Conrad Omonhinmin, Co-ordinating Open Access Nigeria, Covenant University

1. Open Access in Africa – Some Issues and Questions
Open Access Africa, 2012
04 - 05 November 2012
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Omonhinmin A. Conrad Ph.D
Co-ordinating, Open Access Nigeria
Department of Biological Sciences,
College of Science & Technology,
Covenant University, Ota, NIGERIA.
conrad.omonhinmin@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

2. Open Access - A Recast
…to eliminate access barriers to
scientific literature, accelerate
research, enrich education, share
knowledge between the rich and the
poor and make useful knowledge
available for common intellectual good1

3. Outlook
Issues and questions raised here not
exhaustive, but practical and fundamental
To instigate answers to our basic questions
To help drive open access in the right path
in Africa
Personal and general questions for all

5. So before we forget
… We may leap frog to the
open, but the bushes
(behind) are not cleared

6. Poor funding Them
African researchers face several fund-
centred challenges
We

7. Are there funds for OA in the Africa context?
Should funding OA project/programme be
the target or general research funding?
How do we achieve improved funding?
How do we ensure the end-users actually
engage these funds?
How do we use the existing funds better?

8. Inaccessibility and poor dissemination of Information
What truly is access?
How Open is this access to us in Africa?
Are the means there to achieve accessibility?
Does availability implies accessibility?
How do we improve accessibility by Africans?
How many are aware of OA
What are in place to ensure good level of
awareness?
.....

9. Inaction on relevant information
...lack of motivation to act on relevant
information either for personal or general
interest of all
...grown with years of inability to participate
on most platforms
...unsettling attitude of waiting on others for
handouts
...lack of understanding of OA

10. How do we motivate the African researcher
positively?
What mean should we adopt?

11. Poor Understanding of Open Access Issues
Probably most revealing is the fact that the
African researcher may not really understand
the open access issue; what it entails and
where it will eventually lead
....does open access publishing translate into
free publishing, free access to published
materials?
...Is it both or either?

12. ….most governments again in Africa do not
seem to have grasped the open access
concepts.
…Local, regional, and trans-regional politicians
and policy makers are yet to embrace open
access
…In Nigeria for example, the National
Universities Commission (NUC), have an open
access policy tutored for the universities, yet
only four schools in Nigeria are visible in the
global open access platform.

13. How do we get our Governments and
institutions to embrace OA in a productive
way?
How do we foster cross-border
relationship at various levels to promote
OA in Africa?

14. Poor Commitment by Publishers and Institutions
How committed are the players in open
access arena?
Do institutions see OA as a platform for
improving the research base and information
access of their researchers or another route
to high scores?

15. Do OA publishers mean and do what they
say?
What does open access really mean to the
publishers?
What are the big and rich journals’ doing to
ensure OA success or failure?

16. African Journals, African Researcher
How will OA affect African Journals?
If the visibility of the poorer journals in Africa
already starved of fund decreases, will it not
mean a closure for such journals?
Will it not escalate an already worrisome
dependency on non-African journals by
African?

17. What does this mean for the African
researcher?
Will it translate to improve publications, and
access?
Will open access ever truly translate to free
or reduced publishing/subscription cost,
which is the Africa researcher’s main concern.
if an author cannot pay the APCs demanded
by OA journals, how contributory productive
can he be?

18. Directory of Open Access Journals
Does the number of journals on the Directory
of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) actually
reflect the level of FREE and OPEN access?
Has the open access movement truly
improve the publishing condition and access
of the African researcher?
How practicable is the 'author pays' model of
open access and how realistic is the standard
author fees demanded by most open access
journals.

19. International – Local Journal Complex, Impact
Factor, Webometric Rating
...the divide between what we refer to
international and local Journals or rich and
poor journals bring another issue on the
board and a great challenge to actualizing the
open access ideals.

20. Will OA not widen the international-local
journal divide?
Will this not further impoverish the local
journals by starving them of quality
submissions?
With OA becoming a major index in impact
factor and webometric ranking, how will
African journals and institutions catch up?

21. Concluding thoughts
What concrete actions are there by African
governments to handle the open access
issues? If our coming to South Africa is
anything to go by, we a lot need to be done
How does BMC circumvent the unrealistic
World Bank ranking with regards to her
“Foundational membership” offer to
institutions in Africa?

22. What is the African OA agenda?
How do we go from this conference with
concrete ways of improving open access
interactions?
How committed is everyone present here to
the OA goals?

23. Thank you