The Adoption of Open Access (OA) and OA Publishing (OAP) Models in Ethiopia

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.