Access to Africa’s

knowledge

Scholarly Communication in Africa

University of Mauritius

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What do we, in African countries, seek to gain from our investment in

research?

The aim is surely African knowledge,

for Africa, from Africa, widely accessible...

Globally, scholarly communications is

at a crossroads

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...as the internet offers greater

connectivity, lower cost...

http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/

We face two very different poles of

opportunity...

Enhanced global competitiveness and

prestige....

...or ways of addressing

development challenges...

We constantly ask questions about the link between

research and development...

‘How could the application of knowledge end poverty and hunger in Africa? How could higher education empower women and promote gender equity? How can knowledge be considered in the African context to address child mortality and improve maternal health?’

Nahas Angula, Namibian Prime Minister, UNESCO 29th Conference on Higher Education, 2009

Photo: coda Damien du Toit http://www.flickr.com/photos/coda/Creative Commons Share-Alike

Yet we are still caught up with old

paradigms...

...stuck in a free rider mentality...

...in which higher education does not see publication as its responsibility...

...measuring success on the

basis of counts of journal articles

in the ISI indexes.

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...a system run by a single commercial company...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/ CC attribution licence

The result is tunnel vision...

...which ignores all but a small

segment of the publishing

ecosystem..

... marginalising African research

.. ignoring other communications

activity...

.. and offering little support and

recognition to the communications that

emerge from development-focused

research...

There is a penalty...

Science Research - 2001

http://www.worldmapper.org 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

World poverty

http://www.worldmapper.org 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

How can we address this?

Leveraging technology in a

networked world ....

... aligning communications policy with institutional and

national strategies...

...revaluing ‘grey publishing’...

... leveraging open access...

...by publishing in open access

journals...

...using collaborative

publishing platforms...

...using open repositories and

portals...

...rethinking business models...

...gaining wider impact and

reach...

How can the University of

Mauritius harness this potential to

deliver its strategic goals?

Eve GrayHonorary Research Associate

Centre for Educational Technology

University of Cape Townhttp://www.gray-area.co.za

http://www.http://www.sca2kafrica.org/

http://www.cet.uct.ac.za