Twelve universities in Eastern Africa have adopted open access (OA) policies requiring researchers to deposit their research in institutional OA repositories, subject to copyright permissions.

The new policies will make the universities’ research output freely available online, ensuring that important research that is being conducted at universities in Eastern Africa reaches the global scientific community.

In Kenya, 10 universities have adopted OA policies. They are African Nazarene University, Cooperative University of Kenya, Egerton University, Kabarak University, Karatina University, Maseno University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Rongo University, St Paul's University and The United States International University - Africa (USIU). Now 18 Kenyan universities have adopted OA policies.

Jimma University is the first university in Ethiopia to adopt an OA policy, and the Islamic University of Uganda is the third university to adopt an OA policy in Uganda.

EIFL and EIFL partner library consortia, the Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries (CEARL), the Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC) and the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL) supported policy development and adoption through activities that included OA awareness-raising events, policy drafting workshops and advocacy campaigns, and sharing OA policy templates.

Read more about eifl's OA work in East Africa

Opening up East African Research to the World: Seven years of EIFL’s work in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.