The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is calling for original full research papers, social media demonstrations, research-in-progress or posters for its fourth electronic publishing conference series. The theme of this year’s edition is: “The Open Access Movement and the Future of Africa’s Knowledge Economy”. The theme is centred on the open access publishing model with particular attention to its possible impact on the future knowledge economy in Africa.
CODESRIA promotes social science research and knowledge production and the publication and dissemination of research outcomes, and organises forums for discussing research findings and sharing of ideas to influence the improvement of the living conditions of African populations.
The main aim of the Open Access Movement is to transform global relations and means of knowledge production, dissemination and use based on the power of information technologies to enforce free and timeous flow of scholarly content.
The Open Access Movement has achieved numerous milestones and is now more than a decade old, despite the various surreptitious conflicts and oppositions that it has battled with. One of the major achievements of the movement is that people around the world now have increased access to scholarly publications.
Africa has benefitted from, and has also contributed to the movement. Africa has generally contributed only 6% to the 10152 journals listed in Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) as at 2014, and only 20 of Africa’s 56 countries have journals that are listed in the database. Although it has been noted that an open access consciousness exists in the African region, but it is marked mainly by access to and use of free scholarly information available on the web. Many open access publishing activities are amateurish, fragmented and unorganised. There is no Africa regional accent to the meaning, definition and content of open access scholarship. Many institutions and organisations have no open access statements, and there are no clear directions about their positions on the contending issues in the movement.
Workshops on repositories, open journal systems, open access policies, open access advocacy approaches and open data issues will be featured at the Electronic Publishing conference. There will also be a Doctoral Colloquium and a Social Media Expo.
Researchers worldwide are invited to submit original full research papers, social media demonstrations, research-in-progress or posters within the area of open access, with a special emphasis on the future of knowledge economy in Africa. Papers in the completed research category should not be more than twenty pages, including references. Papers in the Early Work/Preliminary Results subcategory should be a maximum of fifteen pages, including references. Submissions will be refereed in a double-blind process.
For paper presenters who can show evidence that they are unable to cater for their participation, CODESRIA will provide funding support for them. All non-paper presenting participants are required to pay a registration fee of USD150 to cover admission to the panels, and conference packages and workshops only; and will cater for their feeding and air fare.
For more information, visit http://www.codesria.org. Also visit: http://codesria.org/spip.php?article2401 for information on how to format your presentation. Questions about any issues regarding the conference should be directed to: Williams Nwagwu at open.acces@codesria.sn.
