The Open Access Movement and its March in Africa

Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed growing call and actions for free and immediate access to published scholarship online without technological, monetary or legal barriers from around the world. The phenomenon described as open access (OA) has been  strengthened by the possibilities of digital network technologies represented in the ubiquitous Internet. While the goal of the OA  movement remains good, it appears the epistemic disbalance in global knowledge creation and access has not abated. However, the  promise of OA, the motivation on which it stands, its consequence and current state are reviewed in this paper with particular focus on  the contribution of Africa to the global OA movement. It has been reported that the emergence of OA on the continent is albeit slow but  with a mixed fortune of both progress and challenges. Notwithstanding, open access is seen as a development imperative for Africa that  offers tremendous opportunities to the continent to actively contribute to global knowledge. It was reported that a number of  universities and research institutions in Africa have adopted open access policies that require their researchers to publish their work in  open access journals or repositories. The paper presented a number of open access initiatives and platforms that are actively being  deployed to achieve OA mandate in the continent and concluded with recommendations.