issue of Open Access to information through
libraries part of business for the African Union
(AU) when it comes to assessing countries’
performance under the African Peer Review
Mechanisms (APRM)?
(Matseliso M. (Tseli) Moshoeshoe-Chadzingwa, National University of
Lesotho, EIFL country coordinator in Lesotho and EIFL Advisory
Board member)

43. UNESCO-ASSAf-EIFL
OA workshop
Recommendations:
Capacity building: OA publishing and OA
repositories, copyright management
Advocacy campaigns for regulatory policy
frameworks – Require open access to
publicly funded research – explore
possibilities of OA mandates

44. CODIST II
“OA technologies could benefit Africa”
(pre-event of the Second Session of the
Committee on Development Information (CODIST
II): the workshop “Promoting Innovation
Development and Diffusion in Africa through
OA Publishing”, in May 2011 at the Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA).
Delegates examined ways to improve knowledge
sharing in Africa and to remove existing barriers.

45. CODIST II (2)
Participants recommended that Member States
should adopt appropriate OA policies and that
the ECA should take the leadership in these
activities.
“OA is a new way of publishing and of sharing
information in the 21st century. Everyone has a
role to play in knowledge development and
content sharing and everyone can make an
impact”, said Irene Onyancha, ECA’s Chief
Librarian.

47. The SOAP survey
11 EIFL partner countries: Bulgaria, China, Egypt,
Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South
Africa, Thailand and Ukraine
About 86% of researchers are convinced that OA
publishing is beneficial to their research field
directly improving the way scientific community
work and providing the benefits outside the
scientific community – public good benefits.

48. The SOAP survey
(2)
About 63% of researchers published OA
articles.
Top five factors when making choices about
publishing in a journal: prestige
(prestige/perceived quality of the journal),
journal impact factor, speed of publication of
the journal, importance for career
(importance of the journal for academic
promotion, tenure or assessment), and
relevance of the journal for the community.

49. The SOAP survey
(3)
Publicly funded
research should be
made available to S tr o n g ly a g r e e
A g re e
be read and used
N e ith e r a g r e e n o r d is a g r e e
D is a g r e e
S tr o n g ly d is a g r e e
without access
barriers (n=3875)

50. The SOAP survey
(4)
OA articles are
likely to be read and
cited more often S t ro n g ly a g re e
A g re e
N e i t h e r a g r e e n o r d is a g r e e
than those not OA
D is a g re e
S t r o n g l y d is a g r e e
(n=3882)

51. The SOAP survey
(5)
OA publishing is
more cost-effective
than subscription-
based publishing
S t r o n g ly a g r e e
A g re e
N e it h e r a g r e e n o r d is a g r e e
and so will benefit
D is a g r e e
S t r o n g ly d is a g r e e
public investment in
research (n=3871)

52. The SOAP survey
(6)
Researchers should
retain the rights to
their published work S t ro n g ly a g re e
A g re e
and allow it to be
N e it h e r a g r e e n o r d is a g re e
D is a g re e
S t ro n g ly d is a g re e
used by others
(n=3872)

53. What researchers
can do to promote
OA?
Submit your research articles to OA journals, when
there are appropriate OA journals in your field.
Deposit your postprints in an OA repository.
Deposit your data files in an OA repository along with
the articles built on them.
When asked to referee a paper or serve on the
editorial board for an OA journal, accept the
invitation.

54. What researchers
can do to promote
OA? (2)
If you are an editor of a toll-access journal, then start a
discussion about converting to OA.
Volunteer to serve on your university’s committee to
evaluate faculty for promotion and tenure. Adjust the
criteria to give faculty an incentive to provide OA to
their peer-reviewed research articles, either through
OAs journals or OA repositories.

55. What researchers
can do to promote
OA? (3)
Work with your professional societies to make sure they
understand OA.
Write opinion pieces (articles, journal editorials, newspapers op-
eds, letters to the editor, discussion forum postings) advancing
the cause of OA.
Educate the next generation of scientists and scholars about OA.
(From What you can do to promote open access written by Peter
Suber http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/do.htm)

56. What research
managers can do to
promote OA?
Introduce OA polices.
Transform the TA journals into OA journals.
Set-up OA repositories.
Spread a word about OA.

57. What libraries can
do to promote OA?
Set-up OA repositories.
Help researchers and students to self-archive.
Help to publish OA journals and create open
educational resources.
Help in OA data curation and sharing.
Spread a word about OA.

58. Thank you! Questions?
iryna.kuchma@eifl.net
www.eifl.net