The state of institutional repositories and scholarly communication in Nigeria
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-04-2017-0033 |
| Published date | 05 February 2018 |
| Date | 05 February 2018 |
| Pages | 19-33 |
| Author | David Oguche |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information in society,Information literacy,Library & information services |
The state of institutional
repositories and scholarly
communication in Nigeria
David Oguche
Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Abuja, Nigeria
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to assess the current status of Institutional Repository (IR) and
scholarly communications(SC) in Nigeria. The paper also deliberates the benefits of IRs including how it can
help librariesin Nigeria to reduce the cost of purchasing articlesand journals.
Design/methodology/approach –Given that the paper is an opinion of the current status of SC, a
formal documented methodologyis not applicable. However, it gives an overview of SC in Nigeria and traces
the origin of open accessawareness to 2008 when the first open access sensitization workshop was organized
in Nigeria.
Findings –The study shows that Nigeriacurrently has 20 IRs listed in the OpenDOAR and tops the list of
journals listed in the AfricaJournals Online (AJOL) with 221 journal titles followedby South Africa with 96.
Of the 221 Nigerianjournals listed in AJOL, only 70 are openaccess journals.
Research limitations/implications –This paper is an expressionof opinion aboutcurrent status of SC
and particularly IRs in Nigeria. It is not based on any formal methodology. It will be useful for librarians,
academic staff and academicinstitutions generally, especially in developing countries whereIRs are still in a
developmental stage. Therefore, some of the general recommendations may not be as relevant for those
institutionswith well-established and flourishing IRs.
Originality/value –The paper showsthe current state of IR in Nigeria and deliberates on the impediments
to successfulimplementation of IRs.
Keywords Librarians, Nigeria, Journals, Open access, Institutional repository,
Scholarly communication
Paper type General review
Introduction
Scholarly communication system has evolved, and the dynamic nature of its domain is
continually evolving alongwith changes in technical infrastructure, social practicesand the
economics of publishing. Czerniewicz(2013) and Chang and Aeernoudts (2015) corroborated
the changing landscape of scholarly communications. Prominent among the components of
the changing scholarly communication system is open access (OA) publishing which
describes resourcesand materials or scholarly literature that are freely available to everyone
and the institutional repository (IR)which describes the digital collections of the intellectual
output of an institution. Information on the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR)
and Directory of Open Access Repositories (DOAR) indicates that institutions of higher
learning and research in developed nations and some developing countries have embraced
these changes by adopting OA publishing models and creating IRs to facilitate research
dissemination. The first IR in Nigeriawas set up by the University of Jos in 2009; since then,
the number of IRs has been on a gradual rise and hence the need to lookat the current status
of IR and scholarly communicationin Nigeria.
Scholarly
communication
in Nigeria
19
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.67 No. 1/2, 2018
pp. 19-33
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-04-2017-0033
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