Building open access in Africa

Nwanwu, Williams and Ahmed, Allam Building open access in Africa. International Journal Technology Management, 2009, vol. 45, n. 1/2. [Journal article (Unpaginated)]

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English abstract

Developing Countries (DCs), particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), are suffering from scientific information famine. The expectation that the internet would facilitate scientific information flow does not seem to be realisable, owing to the restrictive subscription fees of the high quality sources and the beleaguering inequity in the access and use of the internet and other Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources. This paper aims to assess and evaluate Open Access (OA) movement as a proposed solution to avoid the restrictions over accessing scientific knowledge, particularly in SSA. The paper also outlines the opportunities and challenges in implementing OA in SSA. However, there are often mismatches between what the ‘donor’ countries can reasonably offer and what the SSA countries can implement. Finally, the paper will discuss the slow uptake of the OA in Africa, the perception of the African scientists towards the movement, the non-expression of concern by policymakers and their implications on the scientific activities in Africa.

Item type: Journal article (Unpaginated)
Keywords: Open Access; OA; open source; digital divide; Information and Communication Technologies; ICTs; Developing Countries; DCs; Sub-Saharan Africa; SSA; information; copyright; copyleft; open content;FAO_AGORA; Research4Life
Subjects: E. Publishing and legal issues.
Depositing user: Thembani Malapela
Date deposited: 16 Dec 2015 19:40
Last modified: 16 Dec 2015 19:40
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/28607

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