Self-archiving of Scholarly Publications for improved access to local content in Tanzania: A study of Open Access Institutional Repositories in Universities in Tanzania

Abstract

This study sought to investigate how the self-archiving of scholarly publications in Open Access Institutional Repositories can be strengthened for improved access to local content. Specifically, the study sought to investigate factors that influence self-archiving of scholarly publications in OAIRs, examine the implementation of OAIRs policies on self-archiving of scholarly publications in OAIRs and determine challenges that hinder self-archiving of scholarly publications in OAIRs. The population of the study consisted of 2894 faculty members and 413 sample size, obtained through a systematic random sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaires and interviews with eight key informants. Key findings indicated that there are factors that influenced self-archiving of scholarly publications in OAIRs among faculty members such motivating factors, availability of technical support, supervisors/peers/colleagues and supporting services. Moreover, the study found challenges that hindered self-archiving as low level of awareness and inadequate advocacy for a self-archiving, lack of personal benefit such as rewards and promotions, fear of the plagiarism, lack of enough facilities like ICT and internet connectivity. The study also found that there was a need to implement OAIR policies in self-archiving of scholarly publications in the OAIRs. In order to strengthen self-archiving, the study recommends providing support services, technical supports, encouraging supervisors/peers/colleagues, creating awareness, providing personal benefits, provide education and give more time, effort and implement OAIR policies to enhance the process of self-archiving scholarly publications in OAIRs. The findings of this study shall contribute new knowledge to the existing research outputs that have been conducted in this field.

Strategies for building institutional repositories a case study of content recruitment in Malaysian higher learning institutions

“…While requiring faculty to self-archive their publications was not feasible due to resistance, content was acquired directly from the publisher for books and journals alone, not for grey literature (Ezema 2013). To improve the process of selfarchiving scholarly publications in institutional repositories, Mbughuni, Mtega, and Malekani (2023) suggest several strategies, including incentivizing self-archiving, offering support services, providing technical assistance, raising awareness, offering education and training, allocating more time and effort, and implementing open access policies.…”