Opening access to African scholarly content: Stellenbosch University's AOARI platforms

Raju, Reggie; Smith, Ina; Gibson, H. J.

doi:10.1629/2048-7754.26.1.44

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The high subscription cost inhibits the exposure of African research scientists to these discoveries and their ability to either use the most up-to-date research knowledge to strengthen their research or to build upon said research [ 19 - 21 ]. This can lead to additional adverse consequences on education and research in Africa, which leads to a perpetuated cycle of restricted knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these OA journals raise the second key challenge to equitable access to research and knowledge sharing in Africa: to offset the fact that OA journals have no subscription costs, they shift this burden to authors, charging high publishing fees ranging from US$1000 to US$2500 per publication [ 1 , 21 ]. This precludes African research scientists from being able to publish their findings in these OA journals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Open access: academic publishing and its implications for knowledge equity in Kenya

et al. 2014

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Traditional, subscription-based scientific publishing has its limitations: often, articles are inaccessible to the majority of researchers in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), where journal subscriptions or one-time access fees are cost-prohibitive. Open access (OA) publishing, in which journals provide online access to articles free of charge, breaks this barrier and allows unrestricted access to scientific and scholarly information to researchers all over the globe. At the same time, one major limitation to OA is a high publishing cost that is placed on authors. Following recent developments to OA publishing policies in the UK and even LMICs, this article highlights the current status and future challenges of OA in Africa. We place particular emphasis on Kenya, where multidisciplinary efforts to improve access have been established. We note that these efforts in Kenya can be further strengthened and potentially replicated in other African countries, with the goal of elevating the visibility of African research and improving access for African researchers to global research, and, ultimately, bring social and economic benefits to the region. We (1) offer recommendations for overcoming the challenges of implementing OA in Africa and (2) call for urgent action by African governments to follow the suit of high-income countries like the UK and Australia, mandating OA for publicly-funded research in their region and supporting future research into how OA might bring social and economic benefits to Africa.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open access: academic publishing and its implications for knowledge equity in Kenya

et al. 2014

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“…Online learning encompasses the application of technology in pedagogy and provides the opportunity to increase equity in public health training in Africa. 24 , 25 , 26 African institutions face numerous barriers including access to technology, the cost of reliable high bandwidth internet, information technology human resource capacity, and socio-cultural barriers. 27 The uptake of hybrid learning can be particularly challenging for institutions in rural areas.…”

Section: Institutional Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The future of public health doctoral education in Africa: transforming higher education institutions to enhance research and practice

Bukenya,

Kebede,

Mwambi

et al. 2024

The Lancet Public Health

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“…The survey that the authors of this paper conducted indicates that four institutions in South Africa are providing a hosting service (or acting as publisher) for the publication of OA journals. The software these four use is Open Journal Systems (OJS) (Raju, Smith, & Gibson, 2013).…”

Section: The Growth Of Institutional Repositories In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Open Scholarship in Africa: Benefits and Best Library Practices

Raju¹,

Adam²,

Powell³

2015

lib

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Knowledge, as a prerequisite for development, is contingent on information. The main value of information is in its ability to be used, reused, and shared. Open access (OA) allows for the easy dissemination and preservation of information by providing all scholarly communication and knowledge at no cost to the end user. In the rapidly expanding, global knowledge-based economy, Africa's steady progress from the peripheral to the epicenter of knowledge production is not to be ignored, not least because of its reliance on OA. Such access environments and institutional repositories throughout the continent are playing significant roles in maximizing the impact of research output. This paper reveals that OA content is more citable, not simply because of the quality of the output, but instead of the advantage that OA brings in maximizing accessibility and increased citation. It goes on to show that OA will enhance the research community's existing system for evaluating and rewarding research productivity. Ultimately, OA has the ability to elevate (South) Africa, its universities and institutions, to the status of knowledge producers rather than mere knowledge consumers.

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Opening access to African scholarly content: Stellenbosch University's AOARI platforms

Cited by 10 publications

References 5 publications

Open access: academic publishing and its implications for knowledge equity in Kenya

Open access: academic publishing and its implications for knowledge equity in Kenya

The future of public health doctoral education in Africa: transforming higher education institutions to enhance research and practice

Promoting Open Scholarship in Africa: Benefits and Best Library Practices

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