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Open access in the developing world
Ruth KingPublisher, BioMed Central
“My work on biomedical research in developing countries has shown me that lack of access to current publications has a severe impact.…The vast majority of biomedical scientists in Africa attempt to perform globally competitive research without up-to-date access to the wealth of biomedical literature taken for granted at western institutions.”
Winston Hide, Harvard School of Public Health
Global forum for communication and
collaboration• Unrestricted access to latest international
research• International visibility for local research• Breaks down barriers between disciplines• High visibility to search engines• Encourages social sharing• Engages the public, policy-makers, decision-
makers
Open access research is licensed to encourage reuse
• Translation into local languages• Print distribution• Educational course material• Re-use of data / figures • Text-mining• Deposit in institutional repositories
Key subject areas
– Global health, Public health– Infectious disease, Microbiology,
Virology– Veterinary research, Plant biology,
Agriculture– Cancer– Bioinformatics, Genomics
Malaria Journal: an open access success story
Malaria Journal Impact Factor
Highly accessed research from Africa
100,000+ downloads
14 citations
23 FB likes!
Still receiving thousands of accesses per month
Repositories and OA publishing
http://www.biomedcentral.com/authors/authoracademy
Waiver fund for authors in low-income countries
Applies to all low and low-middle income countries that have GDP<$200bn
>5% of total articles are being published under scheme
Open Access Africa
Researchers, librarians, journal editors, funders and other stakeholders share ideas on how open access publishing can support science in Africa
Open Access Africa
2010 Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya2011 Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science
and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana2012 UCT, Cape Town, South Africa
Open Access Africa outcomes • Sudan’s first Institutional Repository, created by the
University of Khartoum, was a direct result of Open Access Africa 2010
• “Foundation membership” scheme introduced by BioMed Central, to showcase research from organizations in low-income countries which have policies in place to encourage open access
• New open access groups formed in Nigeria and Ghana• Greater awareness of challenges faced by open
access journals based in Africa• Technology and communication infrastructure is
improving, but challenges remain
Summit on sustainability of open access publishing in
AfricaAJOL, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bioline
International, BioMed Central, Carnegie Corporation, DFID, INASP/ Publishers for Development, KNUST,
Medicins Sans Frontiers, Pan African Medical Journal, Public Library of Science, Shuttleworth Foundation,
Stellenbosch University, The Association of Commonwealth Universities, UNECA ,
Wellcome Trust, WHO, World Bank
Summit outcomes
Commitment to OA from funders and institutionsFunders want their funds to be used to make research OA
Capacity building Research and publishing expertise
Improving the reputation of open accessShowing that prestigious research is published OA
Effective OA communication/advocacyShowing the value propositionGetting buy-in from the African influencers
The World Bank
The World Bank supports the free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research, economic and
sector work, and development practice are made widely available, read, and built upon.
Open access policy (CC-BY)Open Knowledge Repository (OKR)Open data initiative
How can you contribute?
• Links to institutions, funders, decision-makers..
• Advocating the practical benefits of OA• Capacity building workshops
