Building: Amoxcalli Buildings (Science Department)
Room: Anfiteatro Alfredo Barreda
Date: 2013-08-20 04:20 PM – 05:40 PM
Last modified: 2013-08-01
Abstract
Through a series of workshops between 2006-2012, the Public knowledge Project of Canada, through IDRC, Carnegie and George Soros funded research, introduced the Open Journal Systems (OJS) an online journal management and publishing platform to journal editors, publishers and the scholarly community in Africa.
The purpose of these workshops was to introduce journal editors to recent development in the field of online publishing and how the engagement of online journal management technologies like OJS could ensure a journal’s economic sustainability while increasing global access to African research output knowledge.
This study examines how changes in technical infrastructure, particularly the adoption and use of OJS as a publishing platform over the last six years have affected the management and publishing of scholarly journals in Africa.
Using a survey research design, this study assembled data from XXX journal editors using OJS, across sub –Saharan Africa. Data analyzed so far indicate that while scholarly publishing in Africa is still struggling to keep pace with the rest of the world, major progress has been made. Many journal editors have noticed significant fall in overall cost of production, efficient management of the publishing process, enhance efficient editor-author-reviewer communication, improved visibility, submission rate and improved overall journal quality.
Drawing on what has been learned in this study, recommendations are made on how Africans can tap into the full potential of these technologies in strengthening research publishing culture and thereby reducing Africa’s isolation from the global scholarly community.