There cannot be meaningful industrial and national development without access to research data and results from the academia. The academia acts as incubators of ideas and technology, providing solutions to industrial problems and training of manpower for development. Technological and national development (or the lack thereof) can be linked to the relationship between the academia and the industry. Many research data and results are being generated in our academic institutions yearly that can solve pressing and urgent industrial and national problems but the appropriate end users do not know about it or have access to it. Embracing open science can reduce the gap between the academia and the industry.
Wikipedia defined open science as the movement to make scientific research, data
and dissemination accessible to all levels of an inquiring society,
amateur or professional. I will say it the capacity for EVERYONE to see your research, access your data, methods and result and reuse it with appropriate credit. There are several arguments for and against open science but in my own opinion, open science is the future of publishing. Open science reduces fraud because it allows for verification of reported results. Africa and African researchers will benefit as they will have access to research results freely. I can also say that free things spread very fast. Noteworthy in the drive for quick and prompt access to quality and reliable government data is the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics led by Dr. Yemi Kale.
Why is open access elusive in developing countries?
There are two publishing models: (i) author (or sponsor) pays, audience read freely (ii) author does not pay, audience pay to read. Most publishing houses within the country have no online presence, are not abstracted or indexed anywhere and are profit (not quality) driven. This is not in favour of researchers who are mandated to publish both locally and internationally. Basically, authors paying to publish in a journal without online presence are paying for obscurity. In a fast growing technological world such journals are not accessible beyond the local library. Most local journals adopt the first publishing models. Recently, international journals are adopting the two publishing models giving the author a choice to choose. Nigerian authors generally choose the second model when confronted with this choice. The reason is very clear: there is no financial support for publishing articles. The cost of open access is prohibitive, even for the highest cadre in the academics.
What is the way forward?
Institutions (backed by government policy) should mandate that all published articles by academics within the country be open access or have an open access version. Thesis (undergraduate and postgraduate) from all academic institutions (monotechnics, polytechnics, and universities) should be archived in a central repository managed by the Nigerian University Commission. Local journals that can meet international standard with well written ethics and guidelines should be supported financially to embrace open access. This should be continually monitored for compliance. The NUC should take on the responsibility of assessing publishing houses where academic researches are published.
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