Kenyatta University (Kenya) adopts world's 334th open access (OA) mandate: OA institutional repository (IR) policy (roarmap.eprints.org/994/).

The policy became the fourth OA policy in the country following three other OA mandates adopted by the University of Nairobi's Senate in December 2012; the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology's (JKUAT) Senate in April 2012 and Strathmore University in 2011.

Currently, Kenyatta University OA IR contains 6824 research outputs and full text access is provided under creativecommons.org/licenses Creative Commons Licenses.

“The repository will contribute to the commitment of the University to support research activities. It will serve to preserve Kenyatta University's legacy, facilitate digital preservation and scholarly communication,” stated Prof. Olive Mugenda, Vice Chancellor, Kenyatta University.

“It provides an open access platform to capture, store, index, and distribute globally a wide range of research outputs, including masters and doctoral theses, produced by the University's researchers and postgraduate students. This will assist in increasing citation rates and the impact of Kenyatta University research.”

EIFL-OA Programme was pleased to be a part of OA policy discussions contributing to a workshop to sensitize the Kenyatta University Management Board on OA, demonstrating the value of creating OA IR and establishing institutional level OA policy frameworks that ensure the greatest visibility of research produced within the University.

Among the speakers, there were: Iryna Kuchma, EIFL-OA Programme Manager; Pablo de Castro, Director of Operations, GrandIR; William J Nixon, Digital Library Development Manager, University of Glasgow Library; Brian Hole, Ubiquity Press; and Dr. George Gitau Njoroge, University Librarian, Kenyatta University.

About the OA policy 

The policy is in line with the university's vision to be a dynamic, inclusive and competitive centre of excellence in teaching, learning, research.

It aims to help the university provide quality education and training, promote scholarship, service, innovation and creativity for sustainable individual and societal development. 

The policy has been adopted by a community of scholars committed to the generation and dissemination of knowledge and responsiveness to societal needs and the right of every person to knowledge: 

• Each University member shall grant to the University permission, upon submission to the IR, to make available his or her scholarly works.
• The University is granted a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise all rights under copyright relating to each authors’ scholarly works, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the scholarly works are not sold for a profit.
• The policy will apply to all scholarly works authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the University.
• The policy will not apply to scholarly works completed before and for which the University member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before its adoption.
• The University will waive application of the policy to a particular scholarly works upon request by a University member.
• Scholarly works for publication will be provided, in the final version and as an electronic copy at no charge, to the appropriate representative of the Senate in an appropriate format immediately after publication.
• Other scholarly works will be provided, in the final version and as an electronic copy at no charge.
• The University may make the scholarly works available to the public in an OA repository (ir-library.ku.ac.ke/).
• The Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the University from time to time.
• The policy will be reviewed after five years or as need arises and a report presented to the Senate."

The full text of the policy is available here: (library.ku.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Library-IR-Policy.pdf).

Congratulations to Dr. George G. Njoroge, Chief University Librarian, and his team!