Open access publishing: views of researchers in public agricultural research institutions in Zambia.

摘要

The main goal of the study was to explore and examine the views on open access (OA) publishing of researchers involved in agricultural research to establish whether there is support for OA among the researchers in Zambia. Survey questionnaires were distributed to 67 researchers in three publicly funded research/academic institutions. Forty researchers (59.7) completed the questionnaire. About 83 of the respondents supported the basic principle of OA, i.e. provision of barrier-free and cost-free access to research literature for all individuals interested in the literature, and an overwhelming number of them (90) indicated their willingness to publish in OA journals. At least 68 of the respondents said that they would support the policies of research institutes, the government and donor agencies funding research to have publications from research activities deposited in institutional repositories that are OA archives. These results are very encouraging for OA initiatives in the country.