This document discusses scholarly communication in Africa and opportunities to improve access to African knowledge. It notes that while the internet offers greater connectivity, African higher education still relies on old paradigms like prioritizing publications in international journals. This ignores local communications and marginalizes African research. The document proposes leveraging open access models, aligning communications with institutional strategies, raising quality through national initiatives, and using collaborative publishing platforms to gain wider impact and deliver strategic goals.

1. Access to Africa’s
Knowledge
Scholarly Communication in Africa
University of Namibia
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3. What do we, in African
countries, seek to gain
from our investment in
research?

4. The aim is surely
African knowledge, for
Africa, from Africa,
widely accessible...

5. ...and available for
economic and social
development.

6. Globally, scholarly
communications is at a
crossroads...

7. Some rights reserved by mrhayata

8. as the internet offers
greater connectivity,
lower cost

9. http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/

10. We face two very
different poles of
opportunity...

11. Enhanced global
competitiveness and
prestige....

12. ...or open
communications and
collaboration to address
development challenges
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13. We constantly ask
questions about the
link between research
and development...

14. ‘How could the application of knowledge end
poverty and hunger in Africa? How could higher
education empower women and promote gender
equity? How can knowledge be considered in the
African context to address child mortality and
improve maternal health?’
Nahas Angula, Namibian Prime Minister, UNESCO 29th Conference on
Higher Education, 2009
Photo: coda Damien du Toit http://www.flickr.com/photos/coda/
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15. Yet we are still caught
up with old paradigms...

16. ...stuck in a free rider
mentality...

18. ...in which African
higher education does
not see publication as
its responsibility...

19. success on the basis of
counts of journal
articles
in the ISI indexes..

20. ... a system run by a single
commercial company...
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21. The result is tunnel
vision...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/ CC attribution licence

22. ...which ignores all but
a small segment of the
publishing ecosystem..

23. ... namely journals,
particularly foreign
journals...

24. ... marginalising African research

25. .. ignoring other
communications
activity...

27. .. and offering little support
and recognition to the
communications that
emerge from development-
focused research...

29. There is a penalty...

30. Science Research - 2001
http://www.worldmapper.org
2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

31. World poverty
http://www.worldmapper.org
2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

32. How can we address
this?

33. Leveraging technology
in a networked
world ....

35. ... using open access
publishing models...

36. ...aligning communications
with institutional and
national strategies...

38. Research Councils UK and HEFCE have a shared
commitment to maintaining and improving the capacity
of the UK research base to undertake research activity
of world leading quality, and to ensuring that significant
outputs from this activity are made available as widely
as possible both within and beyond the research
community. Open access to published research supports
this commitment and, if widely implemented, can
benefit the research base, higher education, and the UK
economy and society more broadly.

39. ...raising quality through
national initiatives...

40. ...revaluing ‘grey
publishing’

42. ... leveraging open
access...

44. ...by publishing in open
access journals...

46. ...using collaborative
publishing platforms...

48. ...rethinking business
models...

50. ...gaining wider impact
and reach...

51. ...using open
repositories and
portals...

53. How can the University
of Namibia harness this
potential to deliver its
strategic goals?

54. Eve Gray
Honorary Research Associate
Centre for Educational Technology
University of Cape Town
http://www.gray-area.co.za
http://www.http://www.sca2kafrica.org/
http://www.cet.uct.ac.za