Embracing Electronic Scholarly Publishing In Africa; The Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology Library, Kumasi, Ghana As A Case Study

Presenter: Helena Asamoah-Hassan, Library, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana
Time: 9:40 AM - 10:40 AM, 13 July 2007
Location: SFU Harbour Centre, Westcoast Energy Executive Meeting Room, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract
Paper

“the wind of ICT revolution…has also blown onto the continent”

Helena Asamoah-Hassan presented on her university library’s consideration of publishing a scholarly journal electronically. What follows is a case-study of their assessment, evaluation and conclusions. While a study of her particular library’s experience, her observations are relevant to e-publishing throughout Africa.

Demerits of Electronic Scholarly Publishing in Africa:
- lack of standardization
- lack of knowledge that many journals maintain both online and print versions and only a small proportion are strictly online
- few journals have put back issues online
- URLs change and crash
- lack of a permanent archive
- e-journal articles may not be recognized for promotion decisions

Merits of Electronic Scholarly Publishing in Africa:
- online access to journals
- ease and speed of use
- access available at anytime to multiple users
- embedded links add value to article
- articles may be available ahead of complete issue
- reduces space issues and labour costs at libraries
- multi-media options (sound, video etc) that unavailable with print

Both the merits and demerits have a strong relationship with libraries so it is logical that libraries get involved in publishing and work to find solutions to the demerits.

African Libraries as Electronic Publishers:
Africa produces a lot of scholarly journals and reports, most in print form. African researches, however, also need information from other parts of the world. While it is important to provide access to knowledge created elsewhere, it is more important to promote the creation of knowledge within Africa. Further, it is imperative that an avenue is created to disseminate this knowledge. Libraries are age-old conduits for information acquisition, repackaging and dissemination.

KNUST Library:
- consists of Main Library and 6 College Libraries.
- total stock ~320,000 volumes, 500 print and e-journal subscriptions as well as fee e-journals (mostly through INASP)
- in total ~19,000 e-journal titles for 22,000 students and 650 faculty and researchers

KNUST as Publisher:
- training programmes begun on setting up Institutional Repository (IR) with plans to set up an IR for KNUST with the server in the Main Library
- workshop held in Kumasi 23-24 November 2006 to introduce OJS to editors, grad students and IT administrators from 6 research institutions and 5 universities
- KNUST planning a multidisciplinary journal that will feature research reports, technical reports, theses, conference papers, articles and other scholarly communication between staff (this journal will be in addition to KNUST’s journal the Journal of Science and Technology (JUST) already featured in African Journals Online (AJOL)

KNUST must still decide:
1) whether to institute a referee system for the journal
2) whether to make journal online only or also produce a print version
3) whether to place copyright with library or author
4) amount of information to make freely available and timeframe for doing so
5) whether author role will differ from role in print publishing
6) what type of reading software to be used
7) whether services will be performed voluntarily, how to fund
KNUST is currently working on a budget so hopefully the journal will be able to launch by early next year.

Having been introduced to OJS, Helena Asamoah-Hassan then offered some comments and recommendations for PKP software in Africa. Generally, from her own experience and from conversations with others who had used the software, she indicated that it is considered user-friendly (not filled with technical jargon) with a logical process and built in guides that are easily understandable. She offered the following suggestions for PKP software in Africa:
1) Government approval of software from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports is required in order for it to be used by institutions. Approval is more likely if the Ministry is approached by the software manufacturer and not the institutions.
2) A CD-ROM of the software would be valuable to institutions with no regular Internet access or slow bandwidth
3) Regular updates on developments and full training on the use of OJS after installment would be helpful
4) Training should be provided to core IT staff in each country
5) Software requires a regular automatic saving function given regular breaks in electricity
6) OJS developers should consider assisting in sourcing equipment support to interested institutions who lack basic equipment
7) Public relations work is need to demonstrate OJS software will last (skepticism attached to fact that it is free “too good to be true”)

References:
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-03/rohe.html
http://www.bookrags.com/electronic_publishing

Blogger's Blurb:
“The publisher of an Africa scholarly journal is faced with the rapid expansion of higher education and an increased number of disciplines. This results in many small niche markers of isolated scholars, who either look to the North for specialized journals or are tempted into creating one of their own.” - Jaygbay, J. 2007 Jun 29. The Politics of and Prospects for African Scholarly Journals in the Information Age. Developments in Scholarly Publishing

Helena Asamoah-Hassan’s presentation was followed with a presentation by Charles Kiven Wirsiy, Library Services, University of Buea, Cameroon. The presentations are closely related to the extent that Helena visited Cameroon to help launch the Consortium of Cameroon University and Research Libraries. Both presenters, and the libraries discussed, suffer from a dearth of information and resources and are constrained by small budgets. While electronic journals and open-access seem an ideal means of enabling small libraries to access a wealth of information, the disparity of the “digital divide” is evident in the African context. Access to computers and reliable Internet connections were noted by both presenters and scholars at the University of Buea now depend on their mobile telephones to download and Internet cafés play a crucial role. Both presenters however expressed optimism and interest in electronic journal publishing and open access. Crucial insight was offered on how to introduce software such as OJS despite fear, skepticism and the challenges of government bureaucracy in Africa. While global access to information is the ultimate vision and hope, both presentations highlighted that global access still requires knowledge of regional and cultural issues.

Thomas Abraham’s presentation on scholarly publishing in India raised many similar concerns and considerations. His discussion of customizing OJS software in Hindi and the potential to extend this to other Indian languages seems particularly relevant in the African context. While the coordination and sharing between the libraries in Ghana and Cameroon is promising, extending such dialogue to other countries outside of Africa, such as India, would not only be valuable for all involved but very much in the spirit of expanding lines of communication with the aim of improving the quality of information that underlies the Public Knowledge Project.

Related conference presentations:

On libraries
"Rethinking Collections: Libraries and Librarians in an Open Age", "Librarians as campus OA leaders: the University of Alberta experience", "The Library as a mediator for e-publishing. A case on how a library can become a significant factor in facilitating digital scholarly communication and open access publishing for less web savvy journals", "The National Library of Australia: open access to Open Publish", "A content management strategy – implementing OJS and OCS at Swinburne University library", "Beyond the Experiment: The Scholarly Publishing Office and the Maturation of Library-Based Publishing", "Survey of Librarian Attitudes about Open Access", "A Critical Theory of Library Technology: Libraries & Electronic Publishing"

On Africa
"Strengthening African Research Culture and Capacities Project", "Scholarly publishing in sub-Saharan Africa in the twenty-first century: challenges and opportunities", "Open Source Software in Education in Africa", "The State of Acquisition, Organization and Use of Open Access Information Resources in Cameroon University Libraries: The Case of the University of Buea and University of Yaounde I Libraries"

The State of Acquisition, Organization and Use of Open Access Information Resources in Cameroon University Libraries

Full Title: The State of Acquisition, Organization and Use of Open Access Information Resources in Cameroon University Libraries: The Case of the University of Buea and University of Yaounde I Libraries Photo: Charles Kivin Wirsiy at PKP Conference

Presenter: Charles Kiven Wirsiy, Library Services, University of Buea, Cameroon
Time: 9:40 AM - 10:40 AM, 13 July 2007
Location: SFU Harbour Centre, Westcoast Energy Executive Meeting Room, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Photo: University of Buea

Background:
In 1992 Cameroon saw higher education reforms that led to the creation of 5 more universities that went to functional in May 1993. At the time the University of Yaoundé was the lone university in Cameroon. The new universities are either English, French or bilingual, including the University of Buea created in the Aglo-Saxon tradition. The University of Yaoundé has a bilingual and bicultural tradition but the French influence is more dominant. All six universities are funded by the government and suffer a perennial problem of inadequate funding. As a consequence, electronic journals can play a vital role in the delivery of information.

Wirsiy, of the University of Beau, examined the state of acquisition, organization, and use of electronic resources at the universities of Buea and Yaoundé I.

University of Buea:
- 14,000 students in 2006/7
- 80,00 volumes of manuals and serials (bulk in English)
- subscriptions to 8 journals
- access to electronic information on-line or on CD-ROM (including ADL, HINARI, AGORA, World Bank, TUFH, AJOL, OpenDOAR, DOAJ)
- connected to the Internet in 2003/4 but not functional due to issues with bandwidth
- automation underway
- directory of open access resources available on CD ROM and printed
- licenses with HINARI, AGORA, and World Bank - passwords provided to users to use from cafes or IT centre
- user education

University of Yaoundé I:
- 25,000 students in 2006/7
- 120,00 volumes of manuals and serials (bulk in French)
- no journal subscriptions
- access to HINARI and AGORA
- connected to Internet but not functional
- media center with 50 computers
- directory of open access resources available on CD ROM but not current
- licenses to HINARI and AGORA – passwords to users “timid”
- user education limited

Wirsiy’s comparison indicated that while open access is gaining ground in Africa, the state of affairs in Cameroon’s two prominent university libraries leaves much to be desired.

Improvement Prospects:
- improvement of ICT and bandwidth
- creation of “Centre Interuniversitaire des Resources Documentaires” (CIRD) and “Centre interuniversitaires des technologies de l’information et de la Communication” (CITI) by Minister of Education to act as clearinghouses
- creation of virtual libraries in state universities (UB given go-ahead but no prospects at UYI yet)
- increasing availability of cheap wireless broadband via mobile telephone companies (using mobile phones to download at UB)
- creation of Consortium of Cameroon University and Research Libraries (COCUREL) though assistance from the Electronic Information for Libraries Network (Helena Asamoa-Hassan from KNUST in Ghana went to Cameroon to help launch a functional consortium)
- creation of institutional information repositories

What’s Still Needed in terms of Open Access?
- improved Internet connectivity
- training
- increased knowledge of resources by those in education community

Blogger's Blurb:
“The publisher of an Africa scholarly journal is faced with the rapid expansion of higher education and an increased number of disciplines. This results in many small niche markers of isolated scholars, who either look to the North for specialized journals or are tempted into creating one of their own.” - Jaygbay, J. 2007 Jun 29. The Politics of and Prospects for African Scholarly Journals in the Information Age. Developments in Scholarly Publishing

Wirsiy’s presentation was preceded by Helena Asamoah–Hassan’s presentation on the KNUST library in Kumasi, Ghana’s experience with electronic scholarly publishing The presentations are closely related to the extent that Helena visited Cameroon to help launch the Consortium of Cameroon University and Research Libraries. Both presenters, and the libraries discussed, suffer from a dearth of information and resources and are constrained by small budgets. While electronic journals and open-access seem an ideal means of enabling small libraries to access a wealth of information, the disparity of the “digital divide” is evident in the African context. Access to computers and reliable Internet connections were noted by both presenters and scholars at the University of Buea now depend on their mobile telephones to download and Internet cafés play a crucial role. Both presenters however expressed optimism and interest in electronic journal publishing and open access. Crucial insight was offered on how to introduce software such as OJS despite fear, skepticism and the challenges of government bureaucracy in Africa. While global access to information is the ultimate vision and hope, both presentations highlighted that global access still requires knowledge of regional and cultural issues.

Thomas Abraham’s presentation on scholarly publishing in India raised many similar concerns and considerations. His discussion of customizing OJS software in Hindi and the potential to extend this to other Indian languages seems particularly relevant in the African context. While the coordination and sharing between the libraries in Ghana and Cameroon is promising, extending such dialogue to other countries outside of Africa, such as India, would not only be valuable for all involved but very much in the spirit of expanding lines of communication with the aim of improving the quality of information that underlies the Public Knowledge Project.

Related conference presentations:

On libraries
"Rethinking Collections: Libraries and Librarians in an Open Age", "Librarians as campus OA leaders: the University of Alberta experience", "The Library as a mediator for e-publishing. A case on how a library can become a significant factor in facilitating digital scholarly communication and open access publishing for less web savvy journals", "The National Library of Australia: open access to Open Publish", "A content management strategy – implementing OJS and OCS at Swinburne University library", "Beyond the Experiment: The Scholarly Publishing Office and the Maturation of Library-Based Publishing", "Survey of Librarian Attitudes about Open Access", "A Critical Theory of Library Technology: Libraries & Electronic Publishing"

On Africa
"Strengthening African Research Culture and Capacities Project", "Scholarly publishing in sub-Saharan Africa in the twenty-first century: challenges and opportunities", "Open Source Software in Education in Africa", "Embracing Electronic Scholarly Publishing In Africa; The Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology (Knust) Library, Kumasi, Ghana As A Case Study"

Strengthening African Research Culture and Capacities Project

Presenter: Samuel Smith Esseh
PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
Thursday, July 12, 2007
1:45 PM - 2:45 PM in SFUHC
Westcoast Energy Executive Meeting Room
Vancouver, Canada
Abstract

Samuel Smith Esseh is undertaking doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia and is a member of the Public Knowledge Project.

Samuel Esseh just returned from a research trip to Africa three days ago. He had been in Africa for eight months, traveling to five countries giving workshops and conducting research on the potential of online systems in African research pursuits. He presented a research paper that is still in progress, and discussed initial findings and what the project hopes to achieve.

The Scholarly Publishing Situation in Africa: Statistics
Africa is the second largest continent, and has over 900 million people, and therefore should be a world leader in global scholarship. In 1960-1979, scholarly publishing began to rise in Africa, a result of gains in social and political independence. However, in 1980-1985 scholarly publishing plateaued. From 1986 to now, scholarly publishing in Africa has been declining steadily.

Based on studying the PASCAL databsase from 1991-1997, and the ISI from 1981-2000,
scholarly publishing in Aftrica has been concentrated in only 7 countries of 52. These seven countries account for 75% of scholarly publishing in the continent, while the other forty-five countries account for only 25%.

The circulation numbers for African journals are low. True scholarly publications have an average circulation of 500, or at least 100-200. Only one African journal has more than 400 external subscribers. All the others have a maximum of 50 or less.

Africa has not been increasing its overall contribution to world scholarship, while many countries in other continents have seen huge increases in their contribution of publications and papers. One reason is that African universities have very low budgets for journal access and publication, ranging from a budget of 50 cents per student (Ghana) to $2.66 per student (Cape Coast) to the high of $9.00 per student (Dar es Salaam).

African scholarly works are poorly distributed, barely marketed, and hardly accessed. African scholars do not have access to all the scientific literature they need in order for science in Africa to progress efficiently and effectively.

The Growth of Internet Use in Africa
The introduction of the internet in Africa has given hope for increasing higher education’s access to research and scholarship, as well as for opening opportunities to create and disseminate information. In 1995, very few countries in Africa had access to the internet. There were only 23,000 users in the entire continent. Now, every country has some form of internet access, with an estimated 9, 000, 000 users. The growth of internet use in the world from 2000-2007 has been 203 %, while the growth in Africa has been much larger, at 625%.

The next step, with the increase in internet access, is to support local scholarly publishing initiatives to increase access to African research and advance local research capacities. Print production has failed Africa. Not one resource in the print production process comes from Africa, as the paper, ink, and machines are imported. The only African resource is manpower. However, importing materials is expensive, with many tariffs, and print journals are too costly, putting local publishers out of business.

Aims and Objectives for the Project
This research project aims to assess the potential contribution of online publishing systems for African scholarly journals. It is concerned with studying issues in online scholarly publishing in Africa pertaining to economics, authorship, peer review processes, technical requirements, readership benefits, and scholarly impact.

Achieving these objectives requires examining feasibility requirements and the potential value of online journal publishing in Africa. The project has asked three main Questions to achieve its aims:

1 Scholarly publishing: what is the current state of journal publishing. What changes are underway in editorial, economic etc. areas?
2. Scholarly communication infrastructure: What are current levels and patterns of access to online resources?
3 Online publishing systems. In what ways can online technologies be used, and locally produced?

Research Design
Samuel Esseh's research involved a sample of 280 participants from five countries in Africa (2 from eastern Africa, 2 from western Africa, and 1 from South Africa). He gave workshops about the use of Open Journal Systems (OJS) for online scholarly publishing. The participants ranged from journal editors, journal staff, potential editors, faculty, students, academic administrators, university librarians, and IT administrators and staff. The participation from universities and research groups broke down in the following way. In Nigeria, two regions were visited, and in these two regions, 8 universities and 7 research groups attended the workshops. In Ghana, one region was visited, and 4 universities, and 6 research groups participated. In Uganda, one region was visited and 2 universities and 3 research groups participated. In Kenya, one region was visited and 3 universities and four research groups participated. In South Africa, two regions were visited and 6 universities and 7 research groups participated.

Data collection was done through questionnaires given to four groups: editorial/staff, librarians/IT staff, potential editors/faculty, and IT Administrators. These questionnaires aimed to examine the current state of journal publishing in Africa, and to provide a baseline with which to assess changes in the coming years.

The workshops were tailored for these same groups of people, and aimed to introduce the participants to new developments in online publishing support (for example, OJS) as well as to provide a hands-on opportunity to see how these systems work, and how labour would need to be distributed to use these free online journal publishing systems.

Now that the questionnaires and workshops have been completed, the project is following up with emails to the participants before writing the report.

Findings
Common themes/concerns that came up in questionnaires
-What is the appropriate economic model for sustainability of online publishing systems?
-The problem of the availability of online infrastructure (bandwith, computers, power outages)
-The human resource requirements-skills training (editorial staff, reviewers)
-Institutional acceptability of online publishing (accreditations, safeguarding intellectual property).
-Incentives to publish.
-Where will funding come from?
-How to integrate OJS with other repositories?
-What are the institutional/national policies around this?
-What about institutional priorities?
-Is technical support available for this kind of endeavour?

General comments from the participants:
-OJS is very positive, I see the need for this and it will help the development of countries in Africa.
-It would be nice to have more time on the walk through of OJS.
-OJS is a powerful tool, it is versatile, easy to operate, not expensive, and few staff are required.
-OJS is perfect to launch an institution’s research resources.
-I learned more about Open Access publishing. Despite the disadvantage of many people not having internet access in Africa, the software has potential to support research efforts in Africa.

In closing, there is a pressing need to explore new ways of having African researchers and scholars participate in the global knowledge exchange. This project aspires to research and develop one possible means of increasing that exchange.

Comment at end of presentation:
There is a similar situation in Brazil. This research is good because it shows the numbers, which policy makers need. With the numbers, it is not just an idea or a dream, it is real and grounded.


Link to the Strengthening African Research Culture and Capacities Project website


Link to the original project proposal, before Samuel Esseh's trip to Africa, entitled Strengthening Scholarly Publishing in Africa: Assessing the Potential of Online Systems

Commentary (by blogger)
Samuel Esseh’s research shows that, in general, scholars, researchers, librarians, and IT specialists in the major centres for scholarship in Africa see OJS and Open Access in general as a means for increasing the visibility and contribution of African research globally. A large problem is the low level of internet access on the continent, as most countries on the continent do not have the resources to provide cheap and ubiquitous internet access. This is an issue of continuity—a continuing legacy of poverty in the country, and a corresponding lack of technological advancement. However, Samuel Esseh made it clear that, in fact, it is the old print technologies that are overly costly, and that the new, digital technologies are cheaper for publishing academic journals. It appears that Africa is breaking radically from past trends, as is shown by its 625% increase in internet use since 2000. This break is sorely needed, as the old printing presses have failed African scholarly publishing. Increases in technology, which at first are costly, in the end will result in cheaper and greater participation of Africa on the global stage.

The larger radical break from past trends being aimed at is the increase in the visibility and contribution of African research to the global community. The brief period of increase in African research publications in the sixties and seventies (a result of a break from the colonial past) died off in the eighties and, currently, is continuing the trend of not increasing over time, especially compared with the huge increases in research output of the rest of the global community. It is clear that, with the enormous size and populations of Africa, the past invisibility of African research is wildly out of proportion to the numbers of potential research contributions, and that the radical break being aimed at is radical only in comparison to the extreme dearth of the past. The hope, at first, is to encourage only a just and proportionate level of global contribution for the continent.

OJS and Open Access publishing on the web in general are radical new tools for the efficient and global propagation of new research findings. In some countries, these tools are increasing already vast research contributions greatly. In Africa, these radical and inexpensive tools will hopefully help to produce a radical increase that will result, at first, in an average and proportionate global scholarly contribution. It appears, however, that in Africa the technological issue of lack of internet access must be addressed alongside the changeover to online forms of publishing.