OVERVIEW

The first national open access and institutional repository workshop took place in Accra, Ghana, in June 2007. The workshop was organized by EIFL. In 2008, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) launched an institutional open access repository - the first in Ghana and in West Africa. KNUST was also the first university in Ghana to introduce policy mandating open access to theses and dissertations.

The second national open access awareness raising meeting took place in 2011. The meeting was attended by about 100 heads of tertiary institutions, directors of government ministries and agencies, and researchers and librarians from Ghana and other African countries. We also supported an advocacy campaign to create awareness about how open access institutional repositories benefit scholarship and research.

Since 2011 there have been numerous events and activities to raise awareness about open access, promote the creation of open access institutional repositories, and encourage open access publishing and development of institutional open access policies. 

Our main partners have been the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), KNUST and the Association of African Universities (AAU).

“Africa cannot attain sustainable development without access to knowledge and information sharing. Knowledge sharing is also important to higher education to facilitate national development.” - Professor Olugbemiro Jegede, immediate past Secretary General of the Association of African Universities.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

• Raising awareness about open access of university leadership, librarians, lecturers and researchers and regional and national government officials through workshops, advocacy campaigns and webinars.
• Building capacity of academic and government research institutions -
  • To develop institutional open access policies.
  • To establish and manage institutional open access repositories.
  • To develop and publish institutional open access journals, using Open Journal Systems (OJS) software.
• Auditing and improving institutional open access repositories.
• Training a corps of open access, open science and open research data trainers to be based in CARLIGH member libraries.

TIMELINE

2007 - 2023

ACHIEVEMENTS

Open access policies

• The CSIR has adopted an open access policy. The CSIR is the body mandated by the government to carry out scientific and technological research for national development. The policy will make the vast amount of knowledge its scientists have generated over the years openly available online.
• KNUST has extended its open access policy to cover all research outputs. 

Institutional open access repositories 

27 more universities in Ghana have set up institutional open access repositories: Accra Technical University; Akrofi Christaller Institute; Ashesi University; Cape Coast Technical University; Central University; Christian Service University; Garden City University; Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons; Ghana Communication Technology University; Ghana Institute of Journalism; Heritage Christian College; Ho Technical University; Koforidua Technical University; Kumasi Technical University; Methodist University College Ghana; Pentecost University College; Presbyterian University; Sunyani Technical University; Takoradi Technical University; University of Cape Coast; University of Development Studies; University of Education; University of Ghana; University of Health and Allied Sciences; University of Mines & Technology; University of Natural and Renewable Energy, Sunyani; Valley View University.

Open access journals

• 19 institutions have capacity to install and manage OJS publishing platforms, and have begun publishing and hosting institutional journals.  
  • KNUST has installed OJS software for publishing the university’s journal.
  • Koforidua Technical University publishes their journal, International Journal of Technology and Management Research, in open access.
  • University of Cape Coast has used OJS to publish 16 of its institutional journals. 
  • University of Development Studies publishes their UDS International Journal of Development in open access. 
  • University of Environment and Sustainable Development publishes The Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development in open access 
  • University of Ghana moved their 12 journals to OJS. 
• CARLIGH has established a technical team to provide ongoing support for open access journal publishing.

Open access and open science awareness and capacity

• CARLIGH has set up an open science training community comprising 22 trainers to share experiences and successes in open access, open research data and open science.

For further information, contact Iryna Kuchma: iryna.kuchma@eifl.net.