The document discusses the importance and benefits of Open Access (OA) policies in Africa, highlighting specific case studies and statistics from institutions like the National Research Foundation in South Africa. It emphasizes how OA enhances visibility, usage, and impact of research, supports institutional planning, and fosters international collaboration. Various successful OA policies and their effectiveness are noted, along with recommendations for mandatory deposit practices to improve research assessments and funding opportunities.

1. Open access policy
workshop
Iryna Kuchma, Open Access Programme Manager
FOURTH CODESRIA CONFERENCE ON ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AND
DISSEMINATION: The Open Access Movement and the Future of Africa’s
Knowledge Economy, March 31, 2016, Dakar, Senegal
Attribution 4.0 International

2. Overview
Introductions, your questions/issues
Open Access (OA) policy development in
Africa: How to
Case study: the National Research
Foundation (South Africa)

3. Open access (OA) is free,
online access to the results of
coupled with the right to use
results in new and innovative

4. Benefits of an OA policy:
institutions
Collects and preserves the institution’s scientific
output and disseminates it through the repository
Provides the possibility of indexing and tracking
the scientific output of the institution through
Web search engines
Monitors the number of visits and use and
collects data and indicators that can be used in
institutional planning, and the search for sources
of funding etc.

5. Benefits of an OA policy:
institutions (2)
Provides opportunities for the use and re-use of the
institution’s output for scientific purposes (CVs,
publications, excellence reports, indicators, institutional
websites, personal websites etc.)
Strengthens international communication and
collaboration channels and the institution’s international
profile

6. Benefits of an OA policy:
researchers
Increases the visibility of, and showcases their
research
Increases the usage of their research
Increases the impact of their research (citations)

7. Benefits of an OA policy:
researchers (2)
Repository enables them to collect all their outputs
in a safe, permanent location
Repository provides information on usage and
impact
Repository provides personalised publication lists
to be used in grant applications, CVs and when
writing articles

10. University that doesn't know what papers
its faculty publishes is like a factory that
doesn't know what it produces
Bernard Rentier

11. An empty repository is useless;
a partly filled repository is partly useless;
there is a need for an institutional open
access policy
Bernard Rentier

12. Don't impose, just inform researchers
that only publications in the repository
will be considered for evaluation
Bernard Rentier

13. Mandate, keep authors at the core,
communicate permanently, be coherent,
reduce constraints
Bernard Rentier

14. @ORBi_ULg – a personal workspace,
provides statistics and has a widget to
generate publications lists – content in
personal/faculties webpages
Bernard Rentier

15. The policy came into effect in November 2008
and has become the most effective OA policy
in the world at present, with 87% of the
University’s research articles currently being
deposited in the repository.
Bernard Rentier

16. 34% of researchers are very satisfied
and 57% are satisfied with their OA
repository.
Bernard Rentier

22. “Putting research results in the public sphere makes
science better & strengthens our knowledge-based
knowledge-based economy. The European taxpayer
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research,
Innovation & Science (2010-2014)

27. OA is required by law in Argentina

28. in Mexico

29. and in Peru

37. Open Access policies: policy effectiveness
Alma Swan

38. OA policies: worldwide
numbers

39. OA policies worldwide
Europe (389)
North America
(145)
Central & South
America (34)
Africa (16)
Asia (40)
Oceania (39)

40. OA policymakers worldwide
Research funders
(72)
Research
institutions (461)
Research funder
and institutions
(53)
Multiple research
organisations (8)
Sub-units of
institutions (69)

41. OA policy effectiveness
ROARMAP rebuild
122 mandatory policies (institutions)
Repository content measured
Regression analysis carried out using
policy criteria

42. OA policy conditions recorded in
ROARMAP: original set of 13
Condition
Must deposit
Cannot waive deposit
Deposit immediately
Must make item OA
Cannot waive making item OA
Link deposit with research assessment / evaluation
Must make item OA immediately
Permitted embargo period specified (STEM)
Permitted embargo period specified (HaSS)
Must retain rights to make item OA
Cannot waive retention of rights
Age of mandatory policy
Requirement for open licensing

43. OA policy conditions: eliminated those
with small numbers
Condition
Must deposit
Cannot waive deposit
Deposit immediately
Must make item OA
Cannot waive making item OA
Link deposit with research assessment / evaluation
Must make item OA immediately
Permitted embargo period specified (STEM)
Permitted embargo period specified (HaSS)
Must retain rights to make item OA
Cannot waive retention of rights
Age of mandatory policy
Requirement for open licensing

44. OA policy conditions: working
set of 6 policy conditions
Condition
Must deposit
Cannot waive deposit
Must make item OA
Cannot waive making item OA
Link deposit with research assessment / evaluation
Cannot waive retention of rights

45. Regression analysis
Statistical tool
Looks at the relationships between variables in an
experiment
Can measure effect of more than one variable at a
time
Can infer causal relationship (though care needed!)
Correlation versus significance
In this study we were looking for both

46. OA policy conditions: regression
analysis
Condition Correlation with deposit
rate
Must deposit ✔
Cannot waive deposit ✔
Must make item OA ✔
Cannot waive making item OA ✔
Link deposit with research assessment / evaluation ✔
Cannot waive retention of rights ✔

47. Correlation with deposit action
Policy criterion Positive
correlation
Significant
correlation
Must deposit ✔ ✔
Cannot waive deposit ✔ ✔
Link deposit to research evaluation ✔ ✔
Must make deposit Open Access ✔
Cannot waive making item Open Access ✔
Where policy stipulates authors should retain relevant
rights, this cannot be waived
✔

48. Significant correlations with
deposit rate
Must deposit
Cannot waive deposit
Research evaluation
Must make deposit Open Access
Cannot waive making item Open Access
Where rights are retained, this cannot be waived

50. Research evaluation
Universities with institutional repositories should
require deposit in the repository for all research
articles to be considered for promotion, tenure, or
other forms of internal assessment and review.

51. Research evaluation (2)
Similarly, governments performing research
assessment should require deposit in OA repositories
for all research articles to be reviewed for national
assessment purposes.
Neither policy should be construed to limit the review
of other sorts of evidence, or to alter the standards of
review.

52. OA mandates worldwide
Europe (237; 62%)
North America (75;
19%)
Central & South
America (18; 5%)
Africa (10; 3%)
Asia (24; 6%)
Oceania (20; 5%)

53. OA policies with the significant criteria
18 policies
5 funders
13 institutions

54. Funders
South Africa: National Research Foundation of
South Africa
European Commission: Horizon 2020 policy
Austria: FWF (Fonds zur Foederung der
Wissenschaftlichen Forschung)
UK: HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Councils)
US: NIH (National Institutes of Health)

55. Research institutions
Ghent University (Belgium)
INRIA (France)
Ifremer (France)
Laboratoire de psychologie et neurosciences
cognitives (France)
Pwani University (Kenya)
Saint-Loius University Brussels (Belgium)
Universidade do Minho (Portugal)
Universita degli studi di Trieste (Italy)
University of Liege (Belgium)
University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
University of Mons (Belgium)
University of Reading (UK)
University of Strathclyde (UK)

56. Highest deposit rates
(research-intensive
institutions*)
Institution Number of articles
published 2011-2013
% articles deposited in
the repository
University of Liege (Belgium) 4240 87 %
Universidade do Minho (Portugal) 3021 62 %
University of Pretoria (South Africa) 3335 60 %
Queensland University of Technology
(Australia)
3558 49 %
* Published more than 3000 articles in the 3-year test period

57. Other things that help policy
success Policy champion
Library/Research Office activism in
support of the policy
Department/faculty strategy
Training programme
Promotional events (e.g. Open
Access Week)
Promotional materials
Technical tools (e.g. impact tools,
etc)

68. References
ROARmap: http://roarmap.eprints.org/
PASTEUR4OA/Advocacy Resources
http://www.pasteur4oa.eu/resources
PASTEUR4OA Data Visualisations http://pasteur4oa-
dataviz.okfn.org/
Ten years on from the Budapest OA Initiative: setting
the default to open: http://bit.ly/Q2ucDE

69. References (2)
Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion
of OA by Alma Swan commissioned by UNESCO:
http://bit.ly/HnibYc
Good practices for university OA policies by Stuart
Shieber & Peter Suber: http://bit.ly/1l9VDdW

70. Thank you!
Questions?
iryna.kuchma@eifl.net
www.eifl.net