Electronic Journal Publishing: A Reader
Version 2.0
Published by INASP, 2001
ŠINASP 2001
http://www.inasp.info
Diana Rosenburg
August 30th saw INASP launching a new phase of African Journals Online (AJOL 2000). This service continues and expands the AJOL pilot project which began in 1998. It offers free online access to the contents of scholarly journals published in Africa. Its objectives are to: - provide access to research undertaken and published in Africa; - increase knowledge about African scholarship; - strengthen African journals publishing.
The INASP Newsletter has followed the progress of the pilot project (May 1998 and May 2000 issues). The evaluation recommended that AJOL be expanded to include more journal titles and abstracts of journal articles.
Features of the new service include: - more journal titles: at the moment 43 titles are on site. The aim is to provide access to 50 journals (for the time being because of limited funding, only those in English and excluding South Africa); - more subjects: agricultural sciences, health, social sciences in addition to science and technology; - abstracts of articles as well as tables of contents (TOCs); - back files maintained for up to 5 years; - key word search of journal contents; - links to full text (if available on the Web); - document delivery of articles by fax or post.
Inclusion in the service is free to journals. INASP pays for a subscription and proceeds from document delivery are also remitted to the respective journals. Funds from NORAD have enabled AJOL 2000 to get off the ground. Additional funding is being sought.
In order to publicise the service, 2,500 fliers were sent to Africana scholars, libraries, journals and NGOs. Notices were also placed on listservs and in newsletters. An offer of free photocopies for the first six months is being made to introduce the document delivery service. The result has been overwhelming. Up to the end of September, over 700 users (from all corners of the world) have registered to use the service. The access count for the last week of September was 4,239.
Amongst the many responses received have been requests to include South African journals, those from Francophone Africa and titles in the humanities, particularly in arts and literature. These would strengthen the service and INASP is actively raising funds to this end. We are also considering electronic document delivery.
The success of AJOL will ultimately be measured not by the numbers who register but by the numbers of those who continue to use the service. And, what is more, start reading African journals regularly, take out subscriptions and buy photocopies. INASP will be monitoring future usage carefully.
To use the service, go to: www.inasp.info/ajol/
Send suggestions for new titles or any comments about AJOL, to: drosenberg@inasp.info
Journal Titles (at October 2000)
Agriculture
Science & Technology
Health
Social Sciences
"I have looked at the AJOL website and find it
interesting and useful"
Elizabeth le Roux, Africa Institute of South Africa
"Thanks very much for the AJOL initiative - it
is great"
Sven Ouzman, National
Museum of South Africa
"A very very very wonderful site"
Sanyakhu-Sheps Amare, NECC, USA
"This is a great project"
Karen Fung, Stanford
University, USA
"Excellent initiative"
Marcel Fafchamps,
University of Oxford, UK