Africa leads the way in open access research, says expert – University World News

AFRICA

Neylon questioned how capacity and infrastructure would be maintained, sustained and grown to support future leadership to advance African scholarship, during a webinar as part of Open Access Week organised by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). Open Access Week started in 2008 and has been observed globally this year from 19 to 25 October, with the theme: Open with Purpose: Taking action to build structural equity and inclusion.

According to Neylon, an overview of the progress made towards open access scholarship shows that there has been massive progress over the last decade.

Kenyatta, Venda among top 100 in the world

Speaking to the theme Open Access to Scholarly Literature: Progress and evidence of African leadership, Neylon said several African institutions, including Kenyatta University in Kenya and the University of Venda in South Africa, were among the top 100 universities in the world using open access research.

He said the data showed that there was a wide range of European institutions, also Latin American and Asian but a significant number of African institutions, that were performing better in terms of delivering open access.

African countries are consistently showing very high levels of open access, and again, showing it right from 2010, from early in this process [of developing open access] through to the current play on sound leadership that has existed, over a very long period of time, said Neylon, citing Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa as examples of countries with success in advancing open source scholarship.

According to Neylon, one of the key reasons for the African continents success in open source access, which has seen many outperform European and North American institutions, may be due to philanthropic funders such as the National Institute of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, while in South Africa the National Research Foundation has been playing a pivotal role. .Volume of open access publishing increasing

Using several graphs presented on screen, Neylon said the statistics showed the development of open access among global universities over the past eight or nine years, particularly on the African continent, adding, ...we are seeing increases in the volume of open access publishing, we're seeing increases in the number of open access to repositories.

At the moment, and we have seen a shift over the last 10 to 15 years from levels of open access around 10%, to global levels of open access of around about 50%, 60% and 70%, he said.

Neylon said that this was an astounding increase in the volume of research content that is accessible for free, at least for those that have access to high-speed internet. There are African institutions that are performing in terms of open access at a level which is equal with the best in the world, he said.

Code of conduct for researchers

But while several African nations were depicted as models of success in open source access, South Africas national science body ASSAf warned of uncertainty and the need for further guidance on the application of privacy data laws concerning research. It highlighted the importance of developing a code of conduct for research in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), colloquially called the POPI Act, to ensure certainty, transparency and clarity in the use of personal information for research.

ASSAf believes there should be a code to guide the use of personal information for research in all sectors (including health, social science, genomics, etc) and has begun working on a process to facilitate the development of a Code of Conduct for Research, by engaging stakeholders, including researchers, ethicists and legally trained people.

Stringent penalties, with fines up to ZAR10 million (US$615,000), apply as part of the countrys privacy laws governing data. It became effective on 1 July 2020 with enforcement set to begin on 1 July 2021. POPIA strives to balance the right to privacy with other rights and interests, including the free flow of information within the country and across its borders.

ASSAf will appoint a steering group to guide the development of the code next month, with a writing team due to start by December and a draft expected for comment and discussions by March 2021. Pending further discussions and comments by May, it is envisaged that the code would be submitted by July to Information Regulator Pansy Tlakula for approval.

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Africa leads the way in open access research, says expert - University World News