Regional Workshop on Benefits of Open Access for Research Dissemination, Usage, Visibility &

Impact

National Perspective of Open

22nd - 23rd November 2010, Pretoria, South Africa

Mogodisheng B.M. SekhwelaResearch Quality Management

OFFICE OF RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

University of Botswana

National Perspective of Open

Access: Botswana

Recognitions

� Grateful to have been invited

� Sponsors:

� Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF)

Eifl� Eifl

� UNESCO

� University of Botswana for the permission and

support

� Hopefully more enlightenment on how best to

speed up open access by end of workshop

Open Access in Botswana: Historical Context

� Botswana gained independence in 1966

� Anthropological Research Act enacted 1967

� Govern the pursuit of research, but prompted by the ‘over-researching’ of the San in Kalahari

� Monitor research, in particular on the San

� Obligation of researcher to deposit research results & findings at designated repositories: National Library, National Archives and University of Botswana Library - Support Open Readership

� Research Permit REQUIRED for research.

Historical Context Cont.:

� Researchers mainly from outside Botswana

140

160

180

200

Pe

rmit

s A

pp

rove

d

Research Participation Trends

Figure 1

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1966-76 1977-79 1983 1984-1987

Pe

rmit

s A

pp

rove

d

Period

Locals

Expatriates

Dissemination: Whose Knowledge?

600

800

1000Books

ChaptersIn_Prep

1995-03Figure 2

E.g. University of Botswana Research Outputs

0

200

400

Journal Articles

Conf_PapersOther_Publication

Dissertation

Office of Research and Development

Revision/

Improvement

No

(suggestions)

Figure 3

Research Proposal

Review Process

Funding

ORD Funds

No

(suggestions)Yes

Yes

Qu

ality

Imp

rovem

en

t an

d M

an

ag

em

en

t

FacultyOutside

Offic

e o

f Re

se

arc

h (O

RD

)

Ethics Reviews

Pe

er re

vie

ws

Institutional Control of Outputs

Source: Sekhwela, 2006, SARIMA

ORD Research

Progress

Teaching &

Training

Administrative

Reports

Research Output

Publication

s

Research Report

Outputs

DatabaseDevelopment/Client

Commercialization

Qu

ality

Imp

rovem

en

t an

d M

an

ag

em

en

t

Publishers

Peer Reviews

Offic

e o

f Re

se

arc

h (O

RD

)

UB Control

Pu

blis

hers

Co

ntro

l

Dissemination: Whose Content?

� Quality in Research = High Quality Publication

Book

UB: 2004-07 Figure 4

0200400600800

1000Book

Book Chapter

Non Refereed Journal

Non Refereed Papers in …

Refereed Journal

Refereed Paper in Conference

Other Publications

Research to Inform Nationally & Globally(Botswana)

� National Developments:� Food and Energy Production Systems

� Sustainable Development Paths

� Etc.

� Aspirations: VISION 2016� Aspirations: VISION 2016� Informed and Innovative Nation

� Wealthy and Healthy Nation – HIV/AIDS fight

� Global Climatic & Environmental Changes -DROUGHTS

� Etc.

� ALL EYES ON UNIVERSITY RESEARCH!!

Research in ‘Public Focus’

� Knowledge is critical for sustainable development in the competitive global economy (Ramphele, 2004)

� Application of knowledge to inform practice and policy is growing, confidence in quality of and policy is growing, confidence in quality of research and information generated (Boaz, ud).

� Knowledge is ‘public good’ that every research is expected to contribute

� Research is about knowledge generation, and increasing mandatory dissemination of publicly funded research

Sekhwela (SARIMA, 2006)

Initiatives for Research & Innovation

� Draft Botswana Science and Technology Policy 1998

� Public and private sector partnership initiatives

� Botswana National Research Science & Technology Plan (2005) – Competitive research Technology Plan (2005) – Competitive research suppliers

� New Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) approved

� Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) (2006)– UB regarded as a partner

� New Tertiary Education Policy (2008) – Knowledge & Innovation for national development

Research Drive & Accountability

� Need to access existing body of knowledge

� High cost to access current knowledge.

� Realisation that knowledge is generated by researchers, but transferred to Publishers

� Knowledge becomes ‘CONTENT’ controlled by � Knowledge becomes ‘CONTENT’ controlled by content creators

� Quality of research is assured by researchers through peer review processes ‘free’ to content creators?

� Further knowledge generation constrained by content creators’ high pricing to access!

� Knowledge generators push for cheaper access

Open Access: Whose Content?

Grey literature: Unpublished reports - Repositories

White literature: Published research – owned by

publishers.

� Quality assured

� Reputable knowledge

� Highly valued

� Various format/media

� Cost involved

� What does Open Access mean then?

Situation in Botswana

� Open Access still just the obligatory reposition of research reports

� UB lead institution like other Universities worldwide that are pushing for Open Access to its own research publicationspublications

� Recently held national awareness raising workshop on Open Access

� However, UB still to develop clear Open Access policy

� Institutional Repository policy – Open Access mentioned.

� Policy implementation ongoing: University of Botswana Research, Innovation & Scholarship Archive (UBRISA)

UB: Research Publications Availability

� Institutional Repository

� Archive

� Access to information

� International VISIBILTY and Impact

� Marketing

� Capabality

� Capacity

� Etc.

� University of Botswna Research, Innovation & Scholarship Archive (UBRISA) (http://ubrisa.ub.bw)

UBRISA Impact

� UB visibility

� Access to UB research outputs

� Statistics on use/access (hits) of UB

research outputs

� Source of UB research for official purposes

� Collections/communities to attract more

collaborations and partnerships

� Outputs from ongoing research work

� ETC

RMS & UBRISA Online Systems

� Research Information

� Funding data

� Research Data Analysis

� Research Information accessResearch Information access

� University research outputs stored and accessible

� Researcher outputs monitoring

� University research visibility enhanced

� Overall research output in pursuit of institutional goals – eg. Excellence tracked!

Own UB Content: Journals, etc.

Figure 5

Other Strategic Links: PMS

UB Vision: Strategy

For Excellence

University Research

Strategy

Figure 6

Source: Sekhwela, 2009

Strategy

Research Management

SystemUBRISA

PMS

EndEnd

THANK YOU