database of african theses and dissertations
TRANSCRIPT
The Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD)
Pascal Hoba (DR) Head of Communication and Services
Association of African Universities And DATAD Program Coordinator
DATAD Second IAALD Africa Chapter conference July,
2009; Accra, Ghana
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Founded: 1967 with 34 founding universities
Current membership: 215 institutions from 48 African countries
About The Association of African Universities (AAU)
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http://www.aau.org
AAU’s programs and activities Developing Quality Assurance Systems in African
Universities African Universities Responding to HIV/AIDS Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) Research Education Networking Initiative (RENU) Leadership Development Staff Exchange MRCI: Mobilization of regional capacity initiative Working Group on Higher Education Publication and Information Dissemination Roster of African Professionals (ROAP) AAU and AU Partnership Database of African Theses and Dissertations
(DATAD) has been integrated into the AAU strategic plan: Improving management and access to African scholarly work.
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AAU ObjectivesPromote cooperation and coordination
among African HEIs by providing resources and running programs that build on the synergy of collective action by its members
Collection, organization and dissemination of information on higher education and research in Africa
Advocacy and support for member institutions’ programs
Quality assurance and harmonization of diploma…
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Why DATAD?To make available to the general public the grand
results of Scientific work and Scientific discovery;
To aid researchers themselves, by giving early information of all advances made in any branch of natural knowledge throughout the world…
and to urge the claims of Science to a more general recognition in Education and daily life.
and by affording them an opportunity of discussing the various scientific questions that arise from time to time
Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.
The fundamental mission of the research community which is to ensure the widest possible dissemination and unrestricted
access to research has not been possible in Africa.
The response is: Not too much
Is Africa is contributing to this?
Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.
Marginalisation of African research...Africa produces around 3% of books published,
but consumes around 12%.
Africa produced 0.2% of online content in 2002 – if South Africa is excluded, 0.02%.
The major Northern scholarly journals account for 80% of articles in the ISI indexes; developing countries produce just 2.5%.
In Africa only SA has (just) 0.5% of the articles in Thompson Scientific indexed journals.
Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.
current State of Scholarly Publishing
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From African scholarly publication index in PASCAL database from 1991-1997 and in the ISI database from 1981-2000…
The capacity to research and produce scholarship in Africa is concentrated in a few countries
South AfricaNigeria, EgyptMorocco, KenyaTunisia and Algeria
The Rest of Africa
3/4
1/4
African scientific production
World Share in Publication/R&D expenditure
Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.Source: UNESCO (2004). A decade of investment in research and development (R&D): 1990-2000, UIS Bullentin on Science
and Technology Statistics, Issue No.4 April
Current State of Scholarly Publishing
Papers in SCI by region, 1981-2000
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Current State of Scholarly Publishing
Total Expenditure of libraries on books & journal per Student (1993 - 1994)
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Institution Exp.University of Ghana $0.50University of Cape Coast $2.66University of Dar es Salaam $9.00 University of Addis Ababa $0.50 Eduardo Mondlane $0Mozambique $0
Current State of Scholarly Publishing
Initiated at a planning meeting organized in Nairobi, Jan. 1998The meeting acknowledged the
centrality of AAU in coordinating and providing leadership to the proposed
initiative
About The DATAD Project
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Feasibility Study done 1998/99; Report approved by AAU COREVIP in
1999 Three-year pilot phase, involving
eleven institutions, started in February 2000, concluded 2003 with
the financial support of the PHEA.
About the DATAD Project cont…
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Contribute to the creation of an environment conducive to research
and publication in Africa;Create capacity in African
universities for the collection, management and dissemination of
theses and dissertations electronically.
DATAD Objectives
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Provide visibility and improved access to the work of African
scholars, both within and outside of the continent;
Facilitate the development of copyright procedures and
regulations for the protection of the intellectual property rights of African university graduates and
researchers;Provide support for other AAU
programs
DATAD Objectivescont…
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Considerations for selection of pioneers
regional and linguistic balance
basic ICT infrastructureleadership commitment
graduate program
Implementation
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Factors for determination of modelFeasibility study findings general ICT infrastructure
environment working models
Adopted: Mixed model (Centralized, decentralized)
Implementation cont…
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Management and administrationAdvisory Committee
DATAD management teams at institutional level
Graduate School, Computing Center, Library, Graduate Students, Faculty
Regional coordination at AAU Secretariat
Implementation cont…
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Factors: development of a research resource to facilitate
dissemination of research findingsnetworking of researchers: students,
lecturers, others bibliometric studies
Record content
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Author, Title, Degree, Year, Supervisor(s)
University (faculty/dept, town, country)
Availability statement, Location (of e-copy if available), Call number,
CopyrightAbstract, Keywords
Record fields
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Requirements for success Financial and technical support is
essentialThe need of DATAD modelQuality control: necessaryFull text access: criticalPreservation and archiving: need more
attentionSustainability is possible but need to be
properly doneTaking account of the situation of the
Africans universities
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Management of copyright and intellectual property
Development of a viable sustainability with strong partners
Expansion model, Preservation, Full text access, Link to others Thesis Network, Open
access, ETDs…
Challenges
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New institutionsSoftware (for full text); EndNote
Dissemination (In collaboration with others institutions)
Promotion and Visibility activities
Actual Challenges cont…
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Curent situations of Thesis in African Universities…Thesis in only in hard copiesThesis in soft copiesThesis on serversThesis onlineMembers universities from: Cameroon; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya ; Mozambique;
Senegal; Tanzania; Uganda; Zimbabwe; Malawi; Nigeria; Benin; Togo; Lesotho, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina, CAMES
(francophone network). National repositories centre of: Zimbabwe; Ethiopia;
Malawi, CAMES Institutions: CODESRIA; ACBF; the Arab Thesis network based
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DATAD - ETD initiatives and national repositories
Non DATAD institutions can contribute meta-data to the
DATAD database Integrate DATAD activities into AAU (as institution) plan and
budget Exposing the research output of
African HEIs to the wider research community …
Next step
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100,000 records (abstract and full text)
• Subscribers• Countries
• Flexible approach...
DATAD Today
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Requirements• Full text• Simple to contribute to• Simple maintenance and Expandable• All research material and Serving local
knowledge• Accessibility online but also offline• Respect copyrights• Quality controlled at each level
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Scientist/researcher
Full
Text
DATADDATAD II
Institutions
HarvestHarvesters