Issues and Challenges in the Development of Open Access Publishing and Scholarly Communications in Nigeria

The paper notes that advances in technology have resulted in the emergence of open access publishing and scholarly communication. Open access publishing typically provides an internet based digital platform for the publication of research output with unrestricted access to the public while scholarly publication networks encompass inter linked information access to database by educational institutions. The growth of open access publishing and scholarly communication has been very remarkable in many developed countries. However, academic and research institutions in many developing countries like Nigeria are still battling to overcome many challenges in an attempt to make their research outputs openly accessible. At the same time, cross access to digital libraries is in its embryonic stages amongst research institutions. This paper identifies the challenges and their effects. Notable amongst these are: Lack of awareness of open access publishing; Dearth of cross linked e-libraries; Inadequate information and communication technology infrastructure; Inadequate and epileptic power supply; Inadequate funding of research institutions; and Inhibiting copyright protection regime The paper concludes by prescribing a copyright regime that will assure researchers of intellectual property rights protection for research outputs published in digital networks. 1 Oluwasemilore, Ifeoma Ann. LLB, BL, MLS, LLM, M.Phil. Law Librarian University of Lagos, Akoka Nigeria 2 INTRODUCTION As centres for intellectual and scholarly research, academic and research institutions in any given society are expected to take an interest in the creation, dissemination as well as preservation of knowledge. However, this is a very complex process, particularly in developing countries where the economic, technological and institutional structures necessary to achieve the process are not well established. Altbach (1978) has noted that knowledge dissemination is especially important in the third world context because the emergence of an independent intellectual life and some self-sufficiency in science is to some extent dependent on establishing the essential structure for dissemination of knowledge For centuries, the model of institutional libraries and scholarly publishing was the conventional model adopted in preserving and disseminating knowledge from academic and research institutions. Whereas institutional libraries housed research outputs in the form of grey literatures, thus playing a greater role in terms of preservation than dissemination, scholarly publishing played a much greater role in terms of dissemination through scholarly journals. Over the past several decades, however, the economic, market, and technological foundations that sustained this symbiotic publisher-library market relationship has begun to shift. This shift has resulted in what Benkler called the “networked information economy” which is gradually displacing the “industrial information economy” that typified information production from about the second half of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century. 2 Altbach P. G, “Scholarly Publishing in the Third World” Library Trends 26:4 (1978) 489-504 3 The term “grey literature” is used to refer to documents and ephemeral material issued in limited amounts outside the formal channels of publication and distribution. 4 Open Society Institute: Guide to Business Planning for Converting a Subscription-based Journal to Open Access (2004) http://www.soros.org/openaccess/oajguides/business_converting.pdf 5 Benkler Y. “The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom” 2006 Yale 3 Nigeria has over 92 accredited Universities, both public and private. This is more universities than any country in Sub-Saharan Africa. These universities function as focal point for academic research in Nigeria. Egwunyenga (2008) has attributed this to the fact that research is made compulsory for both lecturers and students either by job description or by prescribed academic program of study. For lecturers and academics, the concept of ‘publish or perish’ has come to strap their subsistence and promotion within the academic environment to the volume of their research output and published works. On the part of the students (especially graduate students), the nature of their academic studies requires that they be actively engaged in research activities either in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree being sought or as part of terminal thesis or dissertation. In the light of these requirements on the part of both lecturers and students, it is to be expected that the volume of research output originating from academic institutions and addressing local problems in Nigeria will be high. Specialized research institutions also constitute another focal point for research activities in Nigeria. Applied scientific research by these research institutions dates back to the time when the country was still under British colonial rule. Though some of the institutions were established after the country’s independence, these research institutions along with the academic institutions turn out chunk of research outputs relating to developmental issues not only in the country but also within the region. Reasonably, these research outputs addressing issues endemic to the region should be given wide circulation so that the results of the research can be applied in University Press 6 Figure made available by National Universities Commission (NUC) http://www.nuc.edu.ng/pages/universities.asp. This number does not include other higher institutions like Polytechnics, as well as non-degree awarding research institutions in the country. 7 Egwunyenga, E.J. “Dystrophies and Associated Crises in Research and Academic Publications in Nigerian Universities” Anthropologist, 10:4: (2008) pg 245-250 @ 245 4 addressing the issues that they sought to tackle. Unfortunately, these outputs gather dusts in the various departmental offices and institutional libraries without getting published. Some eventually get published in local journals that have minimal circulation due to poor distributorship, marketing or prestige. Thus after so much painstaking commitment of efforts and resources in undertaking researches, the outcome is not widely disseminated. In consequence, these research findings die at the institutional level as those who need to apply the knowledge are unable to access them. This situation thus highlights the need for an effective process of knowledge dissemination from academic and research institutions in developing country. This article studies the challenges associated with the development of open access publishing and scholarly communication in Nigeria and how the development of open access repositories could be instrumental in increasing accessibility and visibility of research output from the region.