Open access in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania — making research more relevant to the world | iSGTW

"Open access is a powerful solution to the barriers that researchers in developing and transition countries face. 'A lot of research has been undertaken over the years in Uganda and many seeming breakthroughs arrived at, however these have not been disseminated and subsequently have not added value to the lives of Ugandans,' says John Chrysostom Muyingo, state minister for higher education in Uganda. This revealing statement was made last year at the very first national open access conference in Uganda, which Electronic Information For Libraries (EIFL) co-hosted with the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL). At the time, Muyingo called upon the National Council for Higher Education and Makerere University Kampala, Uganda, to put in place a system that ensures that all publicly funded research becomes freely and openly available — asserting that Ugandan academia cannot afford to be left behind. He encouraged researchers to publish in open-access journals, and institutions to consider open-access publications in promotion and tenure evaluation ... Advocating for the free online availability of research literature — open access — is a powerful solution to the barriers that researchers in developing and transition countries face trying to access and share critical research that can improve people’s lives. Open access also improves efficiency: data- and text-mining technologies are being practiced worldwide to speed up scientific discovery, and economic, social, and technological innovation.  ‘The Open access: knowledge sharing and sustainable scholarly communication in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda project’ was created to educate researchers and students about changing scholarly communication landscapes. The project advocates for the adoption of open-access policies and mandates by funding agencies, universities, and research organizations. It also builds capacities to set up open-access repositories and to publish open-access journals.  The project is implemented in partnership with EIFL partner consortia: Kenya Library & Information Services Consortium (KLISC), Consortium of Tanzania Universities and Research Libraries (COTUL), and CUUL. It is funded by Spider, the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions, which is based at the Department of Computer and System Sciences at Stockholm University, Sweden ..."