Access to African Published Research: African Journals Online AJOL

1
Access to African Published Research African
Journals Online (AJOL) NISC SA Complementary
Approaches working together.

• Margaret Crampton

www.nisc.co.za www.ajol.info
2
Africa needs

• Access to own African research publications
• Improvement in worldwide access to African
  research publications
• Improvement in the dissemination of African
  research in Africa worldwide
• To share the research publications of the 50
  countries of the Continent
• Access to the research on Africa scattered
  worldwide

3
The Traditional African Information Environment
(Western influences)

• Access to African publications is problematic
• Information sources in Africa
• Derive from Europe and America
• Flow from North to South
• Western information, although essential
• Not always appropriate
• Not always relevant
• Is incomplete for Africas needs

4
African Information Environment (distributed
sources)

• Thousands of academic journals are published
• in Africa and about Africa
• There is no single database source for African
  information
• Databases are scattered
• Journal web sites are scattered
• use different formats and software
• There is a need to integrated these diverse
  resources
• Adjacent countries cannot access their research
  output
• The world struggles to access African
  publications

Aggregation is the key
5
NISC SA Contribution Database Aggregations since
1995

• Compiles bibliographic databases
• Publishes databases
• Integrates African resources with world sources
• World footprint
• NISC SA Database aggregations include
• Africa-Wide NiPAD
• Fish, and Fisheries Worldwide
• Water Resources Worldwide
• African HealthLine
• South African Studies

6
AJOL Contribution aggregates African academic
research articles

• 220 African Academic journal titles ( and
  growing)
• From 22 African countries
• Fully Searchable
• Free access to Tables of contents and abstracts
• Some full text articles (and growing)
• Journal information
• Document delivery service

7
2005 AJOL moves to African management in
association with NISC in South Africa

• AJOL now a not for profit company
• Moved from INASP in Oxford UK to
• NISC in Grahamstown South Africa
• Funded by international organisations, including
  Sida, Norad, DFiD
• Now independent but working in association with
  NISC

8
Combined Mission of AJOL and NISC SA is
Worldwide Promotion of access to African
research and the publication output of the
Continent in the spirit of NEPAD.
9
AJOL journal selection criteria

• Journals published on the African continent
• Scholarly content, and original research
• Peer reviewed and quality control
• Ability to provide electronic format
• Permission for AJOL to operate a document
  delivery service

10
Number of journals on AJOL
11
Registrations - geographical
12
AJOL Priorities for the future user-related

• Addition of new journals
• online publication of full text (top priority)
• Website development to serve users needs
• Linking of article references and abstracts on
  database products and publisher websites to full
  text
• Counter compliant Usage statistics
• Development of a DVD version of AJOL for those
  with unreliable connectivity
• Variety of subscription models to serve both
  users and publishers needs

13
AJOL Priorities for the future journal-related

• Addition of new journals in an ongoing fashion
• online publication of full text (top priority)
• Website development to serve publishers and
  editors needs
• Sustainability for journals through income
  generation
• Promotion worldwide
• Development of an Offline system for posting
  content via e-mail

14
NISC Database Aggregation

• Related databases combined
• Databases with varying sizes and aims
• New databases added at any update
• Users benefit from exposure to all databases
• Combinations span geography and time
• Links to full text

No single database can be comprehensive
15
Database overlap and composite records

• Duplicate detection software
• Duplicates combined composite records
• All unique contributions from each database
  retained in one record
• Record duplicates minimised
• Composite records are value added records

16
African HealthLineA Collection of Bibliographic
Databases from Africa, the USA and Europe
covering relevant African Health Issues

• Records 806 865
• Databases 13
• Period 1924 to Current
• Abstracts Yes
• Updates quarterly
• Access CD, internet
• (Available on subscription )

FREE with African HealthLine AIDSearch online
or CD-ROM
17
Africa Wide NiPAD African Multi-disciplinary
Information Social Science, History, Politics,
Law, Economics, Development and More

• Records 1,905,586
• Databases 39
• Period 19th Century to to Current
• Abstract Yes
• Updates quarterly
• Access CD, internet
• (Available on subscription)

18
Bibliographic Databases embed the links, full
text is a click away
Click to full text article On the web - pay by
view
Click directly to fulltext article
Biologists - Click to species profiles on the
web
Link to publishers Site e.g. AJOL
Locate related Articles lateral search
Contact author by E-Mail, Snail mail
Click to free internet sources
1
Link to holding library
NISC Databases

• E-Mail results to
• colleagues
• librarian for
• Document delivery

• Link to OPAC
• Locate print
• Locate E-journals

Workstation
From
Database linking functionality is the key
dar
19
NISC Features Include

• African research integrated with world resources
• Detailed indexing by subject specialists ensuring
  relevance for specialists
• Powerful user-friendly search engine with inbuilt
  intelligence offering superior retrieval
• Full text linking capability to electronic
  articles in E- journals from publishers and
  journal aggregators worldwide.
• Detailed usage statistics

20
AJOL and NISC SA Future developments

• Greater linkage to other journal programmes
• Linkage from African websites
• Provision of more full text online for African
  journals
• Further integration of these two related
  initiatives

Locate relevant documents for sound research
21
NISC and AJOL combine to serve information needs

• For more information
• visit our stand,
• request a trialorLog on to www.ajol.info
  www.nisc.co.zaEND