This document summarizes the findings of a study that investigated Tanzanian public university policy makers' perspectives on open access publishing. The study found that most policy makers were aware of open access, but implementation was still limited. While most felt institutional repositories managed by university libraries could help disseminate research, few universities had actually established repositories. Overall, policy makers expressed positive attitudes towards open access and endorsed further initiatives to promote it. The researchers recommend Tanzanian universities establish institutional repositories to improve research dissemination, given policy makers' supportive perspectives.

1. Fostering open access publishing in
Tanzanian public universities: policy
makers’ perspectives.
Dulle, FW and Minishi-Majanja, MK
Sokoine National Agricultural Library Department of Information Science
University of Agriculture University of South Africa
P.O.Box 3022, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria 0003
Morogoro – Tanzania Republic of South Africa
E-mail: fwdulle@suanet.ac.tz E-mail: majanmk@unisa.ac.za

2. Introduction
• Scholarly communication:
– reflects various processes through which scholars exchange information
with each other in the course of knowledge creation.
– 3 main distinct aspects (Thorin 2003):
• conducting research; developing ideas; communicating informally
• preparing, shaping, and formal research results
• formal product (print or electronic).
– Role of ICTs: dramatic change in research practices such as
• Collaboration
• Methodology including data collection and analysis
• Communication of research results e.g. Open access and self-
archiving

3. Introduction
• Open Access:
– new mode of scholarly communication through which the author(s) and
right holder(s) of scholarly work grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable,
worldwide right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute,
transmit, and display the work publicly in any digital medium for any
responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship (The
Berlin Declaration (2003).
– OA Journals (OAJs) “Gold Road”
• Peer reviewed
• ‘free’
– Self-archiving “Green Road”
• Personal websites
• OA archives e.g. Institutional repositories
– Resources: ROAR; DOAR; DOAJ

4. Aim and objectives of the study
• Problem:
Despite the promising potential of open access to improve scholarly
communication in developing countries, the new mode of publishing is not
yet wide spread in such countries when compared to developed countries
• Aim:
This is part of the ongoing PhD study whose aim is to analyse the status of
open access scholarly communication in Tanzanian public universities.
• Objectives: the main study seeks to:
– investigate the general awareness and open access usage;
– find out factors that facilitate researchers’ adoption of open access;
– determine factors that hinder researchers’ adoption of open access;
– find out researchers’ perspectives on open access;
– suggest strategies to resolve the hindrances to open access adoption.
NB: The main focus of the paper is to isolate the awareness and perspectives
of policy makers about open access within the public universities

5. Methodology
• Survey approach
– Questionnaires – semi structured interviews
• Target population
– 6 Tanzanian public universities: Ardhi University (ARU); Muhimbili
University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS); Mzumbe University
(MU), Open University of Tanzania (OUT); Sokoine University of
Agriculture (SUA); University of Dar es salaam (UDSM).
– The interview targeted 67 university policy makers in the selected
universities
• Response rate
– From the 67 targeted interviewees who were eligible for the study, 63
(94%) of them were available and participated in the interview.

6. Table 1: Distribution of interviewees
Institution Gender Total
Male Female
ARU 9 1 10
MUHAS 8 3 11
MU 7 3 10
OUT 4 2 6
SUA 9 2 11
UDSM 9 6 15
Total 46 17 63

7. Findings-1
• Open access awareness:
– Among 63 interviewees, 57 (90.5%) reported that they were aware
about open access.
– 79.4% of the interviewees claimed to know open access journals but
few had heard about other open access initiatives or terms.
– 33% learnt from their colleagues, 25.4% learnt by following internet
debate while 19% were informed through publishers’ promotion.
• Open access uptake level by respective universities:
– open access publishing has not yet been discussed at strategic or
business meetings (68.3% of 63 interviewees
– open access has been raised but not yet taken up (23.8%)
– universities intend to institute an institutional repository (7.9%).

8. Findings-2
– Importance of Institutional repositories in dissemination of
research findings
• dissemination of research output at institutions was a problem
(94.4%)
• institutional repositories an important strategy to improve
dissemination of research output (96.8%).

9. Findings -3
• most appropriate unit within their universities they thought should manage
the institutional repository
– university library – 61.9%
– university-wide research coordination unit – 19%
– Computer/ICT unit – 12.7%
– faculty/institute/directorate – 3.2%

10. Findings -4
• most preferred content for institutional repositories
– Conference papers – 87.3%
– Peer reviewed journal articles – 85.7%
– Theses/dissertations – 79.4%
– Teaching materials – 65.1%
– Articles awaiting peer review for journal – 28.6%
– Non peer reviewed journal articles – 27%

11. Findings -4
• Prospects for open access endorsement by policy makers
– majority of the respondents would either support or likely to
support most of the interventions for fostering of open access at
their respective institutions
– majority of the interviewees were very positive about open
access as reflected from their general comments

12. Implications of the study findings with respect to agricultural
sector
– The Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), the only
agricultural university in the country represents other
agricultural research institutions
– observations from this study may be applicable to other
agricultural research institutions operating under similar
environment
– Benefits from the establishment of institutional repositories for
example could make research results readily accessible to all
agricultural stakeholders including policy makers, researchers,
extension workers, farmers and the rest of beneficiaries for the
improvement of the agricultural sector productivity.
– For research results to be useful to all stakeholders,
repackaging is important in order to meet different needs of the
user community before depositing in the institutional
repositories.

13. Conclusion and recommendations
• Conclusion:
Apart from the fact that there are many benefits for harnessing open
access mode of communicating scholarly output, including
establishment of institutional repositories, the attitudes and perceptions
of Tanzanian public universities’ policy makers are positive, making it
justifiable for public universities and other research institutions in
Tanzania to consider it seriously for investing in such ventures
• Recommendation:
– Tanzanian university should establish institutional repositories as a way
to improve dissemination of research output emanating from such
institutions.
– Policy makers’ positive perspectives about open access should be used
by open access advocates to make their campaigns with much
confidence as they are unlikely to meet much resistance from such
stakeholders.

14. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Questions/Discussion?