A Primer for Higher Education in
disseminating
Management
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Research Data
Arnold Mwanzu
Rodney Malesi
Open Access holds vast benefits for researchers, institutions,
nations and society as a whole. It brings increased visibility,
usage and impact for research. There is growing evidence to
show that countries also benefit because Open Access
increases the impact of the research in which they invest public
money. The sphere of management research is growing
tremendously, hence an increase in the knowledge pool. As for
universities in Africa, there is still a need of communicating
management research and making it accessible to all
interested stakeholders. This paper will endeavor to showcase
the benefits of open access movement in communicating
management practices, while providing solutions to universities
on how to engage in this movement.
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Open access is defined as free availability of e-resources,
permitting access without financial, legal, or technical
barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access
to the internet itself.
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According to OSI (2005), the term ‘Open Access’ was first
properly defined at a meeting in Budapest of a variety of
open access advocates (even though at the time they didn’t
all use the term open access yet), brought together by the
Open Society Institute in early December 2001
Free
access
*The copyright
holders grants to all
users a free,
irrevocable,
worldwide,
perpetual right of
access to, and a
license to copy, use,
distribute, transmit
& display the work
publicly and to
make and distribute
derivative works, in
any digital medium
for any responsible
purpose,
Legal
deposit
*A complete version
of the work and all
supplemental
materials, including a
copy of the
permission as stated
above, in a suitable
standard electronic
format is deposited
immediately upon
initial publication in
at least one online
repository that is
supported by an
academic institution
It is vital that Management Research findings which
subsequently become new knowledge give an impact on the
managerial practice, this is easily achievable if Open access
movement is embraced by Authors and researchers of the
same
Direct Benefits
It brings increased visibility to Management Research findings,
usage and impact for management research.;
Upward mobility for researchers
Gold VS Green
Gold Open Access
Green Open Access
Researcher submits an article
Author deposits an article either before or
to publisher
after publication into an Open Access
repository
Publisher makes the article
Repository makes copies available on
freely available on publication
publication or after an embargo period
Cost of publication covered by a Self-archiving
one-off fee paid by the author –
“author-pays” fee
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The campaign for open access is on course globally and
there even exists numerous declarations and statements by
various groups during conferences and conventions that
further contribute to the understanding of open access,
Such as:
"Access to Research Publications: Universities UK Position
Statement,";
"Australian Research Information Infrastructure Committee
Open access Statement,";
Group of eight's "Statement on open access to scholarly
information
"IFLA Statement on Open Access to Scholarly Literature and
Research Documentation,";
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OA serves the interests of many groups i.e.
Micro & Small business:. OA accelerates not only research but
also solved problems, and informed decisions that benefit
business enterprises
Authors: demonstrably increases the visibility and impact of their
work.
Readers: barrier-free access to the literature
Teachers and students: eliminates economic barriers to
information
Libraries: librarians aim to provide a wide variety of information
to users, beyond subscription limits
Universities: OA increases the visibility of their faculty and
research
There is a wide distribution of the open access movement in Europe and North America
more than the Sub-Saharan Africa
(Four staff)
30-35yrs
(Seven staff)
25-30yrs
(Five staff)
20-35yrs
The image below indicates a low distribution of open access movement in Africa
• Faster and wider access to journals speeds up the research
and discovery process, thereby increasing returns to
investment in R&D and potentially reduces the time and cost
involved for a given outcome while also improves the
efficiency of R&D
o OA introduces ‘accessibility’ and ‘efficiency’
parameters into calculating ROI to Research and
Development (R&D) initiatives of Small and Medium
enterprises.
Free flow of information is essential to bridging the knowledge gaps between privileged
and under privileged Businesses thus promoting economic empowerment
QUESTION:
Do I really need information/management research
findings for Small/Micro business to grow?
ANSWER:
Irrespective of the philosophical underpinnings of open access,
the ultimate goal is to share information and knowledge for a
better society for the growth and development of society