The Role of Tanzanian Academic Libraries in Promoting Scholarly Communication through Open Access

Abstract: This study examined the role of Tanzanian academic libraries in promoting scholarly communication through open access. A desktop documentary review was used to specifically study the status of open access platforms, ways of promoting open access scholarly communication, and factors deterring academic libraries from fostering scholarly communication through open access. The desktop documentary review involved seven university repositories purposely selected from the directory of institution repositories (OpenDOAR). Quantitative and qualitative survey designs on the open access repositories were used. The information associated with the university repositories was gathered from their respective web pages. A documentary review of the studies on open access scholarly communication was conducted to gain insights into the phenomenon under study. The surveyed data were both quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Quantitative data were analysed using Microsoft Excel, a computer application software, whereas qualitative data were subjected to the content analysis method. The findings indicate that the surveyed repositories were operational and guided by policy, whereas library websites, repositories and digital libraries are used in promoting open access scholarly communication. However, the factors that deter academic libraries from promoting open access scholarly communication are related to financial, infrastructure, human resources or expertise and university management. The study recommends that Tanzanian universities improve planning for open access, commitment, support and engagement in the training and retraining of its practitioners for effective scholarly communication.