BioMed Central the open access publisher launched
the ‘Open Access Africa’, a collection of initiatives designed to increase the
output and visibility of scientific research published by African learning
institutes. BioMed Central and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) partnered to host the Open Access Africa
2011 conference, in conjunction with Computer Aid International, from 25-26
October during International Open Access Week.
The conference discussed the benefits of open
access publishing in an African context and explored the possibilities provided
to researchers through the facilitation of scientific and medical information
flow.
KNUST is the first university in Ghana to setup the
open access institutional repository and fully supports open access research,
which provides free online access to the full text of research articles.
In ensuring the widespread dissemination of
scientific research and to encourage African researchers to publish their work in
open access journals, BioMed Central in association with Computer Aid
Foundation donated 72 desktop computers and 31 laptops to the KNUST Library in
April, 2013. Students, lecturers, researchers
and the entire university community now have increased access to both open
access and subscription based online databases.
The number of computers available for use at the Electronic Resources
and Institutional Repository (ER/IR) Department at the KNUST Library has also
increased tremendously and students are very happy to access the online
databases and other online resources.
Students who visit the ER/IR Department keep
informing their friends about the increase in the number of computers and this
has therefore increased the number of client visits on a daily basis.
The donation has also made it possible to increase the number of computers available for electronic information retrieval training for students and lecturers.
KNUST Library and the entire university is very
grateful to BioMed Central and Computer Aid Foundation for their immense
support.
Quote from a researcher :
''Having more of these computer have taken away the excuses by KNUST researchers and faculty of not having access to computers in accessing the online information resources''
Quote from a researcher :
''Having more of these computer have taken away the excuses by KNUST researchers and faculty of not having access to computers in accessing the online information resources''
