The impact of open access on knowledge production, consumption and dissemination in Kenya’s higher education system [Scholarly Article - Third World Quarterly, 2022]

Title:

The impact of open access on knowledge production, consumption and dissemination in Kenya’s higher education system

 

Author:

David Mwambaria 

African Leadership Centre, Global Affairs, King’s College London, UK

 

Published:

Third World Quarterly, Volume 43, Issue, 19 May 2022

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2022.2056010

 

Abstract:

Open access (OA) journal publishing is presented in the literature as both an opportunity for and a threat to academics, authors and higher education systems. Institutions with information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure have enabled their academics to freely retrieve accessible content in various disciplines, which in turn increases the rate and quality of publications from these institutions. Using semi-structured interviews with Kenyan faculty, students and librarians and with Kenyan and non-Kenyan publishers, as well as secondary sources, this article examines perspectives often overlooked in this debate. The paper concludes that while OA is considered an important initiative that could enhance knowledge production and consumption in Kenya, it nevertheless presents its own challenges, which should not be overlooked. OA is not a simple solution to individual and institutional challenges or systemic epistemic injustices, which lead to poor-quality knowledge circulating via some OA platforms and have the potential to dampen the global competitiveness of knowledge produced in Kenya and other countries in the Global South.

 

Open access in Angola: a survey among higher education institutions [Scholarly Article - Scientometrics, June 2022]

Title:

Open access in Angola: a survey among higher education institutions 

 

Authors:

Wileidys Artigas, Eurico Wongo Gungula & Mikael Laakso 

 

Published:

Scientometrics, 18 June 2022

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-022-04410-w

 

Abstract:

Open access (OA) to research publications is of global relevance, both in terms of provision and consumption of scholarly content. However, much of the research, practice, and models surrounding OA have been centered around the Global North. In this study we investigate how and to what degree higher education institutions (HEIs) in Angola interact with the concept of OA to journal publications through their policies and practices, a country where the end of the civil war in 2002 marked a new start for growth in teaching and research. This study is based on an online survey conducted in 2020 among research management units of Angolan HEIs. 23 valid institutional responses were received of 44 invitations sent (52% response rate). The results suggest that Angolan HEIs have moderate awareness of OA but practical incorporation into academic processes has remained slow, however, this can be seen to be connected to the overall slow progress in ramping up research intensity in the country. Seven of the responding institutions reported to be involved in publishing scholarly journals, all of them OA. Overall Angolan HEIs have few institutional repositories, and have so far placed little value on OA in the context of academic career advancement.

Contribution of the Open Access Modality to the Impact of Hybrid Journals Controlling by Field and Time Effects [Scholarly Article - JDIS, April 2022]

Title:

Contribution of the Open Access Modality to the Impact of Hybrid Journals Controlling by Field and Time Effects 

 

Authors:

Pablo Dorta-González

University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, TiDES Research Institute, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

&

María Isabel Dorta-González

University of La Laguna, 38271 La Laguna, Spain    

 

Published:

Journal of Data and Information Science, Volume 7, Issue 2, 19 April 2022

http://manu47.magtech.com.cn/Jwk3_jdis/EN/10.2478/jdis-2022-0007

 

Part of abstract:

Purpose: 

Researchers are more likely to read and cite papers to which they have access than those that they cannot obtain. Thus, the objective of this work is to analyze the contribution of the Open Access (OA) modality to the impact of hybrid journals.  

 

Design/methodology/approach: 

The “research articles” in the year 2017 from 200 hybrid journals in four subject areas, and the citations received by such articles in the period 2017-2020 in the Scopus database, were analyzed. The hybrid OA papers were compared with the paywalled ones. The journals were randomly selected from those with share of OA papers higher than some minimal value. More than 60 thousand research articles were analyzed in the sample, of which 24% under the OA modality.  

 

Findings: 

We obtain at journal level that cites per article in both hybrid modalities (OA and paywalled) strongly correlate. However, there is no correlation between the OA prevalence and cites per article. There is OA citation advantage in 80% of hybrid journals. Moreover, the OA citation advantage is consistent across fields and held in time. We obtain an OA citation advantage of 50% in average, and higher than 37% in half of the hybrid journals. Finally, the OA citation advantage is higher in Humanities than in Science and Social Science.

Predatory publishing in Scopus: evidence on cross-country differences - by Vít Macháček & Martin Srholec [Scholarly Article - Scientometrics, 2021]

Title:

Predatory publishing in Scopus: evidence on cross-country differences 

 

Authors:

Vít Macháček & Martin Srholec

 

Published:

Scientometrics, 7 February 2021

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-020-03852-4

 

Abstract:

Predatory publishing represents a major challenge to scholarly communication. This paper maps the infiltration of journals suspected of predatory practices into the citation database Scopus and examines cross-country differences in the propensity of scholars to publish in such journals. Using the names of “potential, possible, or probable” predatory journals and publishers on Beall’s lists, we derived the ISSNs of 3,293 journals from Ulrichsweb and searched Scopus with them. 324 of journals that appear both in Beall’s lists and Scopus with 164 thousand articles published over 2015–2017 were identified. Analysis of data for 172 countries in 4 fields of research indicates that there is a remarkable heterogeneity. In the most affected countries, including Kazakhstan and Indonesia, around 17% of articles fall into the predatory category, while some other countries have no predatory articles whatsoever. Countries with large research sectors at the medium level of economic development, especially in Asia and North Africa, tend to be most susceptible to predatory publishing. Arab, oil-rich and/or eastern countries also appear to be particularly vulnerable. Policymakers and stakeholders in these and other developing countries need to pay more attention to the quality of research evaluation. 

Open access takes flight [Scholarly Article - Science, 1 January 2021]

Title:

Open access takes flight

 

Author:

Jeffrey Brainard

 

Published:

Science, Volume 371, Issue 6524, pp. 16-20 (1 January 2021)

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6524/16

From the article:

As a new mandate takes effect, researchers and institutions grapple with the trade-offs of making scientific publications free fro all.

JAPAN - Elsevier reaches open access agreement in Japan [Times Higher Education, 1 December 2020]

Title:

Elsevier reaches open access agreement in Japan

Author:

Joyce Lau

Published:

Times Higher Education, 1 December 2020

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elsevier-reaches-open-access-agreement-japan

From the article:

Proposal is first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region for the world’s largest academic publisher.

Nature journals pilot payment for 'editorial assessment' [Times Higher Education, 24 November 2020]

Title:

Nature journals pilot payment for 'editorial assessment'

 

Author:

Jack Grove

 

Published:

Times Higher Education, 24 November 2020

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/nature-journals-pilot-payment-editorial-assessment

 

From the article:

Prestigious journal group seeks to spread cost of publishing across a greater number of authors than those accepted for publication.

Open access article charge waiver for more than 100 journals

Title:

Open access article charge waiver for more than 100 journals

 

Author:

Munyaradzi Makoni 

Published:

University World News, 22 October 2020

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2020102019023062

From the article:

The Lithuania-based Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), which aims to enable digital information access in developing country libraries, negotiated article processing charge waivers for 34 partner countries that will be valid until December 2022.

Sci (2020) - The Future of Academic Journals in a COVID-19 World

Title:

The Future of Academic Journals in a COVID-19 World

 

Authors:

Jan R Magnus & Michael McAleer

 

Published:

Sci, 2(4), 76; 15 October 2020

https://doi.org/10.3390/sci2040076

 

Abstract:

Many academics are critical of the current publishing system, but it is difficult to create a better alternative. This review relates to the Sciences and Social Sciences, and discusses the primary purpose of academic journals as providing a seal of approval for perceived quality, impact, significance, and importance. The key issues considered include the role of anonymous refereeing, continuous rather than discrete frequency of publications, avoidance of time wasting, and seeking adventure. Here we give recommendations about the organization of journal articles, the roles of associate editors and referees, measuring the time frame for refereeing submitted articles in days and weeks rather than months and years, encouraging open access internet publishing, emphasizing the continuity of publishing online, academic publishing as a continuous dynamic process, and how to improve research after publication. Citations and functions thereof, such as the journal impact factor and h-index, are the benchmark for evaluating the importance and impact of academic journals and published articles. Even in the very top journals, a high proportion of published articles are never cited, not even by the authors themselves. Top journal publications do not guarantee that published articles will make significant contributions, or that they will ever be highly cited. The COVID-19 world should encourage academics worldwide not only to rethink academic teaching, but also to re-evaluate key issues associated with academic journal publishing in the future.

 

Ireland - First open access science programme signed with Elsevier

Title:
First open access science programme signed with Elsevier

Published:
University World News, 20 February 2020

From the article:
"A consortium of publicly funded Irish higher education institutions and Elsevier, the 140-year-old publisher and ‘global leader in information analytics’ specialising in science and health, have agreed to the country’s first open access programme with a major scientific publisher, an important step towards the goal of securing full open access to Irish research publications."

To read this article:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200220123901439

Short Article - Trump hesitates on plan for open access mandate

Title:
Trump hesitates on plan for open access mandate

Author:
Paul Basken

Published:
Times Higher Education, 20 February 2020

From the article:
"The Trump administration is backing away from a widely reported plan to bypass publisher paywalls on scientific research resulting from federal investment, making plans instead to study the matter further."

To read this article:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/trump-hesitates-plan-open-access-mandate

Short Article: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) wants monographs to be open access by 2024

Title:
UKRI wants monographs to be open access by 2024

Author:
Jack Grove

Published:
Times Higher Education, 13 February 2020

From the article:
"Academic monographs will need to be made freely available within 12 months of publication if authors are supported by public research funds, according to new open access proposals from the UK’s main research body."

To read this article:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ukri-wants-monographs-be-open-access-by2024