A review of the open-access scenario in Afghanistan
| Date | 18 November 2019 |
| Pages | 660-668 |
| Published date | 18 November 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2019-0020 |
| Author | Vrushali Sainath Dandawate,Dhanamjaya M. |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
A review of the open-access
scenario in Afghanistan
Vrushali Sainath Dandawate
All India Shri Shivaji Memorial Society’s College of Engineering, Pune, India, and
Dhanamjaya M.
Reva University, Bangalore, India
Abstract
Purpose –Open access movement is getting increased in Asia and the Pacific and has been started in the
form of subject gateways, informal collections of articles on web pages and directories. Many Asian countries
adopted the transition to Open Access journals and full-text repositories and digital libraries. Open access
also helps to underprivilege countries to spread their research output. But third-world Islamic countries are
far away from open access and its implementations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on open-access
e-resource development in Afghanistan.
Design/methodology/approach –The data were complemented by documentary analysis, and
information retrieved from open-access databases like DOAR, DOAJ and OER Sites.
Findings –The paper provides information about open-access development in Afghanistan and also focuses
on the challenges for spreading OA awareness in Afghanistan. It suggests that how local people and
universities can help to spread open-access movement.
Social implications –This paper gives an idea about the educational system and other resources available
in Afghanistan.
Originality/value –This paper fulfills an identified need to study open-access development and status
in Afghanistan.
Keywords Open access, Afghanistan, Open access development Afghanistan
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Afghanistan is located in the center of Asia, which is surrounded by China, Iran, Pakistan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan’s population is a population of
nearly 30m, Afghanistan is a low-income country with a per capita GDP of $576 as of 2011,
and an annualized GDP growth rate of about 5.7 percent in 2011 Lokanathan, 2012). The
Afghan economy has slowly regained momentum as reforms have been implemented and
confidence restored. From a low of 1.5 percent in 2015, the real GDP growth accelerated to
2.3 percent in 2016 and reached 2.7 percent in 2017 (Press, 1998).
As per information on the global open-access portal, “Afghanistan started implementing
digital access to information, As per government reports raw data will be available for
researchers which has been collected from demographic and economic surveys this data will
be helpful for preparing various data sets. This will enhance open data plan in country”[1].
Literature review
Open access
Developing country researchers, librarians always face problems to access scholarly
information resources. Open Access is the best solution for them. Open Access leads to free
access to scholarly information. Most of the Open Access definitions are having the same
concept of open access. Peter Suber (2004) defines the open access as “The literature which
is available free of charge in online format and without any copyright restrictions”
(Peter Suber, 2004). Berlin’s (2003) declaration defines open access as “Open Access
literature is freely available for all users can copy, download search and print scholarly
articles contents without any technical financial or copyright issue”(Berlin, 2003).
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 37 No. 4, 2019
pp. 660-668
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-01-2019-0020
Received 2 January 2019
Revised 5 April 2019
5 August 2019
Accepted 7 August 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
660
LHT
37,4
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