Open Access Initiative at the University of KwaZulu Natal (October 2022)

 

                                                                        By Mfezi Mjwara

“There is vast literature about the awareness and access of open access resources. Research studies are conducted to understand the importance of Open Access Resources in different fields of life, especially in the field of education” (Shadzai and Hussain 2019: 19).

Ezima and Oyancha (2017: 97) states that the increasing interest in Open Access Scholarly communication is because of the great opportunities which open access initiatives provide for wider dissemination of research findings, particularly among the developing countries.

Since the development of Open Access Initiative, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal has recently adopted this initiative through working in correlation with South African National Library Consortium (SANLiC) https://libguides.ukzn.ac.za/blog/Publishing-in-Open-Access-hybrid-journals.

What is Open Access?

Bailey (2017: 43) Open Access (OA) to literature, means its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the Internet itself.

 

Open Access is a set of principles and practices through which research outputs like journal articles, e-books, law reports, government gazettes, etc. are distributed online, free of cost or other access hindrances https://laneguides.stanford.edu/openaccess.

This programme/initiative allows publishing and vast access of important online sources and for UKZN students, academics and researchers at a very low cost if not for free, on a daily basis, for both scholarly and recreational purposes.

In brief summary; Open Access strives to make research publications or e-resources more transparent and easily accessible meaning they can be retrieved by more people at once at no cost to whoever needs to use them.

For more information on the Open Access Theme October 2022 – Please follow this link: https://www.openaccessweek.org/theme/en

List of references

Bailey, C. 2017. An introduction to Open Access. Information Studies. 4(1): 43-52. Available: http://eprints.rclis.org/32502/. (Accessed 30 September 2022).

Ezima, I., Onyancha, O. 2017. Open Access Publishing in Africa: Advancing Research Outputs to Global Visability. African Journal Library, Archives and Information Science. 27(2): 97-115. Available: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAQQw7AJahcKEwiQ5cy2kp77AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ajol.info%2Findex.php%2Fajlais%2Farticle%2Fview%2F164661&psig=AOvVaw3kPLWhqnf_JrLTSlImeawU&ust=1667981766183707 (Accessed 07 November 2022).

International Open Access Week. Open for climate justice. October 2022. Available: https://www.openaccessweek.org/. (Accessed 30 September 2022).

Shahzadi, U., Hussain, Bhashir. 2019. Awareness and Access of Open Access Resources by

Teacher Educators and Student Teachers: Potential for Reflection. Pakistan Journal of Distance & Online Learning. 1(1): 17-30. Avaiable: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAQQw7AJahcKEwjo_PKRkp77AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjdol.aiou.edu.pk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F07%2F2-Awareness-and-Access-of-Open-Access-Resources.pdf&psig=AOvVaw2wm0-sZvD8hN_3DPpvshOu&ust=1667981688639630 (Accessed 07 November 2022).

Stanford Medicine. Understanding Open Access. Califonia: Lane Medical Library. September 2022.  Available: https://laneguides.stanford.edu/openaccess. (Accessed 31 October 2022).