"The 5th edition of a popular guide that provides an overview of the potentials and pitfalls of electronic journal publishing. While not specifically written for an African audience, it is an excellent resource for African journal editors and publishers who are contemplating switching to an electron
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ic environment. It introduces all the issues that will need to be considered before taking such a step. This includes a discussion of the benefits and challenges of electronic publishing; the decisions that will have to be made when changing to an online (or print/online) publication; the hosting issues involved; licensing considerations; issues relating to open access; the changes that would be required in editorial procedures, sales and marketing; and the likely costs in terms of both time and money/people, and how these costs might be recouped. It also offers a range of sales models for online journals and step-by-step guidelines how to plan for a switch to online publication." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2478)
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"In the words of a South African researcher, the media can help research become linked to policy processes by “getting you into the kitchen, being part of the soup-making”. This paper explores the roles the media play and looks at the linkages between policy, research and media. It considers som
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e of the dilemmas faced, and the options and approaches available when a research programme, institute or researcher is constructing a media strategy. It lays out some of the main steps in developing a strategy. This paper is complemented by Working with the Media: A guide for researchers, which includes practical guidance and tips for engagement with the media. In this paper the term ‘policy’ includes policy formulation, implementation and evaluation and is not restricted to that of government but includes international organisations, bilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the private sector and others. The media is taken to include community, local, national and international forms of radio, print, television and online services." (Introduction)
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"Commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology of the government of South Africa, this is a major study of the present state of research publishing policy and practice in South Africa. The goal of the six-chapter report is to help to "develop and maintain a robust national system of innov
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ation that contributes materially to the sustainable prosperity of all South Africa's people." Individual chapters cover a bibliometric assessment of South African research publications; a comprehensive analysis of South African research journals; a survey of journal editors' opinions; and an analysis of global e-research trends and their implications for South African research publishing, both in print and online formats. The final chapter sets out conclusions and recommendations for a strategically enhanced role of research publishing in South Africa. It recommends that all stakeholders in the South African research enterprise should each in their own way support local/national research journals that actively seek to be of international quality and are indexed in an internationally recognised, bibliometrically accessible database, through following best-practice in editorial judgment and peer review. Among other main recommendations of the report are: that funds should be allocated from the grants made by the Department of Education for research publication to support scholarly publishing in South Africa; that the Department of Science and Technology should take responsibility for ensuring that Open Access initiatives are promoted to enhance the visibility of all South African research articles and to make them accessible to the entire international research community, including the development of research repositories; and that the Academy of Science of South Africa be mandated to carry out external peer review and associated quality audit of all South African research journals in five-year cycles, and act as a support and quality control body for scholarly publishing." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 970)
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"A second evaluation of the African Journals Online (AJOL) project http://www.ajol.info/, which examines the development and status of the project since the last evaluation in 2002 to the end of 2005, and when it was handed over to African management, NISC South Africa Ltd. It aims to provide partic
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ipating journals with information about the use of their journals within the AJOL service, and offers a variety of analysis, including number of page requests for each journal, registered users of the service, a record and analysis of document delivery requests fulfilled, by country of publication, by journal, and by subject. There is also analysis about the nature of AJOL registered users, collected through a questionnaire mailing, which examines usage information, and areas of special interest of AJOL users. A series of appendices provide tables showing the number of hits per journal for the 2004-2005 period (although these could be somewhat misleading, and number of unique visits to each journal’s AJOL Web pages might give a better idea of the interest in any journal), document delivery requests for each journal, and email alerts requested for each." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1932)
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"This paper presents the experience with open access (OA) publishing by researchers in an academic research institution (The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus) in a developing country — Trinidad and Tobago. It describes the two parallel but complimentary paths for authors to
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enable open access, i.e. of publishing in open access journals and/or self–archiving. The benefits to researchers of free access to information, increased research impact and possible solution to the“serials crisis” are highlighted. It suggests that advocates of OA should consider all possible difficulties that researchers may have with OA, so that these could be ameliorated. To this end, it considers the UWI researchers’ knowledge of OA, their access to the scholarly literature, open access archives/repositories at the UWI and related issues of research and library funding, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and infrastructure/Internet connectivity. It concludes that there are indeed obvious and well–documented benefits for developing country researchers. There are though some disincentives that make it difficult for researchers in developing countries to fully participate in the OA movement. Apart from author–side or“page” charges, the limited number of open access journals in many fields of study and inadequate and unreliable ICT infrastructure and Internet connectivity often limit access and publication in OA journals." (Abstract)
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"This volume grew out of a seminar on scholarly publishing held in Arusha, Tanzania in 2002. It was originally announced for publication as The African Scholarly Writers and Publishers Handbook, as a sequel to the much acclaimed African Writers’ Handbook published by African Books Collective in 19
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99, but was subsequently recast primarily as a collection of essays by book practitioners and a number of African academics. The preface to the volume offers no explanation why the original handbook concept was abandoned, although the essay collection does contain a few more practical papers such as Alois Mlambo’s “Choosing a Publisher”, Mary Jay’s “The Book Publishing Process”, and Charles Bewlay’s “A Publisher’s Expectations of Academic Authors”. Also useful, published as an appendix in the book, is a reprint of CODESRIA’s Guide for Authors, a small booklet published by them in 2003 that contains a great deal of helpful guidance as well as a glossary. The collection takes stock of the current status of academic publishing on the continent. and contains a total of 25 papers, together with an index. Following two introductory essays, papers are grouped under a number of headings and sub-headings: Part 1, Perspectives: Scholars and Publishers, African-Language Publishing, Librarianship; and Part 2, Writing and Publishing; New Technologies. This essay collection offers a rich resource on many aspects of African scholarly publishing today." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2312)
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"An informal network composed of representatives from a number of UK organisations concerned about the impact of research on the reality of poverty convened a workshop on 5-6 September 2006. The objectives of the workshop were to mobilise a wider group of organisations working in the field of resear
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ch communication to explore and analyse the different models for monitoring and evaluating research communication." (Page 1)
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"This manual aims to help researchers enhance their communication skills and encourages them to think about the potential audiences for and beneficiaries of their research at the inception of every project. The manual highlights principles and procedures that have proven successful in presenting res
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earch results to peers, colleagues, the media, policymakers, and interest groups. It includes guidelines for targeting and reaching selected audiences as well as exercises for applying those guidelines. It invites researchers, workshop participants, and other readers to use their own recent work to develop immediately useful, usable communication strategies and documents. Although this manual outlines the principles for communicating food policy research, we caution our readers to use common sense and adapt the principles to the given situation. Experience has shown us that one approach can be successful in one scenario, but another approach is needed for a different situation. There is no single formula for achieving impact, but many possibilities to succeed in influencing policymakers and opinion leaders." (Page V)
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"This guide has a limited scope. It is meant to help scholarly societies – and small publishers – assess the options available to them for the future of their journal publishing programmes. Though the option of keeping the status quo of subscription-based journals is discussed, the focus is on c
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onversion of existing journals to open access, either in one go, or via an intermediate managed transition phase." (Introduction)
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