An Overview of Open Access Initiative and Its Implication for Nigeria Research Community By Ezra Shiloba Gbaje Department of Library and Information Science, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria eIFL.net Open Access Country Cordinator Presented at 2 nd Open Access Workshop held at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. 1 st – 4 th November, 2009

Introduction In developed and developing countries like Nigeria the rising cost of scholarly journal and inadequate fund have forced libraries to forgo the purchase of new journal titles, to cancel subscriptions altogether.

Introduction Unfortunately high quality scholarship and research depends on having access to relevant scholarly literatures which tells us something new and places it in the context of what we already know.

Introduction When financial, copyright and technological barriers hinder the dissemination of research findings the benefits from science, medicines, technology and humanities are also impeded.

Open Access Open access (OA) means free online access to digital scholarly materials – primarily peer- reviewed research papers.

Budapest Open Access Initiative Open access mean availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.

Budapest Open Access Initiative The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited. BOAI 2001

Bethesda Statement on OA(2003) An OA Publication is one that meets the following two conditions: 1. The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.

Bethesda Statement on OA 2. A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.

Implications Suber (2003) asserts that OA provides individuals or library the following advantages; own and not license copies of electronic journals archive electronic journals without special permission or period payment provide access without authenticating users or administer proxy server no negotiation for price or licensing terms

Prior to OA: Differential Licenses Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) lunched in 2003 and Managed by WHO. More than 100 publishers are offering more than 5,500 journals in HINARIwww.healthinternetwork.org Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) lunched in 2003 managed by UN FAO) Each Institution is registered and given a password JSTOR - IP dependent

Two complementary strategies for OA : Open-Access Journals: Journals will not charge subscriptions or fees for online access. Instead, they look to other sources to fund peer-review and publication (e.g., publication charges) Self-Archiving: Scholars should be able to deposit their refereed journal Articles in open electronic archives which conform to Open Archives Initiative standards »

Characteristics of OA Journals They are scholarly Utilize quality control They are digital They are freely available They allow authors to retain their copyrights They may use creative commons

PUBMEDCENTRAL Overview PubMed Central is a free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), developed and managed by NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Research Community in Nigeria 96 Universities Over 25 Research Institutions Over 50 Polytechnics Nigerian Universities and Research Community maintain their websites and providing Internet Access

Nigeria ? 19 journals hosted by DOAJ 10 – Bioline ( Majority from the field of medicine ) OA Journals

Implications for Nigeria Research Community Poor visibility of research works Low Impact factors Lack of acknowledgement of research contribution Research works are recycled resulting to waste of funds Lack of development

Group work Group 1: Develop a strategy for the adoption of Open Access Journals in Nigeria Group 2: Develop a strategy for the setting up an open access journal taking into consideration: -technical infrastructure -Financial implication –

Institutional Repositories Researchers and Scholars in Nigeria choose to publish in International Journals unfortunately these journals are generally not available locally due to price barriers Much of these publications still remains invisible for local professional Colleagues to use and build on it

Implications Challenging to build on what other senior professional Colleagues Waste of funds by conducting research already carried out by other professional colleagues Way forward

What can the Library do ? As open access journals proliferate, and as their usage and impact grows, libraries can cancel over-priced journals that do not prove cost-effective based on use. Engage funding bodies in a discussion of open access. Familiarize researchers, staff, and administrators with the issues.

Challenges of OA Closed Journals transforming to OA must establish mechanisms for the sustenance of the journal in the long- term. Lack of technical know-how to configure and implement open source software and open standard software

Challenges of OA Nigeria do not have the basic information infrastructure to host a serve for self-archiving or make available an open access journal 24/7

Conclusion By supporting open access, open source, and open standards we can help ensure that our patrons will have easier and more comprehensive access to scholarly research with little or no barrier

References 1.Bailey, Jr., C.W (2006). What is Open access?, in Neil Jacobs(ed). Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects. Oxford – England : Chandos Publishing. 2.Budapest Open Access Initiative, Open Society Institute, February 14, 2002, 3.Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, April 11, 2003,