Developing Capacity

Making research output accessible in an electronic networked environment requires technical capacities that may not be readily available within the university.  Included in this would be hardware, software and networking technology requirements for building digital repositories or publishing electronic journals. Expertise in organising, managing and presenting digital collections is another requirement.  Thus experimentation and learning will always be a necessary part of the development of an open access scholarly resource or process

The five components to building capacity

Five components have been identified as part of creating the capacity for African publications to move online in a systematic and sustainable way.

The first component focuses on systems and platforms and to research needs and requirements for enabling staff responsible for publication management to move to electronic full-text publishing.

The second component focuses on distribution and access points as the basis for analysing the means of improving the efficacy of various distribution models for moving journal content into online contexts, and includes areas of sustainability, indexing and submission rates.

The third component focuses on conducting an environmental scan of current and potential technology networks for supporting open source software solutions for scholarly communication in higher education, by assessing the potential for journal hosting and support services which could operate on an institutional, national and regional basis.

The fourth component would explore and assess various modes of delivery for ongoing assistance and training for staff in online publishing techniques.  This would draw on the available skills within African and international publishing training departments, research councils and development.

The fifth component focuses on mapping the current and potential comprehensiveness and currency of indexing services on a national, regional and global basis.  This would be done by testing various means of improving journal indexing through automated transfer of metadata by indexes from journals and portals.  Solutions would be sought for the following issues:

  • The needs and requirements for enabling publishing staff to move to electronic full-text publishing;
  • The means of improving the efficacy of various distribution models for moving journal content online;
  • The current and potential technology networks required for supporting open source software solutions;
  • How the online licensing, marketing and indexing strategies could most effectively ensure the accessibility and exposure of African research on a national, regional and global scale; and
  • The most effective modes of delivery for ongoing assistance and training in online publishing techniques.

Workshop videos related to this theme:

Francis Nyamnjoh: Institutional Innovations Brian Wafawarowa: Building Capacity in changing Scholarly Communication Environments
Eve Gray: Valuing Scholarship: Scholarly Publishing and the Knowledge Divide Heather Joseph: National Innovations

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About this website

The Scholarly Communication and Access to Knowledge in Africa workshop was held in June 2009 and brought together key African and international thought-leaders in the fields of academic publishing, open access, higher education and scholarly communication. This was a planning and scoping opportunity to develop a comprehensive project plan for the Scholarly Communication in Africa project, launched in 2010.

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