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Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
Pharmacotherapy Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
ISSN: 1596-5996 EISSN: 1596-9827
Vol. 8, Num. 6, 2009, pp. 481-483
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Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, Vol. 8, No. 6, December, 2009,
pp. 481-483
Guest Editorial
Digital Information Access in Developing Countries: Does the
Future Lie with
E-Journals?
Ms Lara Proud
Corresponding author: : Content and
Communications Manager, African Journals
OnLine (AJOL), Grahamstown,
South Africa, Tel: +27 46
622 9698, Email: lara@ajol.info
Code Number: pr09061
For the most part, scholarly and academic knowledge
has historically travelled from the developed Global North to the less
developed Global South. Research obtained from the developed Global North is
not always relevant to issues arising from or within Africa, so it is important
to overcome the challenges in Africans obtaining access to the research
published on the continent. In the past, access to scholarly, peer-reviewed
African research was extremely difficult, and much of the African continents
research was largely inaccessible even between African countries [1]. The
representation of African research within the indexed western publications
is considered to be a mere 0.7 percent of the total [2], and this, along with
the
scarcity of indexing systems of African publications [3] lead to minimal
African-published journal discovery.
Additional problems and challenges, over
and above those already mentioned, do not aid the cause of journal publishing
within
Africa. The economic circumstances in many African countries result in a lack of funding
or resources in higher education and research institutions, which in turn
causes many journals to struggle in sustaining their publications over time. In
many cases, the institutions supporting journals do not have sufficient funding
to cover the costs of running a journal from year to year. This in turn leads
to the logical step taken by many titles to increase their subscription prices
annually. However, this increase in cost invariably results in a decrease in
the number of subscribers to that journal, as more and more individuals and
even institutions, cannot afford to pay these rising subscription fees. Again
in the case of institutions, libraries are struggling to obtain the adequate
financial resources needed in order to subscribe to many of these journals,
resulting in still further subscription cancellations, and so the cycle of
lower and lower readership and accessibility continues [1]. This downward
cycle needs to be broken.
The advent and increasingly widespread use of the internet, followed by the
development of reliable open source (free) software have provided a channel for
journal managers and publishers to begin addressing many of these problems [1]
in a cost-effective way. African scholarly journal publishers are finally beginning
to experience the benefits of information and communication technology (ICT)
in enhancing, improving and disseminating their works both on a local and international
level. It has been suggested that the future of scholarly information lies in
an entirely digital system [4] causing traditional print publishers to view electronic
journal system (e-journal) evolution as intimidating. However, with the development
of these e-journals, the availability and access to scholarly information has
not only been increased, but the costs incurred by a journal publishing its title
solely online compared to print publishing are significantly reduced. Online
only publishing allows higher and wider readership. Internet connectivity within
Africa is fortunately improving, thanks in part to developments such as the SEACOM
undersea cable already in place and functioning along the east coast of Africa
as well as the EASSy fiber optic cable, said to be available during the second
quarter of 2010.
While the Digital Divide still poses a very real
problem for researchers in least-developed countries, resources to improve
this are already available. An example of this is African Journals OnLine (AJOL),
http://www.ajol.info, a
non-profit organization based in South Africa. This web-based initiative indexes
and hosts African published scholarly journals on the internet free of charge.
With over 370 titles from 27 African
countries online to date, AJOL strives to increase the awareness and
accessibility of African research, both to Africa and the rest of the world.
By partnering in an aggregator site, the journals indexed on AJOL benefit by
all
being together in one, highly visible, highly used website, as opposed to
having only their own (usually low visibility) website, or no online presence
at all. Since its inception by INASP, http://www.inasp.info, (UK) in 1998, AJOL has grown from indexing only
the abstracts of a mere 10 titles to become the worlds largest online, full-text
collection of peer-reviewed,
African-published scholarly journals.
The software used to power AJOL is the Open Journal
Systems (OJS) software developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), http://pkp.sfu.ca, in
Canada. OJS is a free electronic journal management system used by thousands
of publishers around the world, which
allows individual journals the ability to manage their journal and publish
their content completely online by tracking each step of the publication
process right from the online submission of a paper through the complete
peer-review process right up to the final editing and the actual publication
and indexing of the article (either as a single entity or part of an issue)
online [5]. Of course, production costs such as layout, copy-editing and
proof-reading cannot be disregarded; however by performing the complete
work-flow process online via means such as the free OJS package, the total
cost is notably lower than that of print publishing. Journals that do not have
sufficient means to implement their own installation of OJS, or significant
problems with electricity supply, or who still dont have reliable internet
connectivity, may be able, with training, to use AJOL in order to make their
content available on the internet using OJS. This facility can also assist
journals to improve their reliability and punctuality by saving the time
previously taken by the printing and distribution processes of a print journal.
The OJS system allows researchers to search for and download full-text Portable
Document Format (PDF) files from the website, making the research accessible
to
anyone, no matter where they may be located on the globe. OJS can be used for
both Open Access and subscription model journals.
Adaptations such as these,
while beneficial and invaluable to the African research community, cannot stand
alone. It is
critical that the journal staff to be aware of their journals progress as
well as monitoring its sustainability for the future. Editors need to have
an
understanding of their journals reader profiles and accommodate them
accordingly. In addition to this, journals may want to look at their current
publishing model and determine its efficacy in reaching its readers, and its
sustainability both at present and into the long term future. Due to the
massive potential increase in readership and submissions associated with it,
some journals are adopting an Open Access (OA) publication model. Open Access
journals are available online, in the form of an e-journal and articles are
freely available to all to download. Others may choose a Dual Mode of
publication, where their electronic version is available on the internet for
free download, i.e. Open Access, yet they continue to sell print versions to
those subscribers who prefer or need to have hard copies. Yet another model
is to have delayed-OA where a journals publications will initially be published
as subscription content but become OA after a certain period of time (for
example, two years after publication, the full text becomes free online).
Ultimately,
it is the journal staff or editorial boards responsibility to draw up a business
plan for their journals
publication model that ensures the sustainability of the publication for the
future. Some revenue channels to be considered for an Open Access model
business plan include author-side publication fees, additional sponsorship
and funding (either from an outside source or the institution managing the
journal)
and advertising within the journal or on its web pages. In the resources
section of the AJOL website, some links to business plan templates are provided
to assist journals with this process.
Given
the current trends in information dissemination and data storage and the
increased use of information technology globally by researchers, academics
and the person on the street, African published scholarly journals need to
seriously consider online publishing as a means of dissemina-ting their
journals content to wider audiences on the continent and internationally,
as
well adopting either Open Access or a Dual Mode of publication. Given the
increased access to research for all involved, online publishing can only
benefit the academic community, both within Africa and the rest of the globe,
in the exchange of quality scholarly information.
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Accessed 9 December 2009
© Pharmacotherapy Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, University
of Benin, Benin City, 300001 Nigeria.
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