Open access policy development in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to make more digital content available

Open access policy development in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to make more digital content available

This project builds on the previously supported project “Open access in east Africa”, by adopting and implementing Open Access (OA) policies at institutional and national level.

The project targets the same universities as previously, where EIFL built awareness on Open Access among different stakeholders, which resulted in new OA repositories and OA journals. A university library consortium has been established at each university and the infrastructure has been built.

Challenges to address

There is a lack of free and open digital scholarly content from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. This type of content can help solve local problems, boost development and improve teaching and learning. The momentum to embrace open access (OA) initiatives in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda has been building up, but the growth of digital content, accessible via in internet, is still slow.

Activities

In order to have more digital content available EIFL needs to work with Universities and senior management to formulate and adopt more policies mandating open access to research output. Policies need to be integrated in institution’s strategic plans, processes, workflows and culture.

The project will set up institutional OA policy task forces among the 16 partner universities. These task forces will adopt OA policies, implement them and monitor the implementation. Workshops, webinars and capacity building events for OA advocates, OA repository managers and OA journal publishers will be held to enhance capacities of the target groups.