by Ms. Jacinta Were (Consultant - Information Management & Capacity Building, Kenya) at the Forum on Open Data and Open Science in Agriculture on 15th June 2015

1. OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVES AND
CHALLENGES IN KENYA:
UNIVERSITIES
Jacinta Were

2. WHAT IS OPEN ACCESS

3. OPEN ACCESS
• FREE access to peer reviewed scholarly
publications
• It is free of most copyright and licensing
restrictions
• It is slightly different from FREE resources

4. WHY OPEN ACCESS

5. “New knowledge arises through
the study of existing works,
exchange of ideas, the linking of
ideas and networking with other
disciplines”
European commission handbook on Opportunities and
challenges of Open Access

6. “Any restriction of access to
academic information hinders the
process of obtaining new insights
and making new discoveries whose
Access usefulness cannot be
determined in advance”

7. Barriers
Rising costs of information resources poses
serious restriction to the published peer
reviewed scholarly material
Copyright Laws

8. BENEFITS

9. • Enhances visibility of our local research output
• Enhances visibility of the researchers
nationally and globally
• Increases Impact Factor of journals

10. Forgotten University
Research Output
University library data often encode some
of the most important, unique and
authoritative information in the world
– Theses/Dissertations
– Research Projects
– Student Projects
– Unpublished conference papers

11. • Reports
• Speeches
• Talks
• Presentations
• Video recordings

12. HOW DOES THE
FARMER BENEFIT

13. SUPPORT TO THE FARMER
• Many farmers are now educated and can
package their own information given the
opportunity
• Extension workers can repackage the
information given the opportunity
• Librarians can repackage the information
given the opportunity

14. EFFORTS IN KENYA
14 Institutions

15. Digital Repositories in Africa
(DOAR)
0
5
10
15
20
25
Algeria
Botswana
Cameroon
CapeVerde
Egypt
Ethiopia
Ghana
Kenya
Lesotho
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
Rwanda
Senegal
SouthAfrica
Sudan
Tanzania
Turkana
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

16. CHALLENGES OF OPEN ACCESS
• Concept not understood
• Negative Perception
• Quality
• Protecting the author
• What happens to my royalties
• Who pays for the publishing process
• Reliable archiving policy
• Predatory publishing

17. • Lack of enabling Open Access policies in
universities
• Technical challenges
– Technical know-how
– Platform

18. ISSUES to focus on
• Government framework that will create an
enabling environment to guide institutions
• Change current perception on Open Access
• Sensitization of researchers on Creative
Commons Copyright Licenses

19. Cont…
• Universities should formulate enabling
Open Access Policies
• Effective implementation of these
policies
• Establish digital Institutional Repositories

20. Cont…
• Explore Free Open Access Publishing
Platforms
– ASKIA (Access to Scientific and Socio-economic
Knowledge in Africa) housed by ECA
– IMARK – (The Information Management
Resource Kit) developed by FAO
– AJOL - African Journal Online

21. Cont…
• Enhance collaboration between libraries and
agricultural knowledge management centers
• Universities should explore strategies of
supporting information needs of the
communities around them

22. THANK YOU