Susan Murray [email protected]. “Science, technology and publication form a triad which is essential for the survival of developing nations.” F Salager-Meyer,

Building expertise injournal publishing

BMC OA in Africa - 2012

Susan Murray

[email protected]

www.ajol.info since 1998

Building Publishing Capacity “Science, technology and publication form

a triad which is essential for the survival of developing nations.” F Salager-Meyer, 2005

Research capacity

Absorption & production capacity

PUBLISHING capacity

Lor, PJ “Bridging the North-South Divide in Scholarly Communication in Africa – a library and information systems perspective” 2006 http://www.ascleiden.nl/Pdf/elecpublconflor.pdf

Lor, PJ “Bridging the North-South Divide in Scholarly Communication in Africa – a library and information systems perspective” 2006 http://www.ascleiden.nl/Pdf/elecpublconflor.pdf

Range of journal types in HUGE range ... Periphery countries

& journals NOT homogenous Professional commercial “old-style”

publishers - some Professional commercial OA

publishers - few Society publishers - some University press publishers - few

Scholar publishers

http://www.venturevalkyrie.com/2010/12/19/dont-ask-dont-tell/1504/rock-hard-place-road-sign-with-dramatic-clouds-and-sky

Challenges for Scholar journals Doing an astounding job, given challenges Aware of NBance of “finessed” appearance

& language of the publication (online or in print)

2nd language English / French speakers but few have language editors.

Few have skills in formatting, layout, typesetting AND technical skills for interoperability, etc.

RESULT >>> journals go to overseas publishing services (and authors also)

Bucks for journals

“Local journals struggle to survive and have very poor visibility due to high costs of publication and distribution” Chan, Kirsop, Arunachalam, 2005 https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/4415/1/Open_Access_Archiving.pdf

Unleashing an publishing

lion...

Institutional support Quality indicators – clarity on what

to attain Self-determination in these Skills development & training of....

Authors, Editors, Reviewers Journal publishing software - OJS Aggregators for visibility, altmetrics,

interoperability, OA data, etc Partnerships

Institutional Support

Open Access Institutional Repositories not enough

Support for all types of research communication, notably peer-reviewed quality Gold OA journals

Some libraries doing wonderful work

Foster research culture; explicit attention to research communication and publishing

Awareness-raising; encouraged (not mandated)

Journal Quality indicatorsEstablishing what these are

http://www.surf.nl/en/actueel/Pages/Internationalscientificcommunityagreeonneedforqualityindicatorsfornew%28OpenAccess%29journals.aspx

Journal familiarity with theseTransparency of peer-review processTransparency of masthead – full

Editorial Board names and contact details

Trusted aggregator inclusionProfessional OA journal publishers -

quality

Editors’ skills development

Awareness & knowledge of quality criteria Training in online publishing tools (OJS,

OA) Awareness & use of CC by African OA

journals Embracing Information Age & OA – for

example, students journal training senior University staff

Peer-to-peer learning & self-determination of best practice & quality criteria

African OA publishers & publishing services

Scholar journals from Africa paying MedKnow in India for “finessing” services

African journals and authors moving to overseas publishers

But, AOSIS in South Africa doing great work

Academic Journals in Nigeria, Kenya on an international watch list of predator OA publishers, but do they really deserve that?

African journal aggregators“I would like to thank AJOL for providing a platform

through which we realized our aim of combining subscription-based hard copy journal with open access online – the best of both.

The vision of combining the two would have been extremely difficult without AJOL.”

2,500,000 visits; 6.6 million (2011); 40% African

Top article from AJOL2011: downloaded 27,430

VERY exciting emerging country-level platforms

Aggregators and sector playersTransparent & visible inclusion

criteria and processResolve tension between

inclusionary and exclusionary role

Better showcase and share what IS successfully being done

Collaborate better, with mutual awareness-raising efforts

Partnerships

Research partnerships (S-S and S-N)

Journal to journal (S-N and S-S) http://www.ajpp-online.org/

Journals aggregating in partnership (S) http://www.ajol.info/

Publisher to publisher ?? A role for BMC ??

Thank you!

AJOL appreciates support from:

INASP

Sida

www.ajol.info

[email protected]