The Pan African Medical Journal: Inside an open access African journal

The Pan African Medical Journal Inside an African Journal Open Access Africa Conference 25-26 October 2011, Kumasi, Ghana Raoul KAMADJEU, MD, MPH Managing editor editor@panafrican-med-journal.com Nairobi - Kenya www.panafrican-med-journal.com

At the end, you will know1. Who we are2. What we do3. How we do it4. Our challenges5. Our future plans

Questions about the status of biomedical publishing and African journals

How many African journals are out there? Is it too many, is it too little, is there a need for a new journal?

How easy is it to publish in an African Journal?Is it affordable and user-friendly?

How easy is it to access research published in an African journal?

What are African researchers’perceptions and expectations about African biomedical journals?

What is the best business model for an African medical journal? Is it sustainable?

Some statistics on African journals

African journals in PubMed and ISI 5000 Journals in Medline, 38 from Africa (2009, Dirk Schoobaert) Rest of the world Africa Less than 1% of the journals are from Africa 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 6700 Journals in ISI, 20 from Africa, only 1 medical journal (2009, Thomas J. Goehl) Rest of the world Africa Less than 0.3% of the journals are from Africa0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%Dirk Schoonbaert. PubMed growth patterns and visibility of journals of Sub-Saharan African origin. J Med Libr Assoc. 2009 October; 97(4): 241–243Thomas J. Goehl, Annette Flanagin. Enhancing the Quality and Visibility of African Medical and Health Journals . doi:10.1289/ehp.12265

African Journal in African indexes Contribution of African countries to AJOL and African Index Medicus (WHO) AJOL* (October 2011) AIM (October 2011) Others 24% Others 30% Ghana 5% Ghana 2% Ethiopia 5% 411 journals Kenya 3% 122 journals 6% in AJOL in AIM Kenya Ethiopia 3% South Africa 18% South Africa 20% Nigeria 43 % Nigeria 41% 0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50*Scope not limited to Biomedical journals % %

African journals in DOAJ Contribution of Africa to DOAJ Number of journal in DOAJ in 2011 (October 14): 7162 Africa Brazil 700 600Number of Journals 500 400 300 200 100 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 219 African journals in DOAJ in 2011 • 88 from 5 countries: Egypt , South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia and Kenya • 50 from Egypt alone..!

DOAJ world map 7162 journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals (October 14, 2011)Number of journals in DOAJ 1 10 1,000 There is plenty of space to add a dot on Africa..!

Where authors from SSA publish*A study of 24,417 articles in PUBMED from the top 10 countries in SSA (1995-2004)*Only 27% of 24,417 articles in PUBMED, by African authors, were published in African Journals *Karen J. Hofman. Mapping the health research landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa: a study of trends in biomedical publications. J Med Libr Assoc. 2009 January; 97(1): 41–44

The case of ICT in African journals

The potential of ICT for African journals• ICT potential for African journals − Quality affordable platforms (OAJ) − Increase access to journal contents − Reduce paper submission challenges − A good alternative to printing and dissemination of hard copies• ICT implementation has some challenges: − Expertise required to set up and operate the system − Software acquisition and/or development − Software maintenance − Adaptation to a rapidly changing technology

The potential of ICT is not maximized by African journals• Not very appealing journal websites, Some initiatives to improve access to IT by• Limited use of electronic publishing African journals platform − Open Journal System (PKP):• Limited use E-marketing (social http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs_download media, mailing lists) − African Journal Online (AJOL):• The expertise require to set up and http://www.ajol.info/ maintain these systems not easily − African Journal Partnership project: accessible (availability and cost) http://www.ajpp-online.org/• Capacity building opportunities are rare

African journals - Consequences• The visibility of African journals can be greatly improved• Most journals have limited geographical scope• Not the primary target for submission by African authors• Access to African journals remains a challenge (despite recent improvements)

• Why will an author submit to an African Journal? • Why will he pay authors fees when big publishers waive those fees for African authors? BMC PLOS African journalsAfrican journalsat a critical stage Others

What a modern African journal should aim for?

The new journal should be: • Open Access • Peer-reviewed • Maximize the opportunities of ICT • Easily accessible from within Africa and globally (online) • Bilingual (English and French) • No authors fees or minimal charges to authors • User friendly • With high visibility and impact (indexed) • Sustainable over time

PAMJ’s vision To be the leading medical journalin Africa and one of the best in the world

PAMJ strategic intent and approachEstablishing a high standard/quality and financially viable OA medical journal Create, stimulate and perpetuate a culture of scientific publication amongst African health professionals Reduce the Increase the availability of health information and knowledge from burden ofAfrica, for the global health community diseases Increase the availability of health information and knowledge from Africa, for the global health community Increase awareness and capacity forscientific publication among the medical and public health community in Africa

Birth and early development of PAMJ • Idea was born around discussions between friendsFeb –March • Journal’s name adopted and web domain registered 2007 • Adopting IT infrastructure, development of journal websiteMay-Sept • Set up of the Editorial board 2007 • Website completed - PAMJ is up and running • Call for paper issuedMay – July 2008 • First articles published online • Memorandum of Understanding with The African Field Epidemiology NetworkSept 2008

PAMJ – Rapid growth • Indexed in African Index Medicus (AIM)Jan 2009 • Indexed in EBSCOFeb-Jun • Indexed in Directory of Open Access Journal (DOA) 2009July- Sept • Member of Open Access Scholarly Publisher Association (OASPA) 2009 • Indexed in Embase, Scopus, CABI, Pubmed Central/Pubmed • Article-level metrics is introduced 2010 • 100 articles published • First authors survey (May-June) • > 200 manuscripts published 2011 • >1000 manuscripts received, Our first supplement scheduled (December 2011)

PAMJ – In short AnOnline, OA enthusiastic , per- Bilingual teamreviewed (French , English) The Fastest Focus on growing Africa journal in Africa

PAMJ Editorial Team RaoulLandry Sheba Allan Anita Lazarus

PAMJ editorialoffice at work

Achievements

PAMJ IT platform• Designed and constantly upgraded based on PAMJ editorial team specifications and authors/reviewers feedback• Includes an online manuscript submission system and peer-review system• Use open source software (PHP/MYSQL/APACHE)• Advanced email notification system• Allows a decentralized editorial office workflow• Includes a PMC-XML processing module

PAMJ IT platform Authors Manuscript submission and follow-upEditorsOthers Reviewers Peer ReviewEditorsStaff/users XML module Advanced email communication Statistics Editors Production Editors Manuscript management RSS feed

PAMJ articlemetrics

PAMJ - Statistics

PAMJ ecosystem (Jul 2008 – Oct 2011)Capacity building activities• Cap Town Workshop (Dec 2010) Manuscripts• Tanzania Workshop (Dec 2011) 1085 submitted Authors 4476 PAMJMailing list: 1750 1800 Reviewers20 000 visitors in 2010 – 2011 132from 132 countries countries

Manuscripts submitted to PAMJ since 2008 1185 manuscripts received (April 2008 – October 2011 ) 140 120 2008 2009 2010 2011 100Number of manuscripts 80 60 11 86 211 877 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2008 2009 2010 20112011: January to October 14

Type of manuscript (2008 - 2011)4540353025 41% case reports2015 32% research10 5 0

Origin of manuscripts (2008 - 2011)Manuscripts submitted from 54 countries 1 10 50 100 Manuscript languageOur winners: • English: 60%Morocco, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tunisia, India, Uganda, Cote • French: 40%d’Ivoire, Kenya

PAMJ Authors’ profile Findings of 2011 Authors Survey 100% How many years of experience in scientific publishing do you have 80%Most authors are new How many years of workto scientific publishing 60% experience do you have?(< 5 years) – At their 40%first publication 20% 0% 0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 >26 From colleagues 10.3%Heard of PAMJ from From a search enginecolleagues and (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc..) 48.9% From library search (includingsearch engines Pubmed) 37.3% Through Social media (Facebook, etc..) or news coverage Other (please specify) http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/resources/surveys/2011/Pamj_author_survey_2011.pdf

Reasons for choosing PAMJ? Findings of 2011 Authors Survey Other (please specify) It is free (no charges to authors) It is indexed in PubMed It is open access It is easy and convenient to submit a manuscript The quality of the articles published The editorial board looked serious Journal was recommended by a colleague Speed of publication 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0%No charges, indexation in PubMed and the quality of the articles published are the mainmotivator http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/resources/surveys/2011/Pamj_author_survey_2011.pdf

Challenges

Submission and publication (2008 - 2011) 140 120 Submitted Published 100Number of manuscripts 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The processing capacities of the editorial team is surpassed

Two main challenges• Facing the rapid increase in volume of submissions• Designing a viable business model to achieve sustainability

Risk of very high volume of submission- Editorial staff overburdened- Increase in backlog of unprocessed manuscripts- Increase in manuscript processing time- Increase frustration of authors with lost of confidence- Reputation of the journal in jeopardy- Increase in production cost

Increase in running costTo cover: – Increase in production cost (PMC-XML) – System development and maintenance (publishing platform, webhosting) – IT infrastructure (hardware and software) – Operations (communication with authors, formatting, invite per-reviewers, etc..)

Financial sustainability planA viable business model toachieve financial sustainability A Comprehensive communication Inform about what we are doing strategy Identify potential donors (in Africa and Grant application elsewhere and apply for grants/support)Institutional Affiliation Encourage institutions to provide supportFair author fees policy Charge authors a small fee – Last resort Advertisement

Future plans• Deploying the editorial team into new clusters (West and North Africa)• Expand partnerships with African institutions• Capacity building for editorial team• In-house processing of PMC-XML• Phased-implementation of the financial sustainability plan − PAMJ is actively looking for donations, endowments, grants, institutional affiliations − Author- fee should remain very limited and last resort

Acknowledgements• Dr Landry Tsague (PAMJ managing editor) for his inputs in preparing this presentation• PAMJ Editorial office

Special acknowledgements

The Pan African Medical Journal: Inside an open access African journal

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