‘Pre-open access local journals’ become ‘post-open access international journals’

The following exchange took place on the HIFA2015 forum as part of a wider debate on issues affecting the promotion of local research. Swarna Bandara, Jamaica, made several points regarding this problem and touched on the importance of publishing research findings (see extract below). I responded, wishing to emphasise the importance of this for strengthening national and institutional research.

“Swarna Bandara has clearly outlined the difficulty that researchers in LDCs find in publishing their research findings. I want to emphasise the importance of this problem. Since all researchers loose heart and motivation if they see no hope of publishing their research and making a contribution to knowledge in their area of interest, the inability to publish is a critical issue adversely affecting the strength of local research. Frustrated authors become isolated and feel that their work is pointless. And this has been justified since, as has been pointed out, ‘international journals’ generally take but a minor interest in local issues and the only way LDC authors can get published is by partnering with laboratories in the advanced countries. Again, [co-authoring] sometimes does little to build capacity in publishing skills or ultimately in the progress of research itself. The alternative has been to publish in national journals which had less visibility and therefore provided limited impact.

But there has been a substantial shift in this dismal picture, as Bandara has pointed out. The open access (OA) developments not only have made possible global access to published research, free of cost through deposits in interactive institutional repositories (IRs) or through OA journals, but have also made possible the increase in visibility of local journals. Organisations such as SciELO (http://www.scielo.org), Bioline International (http://www.bioline.org.br), MedKnow Publications (http://www.medknow.com) and others are providing platforms for open access journals published in the developing world, thus greatly increasing impact and international recognition. HIFA members may like to listen to this video (see http://vimeo.com/10169351) of Professor Mary Abukutsa-Onyango discussing the importance of Open Access for research in Kenya and other African countries (she discusses her past publishing difficulties for her work in agriculture, but the point she makes is relevant to all research. The video was made by Leslie Chan, Trustee EPT and Director of Bioline International).

Usage of these sites is very good, demonstrating the wide need for local research findings once they become accessible. For example, there were approaching 5 million full text downloads from the Bioline site in 2009, and MedKnow has recorded not only similarly high downloads, but increased submissions (including from international authors), increased impact and increased income of printed journals due to increased visibility and status. The ‘pre-open access local journals’ are becoming ‘post-open access international journals’.

Full text downloads of articles from OA institutional repositories are similarly encouraging, demonstrating how the transition to open access to publicly funded research is steadily levelling the playing field both for access to the global research resource and for the distribution of ‘national’ research information, see for example the Venezuelan University de Los Andes  statistics for usage of its IR (in Spanish): http://www.saber.ula.ve/stats?level=general&type=access&page=downviews-series&start=01-01-2011&end=02-01-2011&pyear=2011&pmonth=01&anoinicio=2011&anofim=2011&mesinicio=01&mesfim=01

Inevitably, these developments will spill over into the research communities in LDCs, providing encouragement, new contacts, and new opportunities for local research endeavours. And as regional research becomes internationalised, administrators will see the value to local economies of increasing support for national research, as has been shown to take place in the developed world, see http://www.openoasis.org/images/stories/file/Briefing%20papers/Open%20Access%20impact.pdf. . . . . . .".

----- Original Message -----

From: Swarna Bandara

To: HIFA2015 - Healthcare Information For All by 2015

Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2010 2:40 PM

Subject: [HIFA2015] Promoting local research (19)

Dear HIFA2015 Community

In response to Nuwan and Saroj I want to comment on three issues.

1. Lack of Research Information from LDC
. . . . .

Use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) help to make these data available with anytime anywhere access. Concepts of Open Access (OA), Institutional Repositories (IR) are utilized by many large LDC to communicate research and make these available globally. The journal publishing model implemented by the Latin America and the Caribbean at www.scielo.org is a fine example of use ITC for research information. Tools such as Open Journal System promoted by Public Knowledge Project for e-journals publishing and DSpace for IR are freely available and there is community support. In order to implement an initiative for OA to research, need collaboration between information generators, managers, distributors, facilitators and administrators including governments. Most LDC, particularly Sri Lanka and number of African countries have not taken advantage of these free resources while developed countries are taking full advantage. See the membership of NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations) and see how many LDC are in it. NIH the largest funder for health research mandated that research papers resulting from the research they fund must be available on Open Access within 6 months of publication. The result is those of us who cannot find resources to pay subscription to expensive journals can now access these through PUBMED Central. Some EU member countries, funding agencies such as Welcome Trust, and academic institutions also have similar mandates.

Why such opportunities are not used to make any usable data already exist and/or starting new e-journals using these tools to make the voice heard?

 . . . . ..

 Swarna Bandara

(Former Head, Medical Library, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica)
(Former Coordinator of ETD/DSpace Project at Mona Campus)
(Former VHL National Coordinator, Jamaica)

HIFA2015 profile: Swarna Bandara is former Head of the Medical Library at the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. She is ETD/DSpace Coordinator (ED/DSpace is an international repository for electonic theses and dissertations), and Virtual Health Library National Coordinator. Her professional interests include Open Access, Electronic publishing, Health Science Information, and Information skills training. swarna.bandara AT uwimona.edu.jm

Posted by Barbara Kirsop

A 2010 review of all things OA

Peter Suber has published his annual review of developments in OA (journals, repositories, policies, data, books . . . ). As usual, this is a wonderfully authoritative and comprehensive report that has an encouraging message for 2011 for all those commited to the free sharing of publicly funded research findings. He heads his report with these words, "The growth of OA over the past year was deep, wide, and steady." and provides a summary of the many new developments - DOAJ added 4 new titles/day, ROAR recorded 10 new repositories/week, and so on. But on the downside the lack of awareness of all these benefits is still too high in both the developed and less developed countries, showing that much remains to be done by organisations such as the EPT to continue to inform and to correct misunderstandings.

May 2011 be another year of continuing OA progress and may all researchers in the poorer nations suffer from information overload in the future!

An OA declaration from Southern Europe - the Alhambra Declaration

Following a workshop that took place in May 2010 in Granada, Spain, the Alhambra Declaration on Open Access was announced. The aim of the declaration is to develop an action plan for Open Access in southern Europe. For the full text of the declaration, see here.

Open Access in Africa - a conference organised by BioMedCentral

A valuable conference was organised recently by BMC, titled Open Access Africa. There is now an excellent web site available from which all presentations may be viewed, see here . Presentations range from overviews of OA in Africa to OA-experiences of individual organisations, both publishers and university repositories. Note also, the presentations by EPT colleagues, Daisy Ouya and Eve Gray.

Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean countries make an OA Declaration at a NECOBELAC workshop

On November 11th 2010, the participants of the NECOBELAC project worksop, held in Bogota, commited themselves to the following objectives:

1. Promote the drawing up and enforcement of public policies in favour of the unlimited availability of scientific output.

2. Promote and support the quality of scientific writing.

3 Promote Open Access to scientific output in their Nations.

Participants on the NECOBELAC training course commited themselves to replicating the training experience in the institutions of their countries and to providing advice and tools to achieve the above mentioned objectives.

For the full Declaration and details of participating cuntries and organisations, see the Declaration (in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English): 

http://www.necobelac.eu/documents/Bogota%20Declaration_4_Languages.pdf

A new OA tool on the way – mapping OA around the world!

Just released at the Berlin8 Conference in Beijing is news of a valuable new OA tool, being developed by the OASIS team, and supported by the Open Society Foundation.

It is now very clear that there is such a rollercoast of OA activities happening around the world that we are all in danger of losing track of each other, re-inventing wheels, not being aware of specialised OA experts, missing out on possible partnerships - - -

Happily the OASIS people are ahead of us and have already set in motion the development of an OA Map. This not only logs, links and maps all OA activities (IRs, journals, software, policies . . . ), but will also provide a dynamic timeline of OA progress that will not only be an invaluable historical reference, but additionally an advocacy tool.

Bookmark the OA Map page, here and watch the short video that explains the project and invites all OA initiatives to make contact so that they can be put on the map. 

Make sure your initiative is on the OA Map!

Some of the brilliant highlights of Open Access Week

For the EPT and others working with researchers in developing countries, the highlight of OA Week has to be the astonisihing list of activities that took place throughout the EIFL partnership countries. There is such a lot happening in these regions - but so also in the rest of the world.

Especially exciting was the growth in the adoption of OA mandates during OA Week- see here. Eleven new mandates were put in place during OA week alone, requiring deposit of published research in their institute's repository - from Arizona to Wageningen OA marches on..

And the Eprints team made available a very enjoyable and interesting rotating global map of new Institutional Repositories. By clicking here, the site highlights new IRs around the world, providing a brief description (often in the language of the IR country) and a link to the IR. This is an eye-opening panorama of the research that is now available for free to all. Although said to be 'temporary', it is to be hoped that this resource can become permanent as it is a strong advocacy tool for OA. Make a cup of coffeee, click on the link and sit back and enjoy an IR-trail around the world!

And the work continues . . . The Berlin8 Conference in Beijing is underway this week, with many presentations, posters and videos, - and organisations are consolidating the work they put in place last week - and the EPT continues to collect 'OA stories' A new posting from the Italian Volcanology and Geophysics oganisation was added today, the recent Indonesian earthquake highlihting the need for free global exchange.of essential information.