Smart Fishing:
Impact of open access on
African fisheries information
Jean Collins (retired) &
Janet Webster (Oregon State University)
2011 IAMSLIC, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Code of Conduct
Voluntary policy framework adopted in 1995
Promote sustainable and responsible fisheries &
aquaculture worldwide
Constraints to implementation
Level of scientific research
Amount of information
Institutional capacity
Access to information
Information for the Code
2005 FAO Fisheries Technical Circular 1006
Fisheries Information in Developing Countries
2009 Technical Guideline 12
Information and Knowledge Sharing
Constraints
• Lack of awareness of & access to
global information resources
• Poor opportunities to publish
& disseminate research results
• Inadequate ICT infrastructure
& information skills
• Lack of access to & preservation
of local information
Constraint 1:
Lack of awareness of & access to global
information resources
Research4Life.org
Impact of Expanded Access?
Peer-reviewed papers
Average cite/article
Mean cite/article
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1995
2000
2005
2010
Afriamslic survey
9 replies out of 32:
Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria,
Tanzania, Uganda
Enthusiastic users of AGORA!
IAMSLIC Distributed Library
Borrowing Libraries
Botswana
7
Kenya
160
South Africa
12
Tanzania
7
Tunisia
13
Lending Libraries
Kenya
9
Namibia
5
Nigeria
6
South Africa
32
AFRIAMSLIC activity is increasing, but
there’s room for much more growth.
Constraint 2:
Poor opportunities to publish & disseminate
the results of research
What is open access?
•
•
•
•
Digital
Online
Free of charge
Free of most copyright & licensing restrictions.
Searching for African research
Wide variety of journals
Few fisheries specific journals
Over 40 different OA journals
Time lag in African fisheries journals
Journals aggregators
African Journals Online
Directory of Open Access Journals
BioOne
DOAJ Search and Results
(TI=fish OR TI=fisheries) and PY=2010 and SU=Africa = 33
AJOL Search: (TI=fish or fisheries) and PY=2010 = 48
More good tools
GoogleScholar as a search engine
OA repositories as ‘homes’ for publications
Aquatic Commons
OceanDocs
RePEc (Research Papers in Economics)
PubMed Central
Avano as an OA harvester
Google Scholar Search and Results:
((fish OR fisheries) AND (uganda OR tanzania OR kenya OR nigeria
OR botswana OR senegal)) and PY=2010 = 13,000 (sampled 130)
African Fisheries Journals
What now?
•
•
•
•
•
Should AGORA include African fisheries journals?
•
African Journal of Aquatic Sciences
•
African Journal of Marine Sciences
Should DOAJ include African OA journals?
Why are African fisheries researchers publishing in non fisheries journals?
Is an OA African fisheries journal feasible and would it be a solution?
Can librarians help researchers select the best place to publish?
Thanks! Now let’s hear from you.
Jean Collins collinsjean1@gmail.com
Webster, Janet janet.webster@oregonstate.edu