Participation in the global knowledge commons : challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries

Due to improving Internet connectivity and a growing number of international initiatives, knowledge workers in developing countries are now getting access to scholarly and scientific publications and electronic resources at a level that is unmatched historically. This is highly significant, particularly in areas of medicine, agricultural and environmental sciences, and development literature that are much needed if developing countries are to meet the Millennium Development Goals. At the same time, the Open Access movement and the growing number of Open Archive Initiative (OAI) compliant institutional repositories promise to provide even greater access to resources and scientific publications that were previously inaccessible. These low cost technology and interoperability standards are also providing great opportunities for libraries and publishers in developing countries to disseminate local research and knowledge and to bridge the South-North knowledge gap. This article reviews these recent trends, discusses their significance for information access in developing countries, and provides recommendations for knowledge workers on how to actively participate in and contribute to the global knowledge commons

Fostering Open Access through Online Academic Publishing: the role of academic libraries in Nigeria

The paper explore the meaning of open access and online academic publishing. In teaching and learning, open access provide wide range barrier free information to teacher and learner. The paper discussed the various open access journals, online academic publishing and prominent open access publishers. It explained the roles of open access through online academic publishing and the roles of academic libraries in promoting open access. The paper recommended among others that academic library resources should be digitized to allow for open accesses and faculty should publish online in the digital age for open access

Participation in the global knowledge commons : challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a review of recent trends in the open access (OA) movement, as well as to discuss the significance of those trends for information access in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of the recent literature was carried out, focusing on the benefits of a greater information access in developing countries. The paper also brings together the diverse experiences from the authors on OA publishing and archiving with institutions in a number of developing countries. Findings – Knowledge workers in developing countries are now getting access to scholarly and scientific publications and electronic resources at a level that is unmatched historically. This is highly significant, if developing countries are to meet the millennium development goals. The OA movement and the growing number of Open Archive Initiative-compliant institutional repositories promise to provide even greater access to resources and publications that were previously inaccessible. These low cost technology and interoperability standards are providing great opportunities for libraries and publishers in developing countries to disseminate local research and to bridge the south-north knowledge gap. Originality/value – This paper therefore provides recommendations for knowledge workers on how to actively participate in and contribute to the global knowledge commons. The results and recommendations contained in the paper should be of interest to authors, policy makers, funding agencies and information professionals in both developing and developed countries

Global Awareness and Pandemic in Predatory Journals and Publishing: A Bibliometric Analysis

Open access publishing not only increases accessibility to library materials and publications but also provokes the growth of predatory journals. The objectives of this study were to 1) corroborate the increasing concern of predatory journals, 2) identify journals publishing articles that commented on this issue, and 3) pinpoint occupations, academic disciplines, and geographic locations of these authors. This bibliometric study covered 2010-2020 tracking the library and information science literatures on the subject of predatory journals and outlined the trends. Analytical results of this study showed that there was an increasing global awareness of predatory journals among academic librarians and the scholarly community. The findings suggest a critical need for establishing information literacy in academia in the context of predatory journals, prompting academic librarians and scholarly authors to collaboratively deal with the pandemic of predatory publications

Deployment of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria Institutional Digital Repository

The paper discussed the concept of open access initiative and its relevance to the development of digital repositories. It primarily focused on the  institutional digital repository project of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. The University library administration setup, policy, equipment and facilities including software for the project were highlighted. The digitisation process, test running, training, system installation and the workflow developed by the institution were discussed. The successes recorded and challenges faced by the project were equally presented. The paper concluded that repositories are very important to universities in helping them showcase, manage and capture their intellectual assets as a part of their information service strategy and contribution to universal access to knowledge and information

AN APPRAISAL OF OPEN ACCESS INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES USE BY ACADEMIC STAFF IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH CENTRAL STATES OF NIGERIA

This research was carried out to evaluate the Awareness and Use of Open Access Institutional Repositories by Academics in Federal Universities in North Central States of Nigeria. The research questions raised among others include: How often do academic staff use Open Access IR for dissemination of research outputs in Federal Universities in North Central States of Nigeria? What challenges are academic staff faced with in accessing Open Access IR in Federal Universities in North Central States of Nigeria? Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the research. The target population are 3,547 academics in the Federal Universities in the North Central States excluding University of Agriculture Makurdi, and University of Abuja. A sample of 355 respondents (Academics) was selected for the study. The figure represents approximately 10% of the target population of academics in the Federal Universities in North Central States of Nigeria. The instrument that was used to collect data for the study is questionnaire. The data collected was subjected to descriptive statistics. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data. Some of the major findings revealed: that the Open Access Institutional Repositories were used by scholars on daily bases and at their will. That academics experience a kind of delay when looking for information from their Open Access Institutional Repositories during their academic activities which can lead to unproductive academic productivity. The study recommends that university management should provide necessary facilities and formulate policies that would encourage mandatory deposit and use of scholarly works in open access institutional repositories and other open access outlets to raise the level of usage among others

Open Access and Global Inclusion: A Look at Cuba

Is the Open Access movement meeting its goal of equalizing access to research worldwide? What we learned in libraries and archives during a delegation to Cuba inspired us to pursue this question. Latin America has long used OA to share its research, but it still has not achieved parity in access and contribution with the developed world. We consider what the OA movement can do to relieve some of these global inequities

Open Access Publishing: A Literature Review

Within the context of the Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe) research scope, this literature review investigates the current trends, advantages, disadvantages, problems and solutions, opportunities and barriers in Open Access Publishing (OAP), and in particular Open Access (OA) academic publishing. This study is intended to scope and evaluate current theory and practice concerning models for OAP and engage with intellectual, legal and economic perspectives on OAP. It is also aimed at mapping the field of academic publishing in the UK and abroad, drawing specifically upon the experiences of CREATe industry partners as well as other initiatives such as SSRN, open source software, and Creative Commons. As a final critical goal, this scoping study will identify any meaningful gaps in the relevant literature with a view to developing further research questions. The results of this scoping exercise will then be presented to relevant industry and academic partners at a workshop intended to assist in further developing the critical research questions pertinent to OAP

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Predatory Publishing but Were Afraid to Ask

Librarians have a key role to play in educating users about predatory publishing. Predatory publishing can be described as low quality, amateurish, and often unethical academic publishing that is usually Open Access (OA). Understanding predatory publishing helps authors to make more informed decisions about where to publish. In the process of educating our users, librarians can set the ground for important conversations that encourage critical thinking about the scholarly communications process. Predatory publishing stems from broader problems including overemphasis on publication quantity, an OA models based on traditional, for-profit publishing, and resource disparities in the Global South. When users take fuller responsibility and ownership of scholarly communications, knowledge can be a public good and not a commodity. A more sustainable and just scholarly communications ecosystem can be a reality. As effective advocates for OA, librarians need to be ready to respond to those who conflate OA and predatory publishing. It is helpful to contextualize predatory publishing as an aspect of evaluating publishers and the quality of scholarship. This helps promote the idea that due diligence is the responsibility of all scholars, whether as authors, peers, or administrators. Additionally, positioning (deliberate) predatory publishing in the broader arena of unethical and fraudulent scholarly practices helps to decouple predatory publishing from OA and boosts our ability to communicate effectively with non-librarians

Growth and Development of Open Access Institutional Repositories in Africa

The present study attempts to highlight the growth and development of institutional repositories in Africa. The institutional repositories developed by African countries were identified by selecting the database of OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories). The retrieved data were thoroughly analyzed for the necessary information. The study found a total of 219 open access repositories In Africa, out of which 161(73.51%) are Institutional repositories that contained theses and dissertations as one content type. The process of inclusion of institutional repositories at OpenDOAR in Africa started in the year 2005, while the maximum growth of repositories has been recorded during the year 2013 (21; 13%), 2015 (29; 18%), and 2019(46; 28%) respectively. The study also signifies that Kenya is the front runner contributing the highest institutional repositories, followed by South Africa and Nigeria. In terms of sub-region categorization (Eastern Africa, southern Africa, Northern Africa, Western Africa, and central Africa), it is observed that eastern Africa is the leading region having a maximum number of repositories while central Africa is lagging which do not have even a single repository registered with OpenDOAR. DSpace is the most preferred software used by the institutional repositories. The interface language assessment shows that English, the international language, was the most commonly preferred interface language by African institutional repositories.https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2022.20.1.3.