African Journals On Line AJOL Supporting indigenous published

African Journals On. Line (AJOL) Supporting indigenous published research Pippa Smart INASP psmart@inasp. info UKSG: April 2005 1

INASP • Formed in 1992, as a programme of the International Council of Science (ICSU) • Initial mandate: networking to improve access to international scientific research • Development of information provision programmes – Working with libraries and research institutes as primary information providers to support research and information access – Working with editors, publishers and research institutes to support publication UKSG: April 2005 2

Profile of an “African journal” • • • Publishing intermittently (late, infrequent) Print only Mostly local distribution Not indexed No commercial/business model – Loss-making, supported by institution/grants • Low level (or investment) of publishing skills • Commitment to local research and local authors (=accept poorly written articles) • Low rejection levels UKSG: April 2005 3

African journals - problems • • • Lack of finances Lack of quality article submissions Small pool of reviewers Lack of publishing knowledge / skills / awareness Low visibility (local and international) UKSG: April 2005 4

African journal - strengths • • Commitment to local research Highly valued by research community Highly valued by local institutions/associations Highly committed editorial staff UKSG: April 2005 5

Support for publications • Study tours – BMJ sponsored a representative from the East African Medical Journal to visit them in early 1990 s • Workshops, sponsorships – 1998 ICSU Oxford workshop • International publication grants – NORAD grant for new Makerere University department titles • Sponsorships for conference attendance – International Association of Publishers for LIBF UKSG: April 2005 6

INASP support • Academic and scholarly publishing support • Support through Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI) • Building visibility – Online publishing support • Developing skills – Workshops (publishing strategy, production, promotion, copyright, online publishing, managing finances, etc. ) – study tours, – resource publishing UKSG: April 2005 7

African Journals On. Line (AJOL) www. ajol. info • Tables of contents and abstracts – Some full text articles – Journal information • To provide a window to the research published within the African continent UKSG: April 2005 8

AJOL: history • Launched in Spring 1998, and operational early 1999 with 10 science and 4 medical journals • To see if online publication would increase visibility through greater dissemination • To try to build awareness (within Africa and worldwide) and financial stability through increased subscription and document delivery UKSG: April 2005 9

AJOL - ownership and funding • Funded by international organisations, including – Sida, Norad, DFi. D – Not currently self-sustaining • “Owned” by the African journal community • Managed and operated by c. 1. 5 staff (plus nondirect input from finance, IT, etc. ) UKSG: April 2005 10

AJOL - journal selection • Scholarly in content, and contain original research • Peer reviewed content, and have quality control standards • Able to provide content (tables of contents and abstracts) in electronic format • Permission from the authors to allow AJOL to operate a document delivery service • Published within the African continent – i. e. management of publishing strategy, any business development, etc. UKSG: April 2005 11

AJOL users • All services on AJOL free – with the exception of document delivery • No formal agreement with users – Registration optional • • • Search entire database or specific journal Email To. C alerts Document delivery Researcher tools Information about the journal – author guidelines, contact information, etc. UKSG: April 2005 12

Number of journals on AJOL UKSG: April 2005 13

Statistics UKSG: April 2005 14

Registered users UKSG: April 2005 15

Registrations 2004 - geographical UKSG: April 2005 16

Document delivery requests fulfilled by AJOL 2, 500 2, 257 2, 000 1, 500 1, 000 624 500 216 6 2001 UKSG: April 2005 2002 2003 2004 17

Developments • Full text – Currently one full text journal, and others with some articles or full issues – Several journals interested in using AJOL as an e-publishing platform with new models (e. g. publishing article-by-article, publishing in advance of print, publishing additional articles) • African management – Management = ownership, strategic planning, development and direction – Mandated to move it to African management before the end of 2005 UKSG: April 2005 18

Challenges and lessons learnt • Money and skills remain the two main problems – Lack of commercial model, lack of publishing awareness • Strengthen the strong, or buffer the weak? • Is open access the answer or another western ideal that will further weaken them? • How can collaboration be developed to share (scant) resources? UKSG: April 2005 19

AJOL African Management ANNOUNCEMENT • NISC (National Inquiry Services Centre), a South African company who currently publish databases and journals have been selected to manage AJOL • AJOL will be fully managed by NISC before the end of the year • AJOL will remain a service dedicated to promoting African published journals to both the African community and the global research and library community. UKSG: April 2005 20

Thank you Any questions? Pippa Smart Head, Publishing Initiatives INASP Oxford UK psmart@inasp. info UKSG: April 2005 21