Scholarly Publishing in Africa and the role of the Open Access Initiative (OAI)

Abstract

Academics all over the world place emphasis on research and publications, not only because it is presumed that research enriches both teaching and the learning process as well as contributing to the body of knowledge, but also because it is a major determinant of institutional prestige. To the academic staff, therefore, publishing achieves that dual purpose of enhancing both one's position and the status of the institution. However, scholarly publishing in Africa is still struggling to keep pace with the rest of the world. Various reasons for this are discussed in this paper. The author also highlights the issue of Predatory or Standalone journals which are trying to take advantage of challenges in scholarly publishing to exploit the African Scholar or writer. As one of the solutions to this problem, the author suggests that scholars in Africa should take advantage of the opportunities and benefits of Open Access (OA) Journals. These provide unlimited access to online peer reviewed scholarly research works. They are also digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions, The role of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in assisting the OA agenda is also emphasized.