| Abstract: | Open Access (OA) initiatives are the ones that contribute immensely to make
intellectual contents available world wide. There are few OA available in Ethiopia,
however, despite their importance for the scholarly communication, much is not still
known about the initiatives. This research was undertaken to examine the adoption
of the OAI and the OAP models by institutions, societies and associations. The
research used qualitative survey method to secure data. In addition, pertinent
literature was used and reviewed to get framework for the assessment of the OAI
and models in order to review whether or not the existing contents that are
published in OA mode are congruent with the OAP models. In this regard, the Addis
Ababa University Libraries (AAUL) system, St. Mary’s University College (SMUC),
Chemical Society of Ethiopia (CSE), the Ethiopian Health Development Association
and the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publication (INASP)
were targeted based on their prior involvements in the OAI and the OAP. The
research found that there had been encouraging OAI from both the AAUL and
SMUC sides. The AAUL was found to provide more than 2,000 theses and
dissertations to its users; while the SMUC was found to provide its users with
conference proceedings, journals articles, and other research outputs (e.g. tracer
studies, etc.) through its institutional website and network. The CSE, the Ethiopian
Health Development Association and the SMUC were also found to provide their
respective users with their journals using the African Journals Online (AJOL) of the
INASP. A further look at the publishing models used revealed that the journals
which had been provided were found to comply with the majority of the models
provided for the OAP. However, all of the journals provided were identified that
they had not made the authors to pay in order to publish articles in these journals.
On top of these, the copyright scheme used was identified to be the traditional one
(not creative commons). Based on the these findings, the study forwarded
recommendations, including how institutions can follow the same suit as the target
of this research to make whatever contents available in the OA mode. |
