Promoting open access publishing in Ghana | EIFL

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) based in Kumasi, Ghana shares the results of the EIFL-funded project 'Promoting open access (OA) through the implementation of OJS (Open Journal Systems) for the KNUST research community'. KNUST was the first University in Ghana to set up an OA institutional repository (IR), KNUSTSpace, and to introduce mandatory OA to theses and dissertations (OA theses mandate). It also leads national-level OA advocacy campaigns (see OA IR Advocacy Campaign case study 2011). In 2012, the KNUST Library together with Department of Publishing Studies (collaborating with the Public Knowledge Project and seven journals in Kumasi - KNUST Journal of Science and Technology, KNUST Business School online Journal, KNUST Law Journal, Building and Road Research Journal, FORIG Journal, Journal of Horticulture and Agriculture, and Food Science Journal) launched an OA publishing project encouraging the use of OJS software in the journal publishing process. Out of 14 scholarly journals currently published in Ghana and listed by AJOL (African Journals Online), only three are OA journals: West African Journal of Applied Ecology from the University of Ghana; Ghana Medical Journal from the Ghana Medical Association; and Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences, from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University for Development Studies. The project targeted journal editors and reviewers, staff of the university press, faculty, researchers, post graduate students and research administrators..."