OA in Africa and the changing policy environment
58
Open Access - The rapidly changing policy environment: Implications for publishers and universities Open Access Africa 2012 Cape Town
description
This presentation explores the potential impact on African scholarly communication of the recent spate of international policy initiatives.
Transcript of OA in Africa and the changing policy environment
Open Access - The rapidly changing policy environment: Implications for
publishers and universities
Open Access Africa 2012 Cape Town
Attribution Some rights reserved by Brian R. Birke
A perfect storm?
Attribution Some rights reserved by James Cridland
Open Access policy in the mainstream
..a surge in global, regional and government policies …
… a human rights approach …
AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by riac
At the heart of the storm – a battle over IP rights and the freedom of the internet
UNESCO – Open Access to scientific information…
The goal is policy change, with the strategic focus on developing countries, especially Africa…
UNESCO OA brochure
Capacity is a major and systemic issue ….
AttributionNoncommercialShare Alike Some rights reserved by Peter Curbishley
Technology infrastructure is not just about platforms
Attribution Some rights reserved by eirikref
The Impact Factor excludes developing country research…
AttributionNoncommercial Some rights reserved by emily_mas
SARUA: Baseline Study of Science and Technology Framework and Higher Education in the SADC Region
SARUA: Baseline Study of Science and Technology Framework and Higher Education in the SADC Region
African universities are essentially consumers of knowledge produced in
developed countries. In essence what is being defined as ‘knowledge society'
means two different things to the developed world and the African
continent. The former are the producers and the latter are the consumers….
Blade Nzimande, SA Minster of Higher Education and Training, UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education 2010
The Finch Report in the UK – gold open access takes front of stage…
http://www.researchinfonet.org/publish/finch/
The central message ….
…investment in research communication and its
infrastructure is essential…
AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved by 401(K) 2012
Protest!
Share Alike Some rights reserved by leunix
The green route…
AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by ENOUGH Project
… or the gold
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/ CC attribution licence
…the discussion is still largely
about journals…
…and the importance of the
published article as the version of
record…
… the cost of APCs remains a problem – are waivers really the
answer?
AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved by 401(K) 2012
Are international open access journals helping overcome the marginal status of developing country research?
… moving beyond the impact factor with new journal models and altmetrics?
For developing country publishing, are answers likely to be in regional
collaboration?
SciELO and SciELO South Africa have been incorporated into the
Web of Science
Alperin et al., 2008, Open access and scholarly publishing in Latin America: ten flavours and a few reflections revista.ibict.br/liinc/index.php/liinc/article/view/269/167
Funder mandates are beginning to change publishing behaviour….
But is this still a matter of access, or will it widen participation?
I think funding agencies need to rethink how they fund research. Rather than just
requiring publication of the research output, data gathering and sharing should
be integral to the entire process.
Leslie Chan – Interview with Hassan Masum: Center for Global Health R&D Assessment
New global policies beyond the journal article…
The Finch Report
…the infrastructure of subject and institutional repositories should be developed so that they play a valuable role complementary to formal publishing, particularly in providing access to research data and to grey literature, and in
digital preservation
Research for development
A lot of OA development-focused research outputs are in fact produced…
AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by Mennonite Church USA Archives
African universities seek two major goals – global prestige and competitiveness…
Some rights reserved by mimaba
…and research contribution to national development. The biggest
challenge is achieving excellence and relevance.
Will WB and FAO style initiatives, taken together with the Finch
recommendations on repositories, add traction to national policy development
for development-focused research?
The Impact factor
AttributionNoncommercial Some rights reserved by emily_mas
The implications in the developing world…
Our universities, in particular, should be directing their research focus to address the
development and social needs of our communities. The impact of their research
should be measured by how much difference it makes to the needs of our communities, rather than by just how many international
citations researchers receive in their publications.
Blade Nzimande, SA Minster of Higher Education and Training, Women in Science Awards. 2010
Do we want to advise our colleagues in the developing world to replicate a
journal system that we think is on the way out? Or do we want to encourage
them to adopt something that is far more current–that is cutting edge and is going
to lead the way?
Leslie Chan – Interview with Hassan Masum: Center for Global Health R&D Assessment
AttributionNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by Investing in Gold
The $64,000 question –sustainability in the developing world
Eve Gray Scholarly Communication in Africa
ProgrammeUniversity of Cape Town
http://www.gray-area.co.zaTwitter: graysouth
