the pan african medical journal: inside an open access african journal
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Raoul Kamadjeu, Managing Editor, Pan African Medical Journal, UgandaTRANSCRIPT
The Pan African Medical JournalInside an African Journal
Open Access Africa Conference25-26 October 2011, Kumasi, Ghana
Raoul KAMADJEU, MD, MPHManaging editor
[email protected] - Kenya
www.panafrican-med-journal.com
At the end, you will know
1. Who we are
2. What we do
3. How we do it
4. Our challenges
5. Our future plans
Questions about the status of biomedical publishing and
African journals
How many African journals are out there? Is it too many, is it too
little, is there a need for a new journal?
How easy is it to publish in an African Journal?
Is it affordable and user-friendly?
How easy is it to access research published in an African journal?
What are African researchers’ perceptions and expectations about
African biomedical journals?
What is the best business model for an African medical journal?
Is it sustainable?
Some statistics on African journals
African journals in PubMed and ISI
5000 Journals in Medline, 38 from Africa (2009, Dirk Schoobaert)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Rest of the world Africa
Less than 1% of the journals are from Africa
Dirk Schoonbaert. PubMed growth patterns and visibility of journals of Sub-Saharan African origin. J Med Libr Assoc. 2009 October; 97(4): 241–243Thomas J. Goehl, Annette Flanagin. Enhancing the Quality and Visibility of African Medical and Health Journals . doi:10.1289/ehp.12265
6700 Journals in ISI, 20 from Africa, only 1 medical journal (2009, Thomas J. Goehl)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Rest of the world Africa
Less than 0.3% of the journals are from Africa
Nigeria
South Africa
Ethiopia
Kenya
Ghana
Others
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
41%
20%
3%
3%
2%
30%
Nigeria
South Africa
Kenya
Ethiopia
Ghana
Others
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
43 %
18%
6%
5%
5%
24%
411 journals in AJOL
African Journal in African indexes
AJOL* (October 2011) AIM (October 2011)
122 journals in AIM
Contribution of African countries to AJOL and African Index Medicus (WHO)
*Scope not limited to Biomedical journals % %
African journals in DOAJ
Contribution of Africa to DOAJNumber of journal in DOAJ in 2011 (October 14): 7162
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 20110
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Africa Brazil
Num
ber o
f Jou
rnal
s
219 African journals in DOAJ in 2011
• 88 from 5 countries: Egypt , South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia and Kenya
• 50 from Egypt alone..!
1
10
1,000
DOAJ world map
7162 journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals (October 14, 2011)
Number of journals in DOAJ
There is plenty of space to add a dot on Africa..!
Where authors from SSA publish* A study of 24,417 articles in PUBMED from the top 10 countries in SSA (1995-2004)*
*Karen J. Hofman. Mapping the health research landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa: a study of trends in biomedical publications. J Med Libr Assoc. 2009 January; 97(1): 41–44
Only 27% of 24,417 articles in PUBMED, by African authors, were published in African Journals
The case of ICT in African journals
The potential of ICT for African journals
• ICT potential for African journals− Quality affordable platforms (OAJ) − Increase access to journal contents− Reduce paper submission challenges− A good alternative to printing and dissemination of hard
copies
• ICT implementation has some challenges:− Expertise required to set up and operate the system− Software acquisition and/or development− Software maintenance− Adaptation to a rapidly changing technology
The potential of ICT is not maximized by African journals
• Not very appealing journal websites,
• Limited use of electronic publishing
platform
• Limited use E-marketing (social media,
mailing lists)
• The expertise require to set up and
maintain these systems not easily
accessible (availability and cost)
• Capacity building opportunities are rare
Some initiatives to improve access to IT by
African journals
− Open Journal System (PKP):
http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs_download
− African Journal Online (AJOL):
http://www.ajol.info/
− African Journal Partnership project:
http://www.ajpp-online.org/
African journals - Consequences
• The visibility of African journals can be greatly improved
• Most journals have limited geographical scope
• Not the primary target for submission by African authors
• Access to African journals remains a challenge (despite recent
improvements)
BMC
PLOS
African journals
OthersAfrican journals at a critical stage
• Why will an author submit to an African Journal?
• Why will he pay authors fees when big publishers waive those fees for African authors?
What a modern African journal should aim for?
• Open Access
• Peer-reviewed
• Maximize the opportunities of ICT
• Easily accessible from within Africa and globally (online)
• Bilingual (English and French)
• No authors fees or minimal charges to authors
• User friendly
• With high visibility and impact (indexed)
• Sustainable over time
The new journal should be:
PAMJ’s vision
To be the leading medical journal in Africa and one of the best in the
world
PAMJ strategic intent and approach
Reduce the burden of diseases
Create, stimulate and perpetuate a culture of
scientific publication amongst African health professionals
Increase the availability of health information and
knowledge from Africa, for the global health community
Increase the availability of health information and knowledge from Africa,
for the global health community
Increase awareness and capacity for scientific publication among the medical and public health community in Africa
Establishing a high standard/quality and financially viable OA medical journal
Birth and early development of PAMJ
Feb –March 2007
• Idea was born around discussions between friends• Journal’s name adopted and web domain registered
May-Sept 2007
• Adopting IT infrastructure, development of journal website• Set up of the Editorial board
May – July
2008
• Website completed - PAMJ is up and running• Call for paper issued• First articles published online
Sept 2008
• Memorandum of Understanding with The African Field Epidemiology Network
PAMJ – Rapid growth
Jan 2009
• Indexed in African Index Medicus (AIM)
Feb-Jun 2009
• Indexed in EBSCO• Indexed in Directory of Open Access Journal (DOA)
July- Sept2009
• Member of Open Access Scholarly Publisher Association (OASPA)
2010
• Indexed in Embase, Scopus, CABI, Pubmed Central/Pubmed• Article-level metrics is introduced• 100 articles published
2011
• First authors survey (May-June)• > 200 manuscripts published• >1000 manuscripts received, Our first supplement scheduled (December 2011)
PAMJ – In short
Online, OA, per-reviewed
Bilingual (French , English)
Focus on Africa
An enthusiastic
team
The Fastest growing
journal in Africa
PAMJ Editorial Team
Lazarus
Landry
AnitaAllanSheba
Raoul
PAMJ editorial office at work
Achievements
PAMJ IT platform
• Designed and constantly upgraded based on PAMJ editorial team
specifications and authors/reviewers feedback
• Includes an online manuscript submission system and peer-review
system
• Use open source software (PHP/MYSQL/APACHE)
• Advanced email notification system
• Allows a decentralized editorial office workflow
• Includes a PMC-XML processing module
PAMJ IT platform
AuthorsManuscript submissionand follow-up
ReviewersPeer Review
EditorsManuscript management
EditorsProduction
EditorsStaff/users
EditorsOthers
XML module
Advanced email communication
Statistics
RSS feed
PAMJ article metrics
PAMJ - Statistics
PAMJ ecosystem (Jul 2008 – Oct 2011)
PAMJ
Manuscripts submitted
Authors
Reviewers
20 000 visitors in 2010 – 2011 from 132 countries countries
1085
4476
1800
132
Capacity building activities• Cap Town Workshop (Dec 2010)• Tanzania Workshop (Dec 2011)
Mailing list: 1750
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 102008 2009 2010 2011
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
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2011
Manuscripts submitted to PAMJ since 2008
2008 2009 2010
11 86 211 877
2011: January to October 14
1185 manuscripts received (April 2008 – October 2011 )
Type of manuscript (2008 - 2011)
Case re
port
Researc
h
Case se
ries
Review
Letter
to the e
ditors
Short
communica
tion
Discussi
on
Edito
rial
Short
report
Opinion
Letter
to Edito
r
Commentar
yother
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
41% case reports32% research
Origin of manuscripts (2008 - 2011)
110
50
100
Manuscripts submitted from 54 countries
Manuscript language• English: 60%• French: 40%
Our winners: Morocco, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tunisia, India, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya
PAMJ Authors’ profileFindings of 2011 Authors Survey
0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 >260%
10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100% How many years of experience in scientific publishing do you have
How many years of work expe-rience do you have?
Most authors are new to scientific publishing (< 5 years) – At their first publication
48.9%
37.3%
10.3%From colleagues
From a search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc..)
From library search (including Pubmed)
Through Social media (Facebook, etc..) or news coverage
Other (please specify)
Heard of PAMJ from colleagues and search engines
http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/resources/surveys/2011/Pamj_author_survey_2011.pdf
Reasons for choosing PAMJ?Findings of 2011 Authors Survey
Speed of publication
Journal was recommended by a colleague
The editorial board looked serious
The quality of the articles published
It is easy and convenient to submit a manuscript
It is open access
It is indexed in PubMed
It is free (no charges to authors)
Other (please specify)
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0%
No charges, indexation in PubMed and the quality of the articles published are the main motivator
http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/resources/surveys/2011/Pamj_author_survey_2011.pdf
Challenges
Submission and publication (2008 - 2011)
The processing capacities of the editorial team is surpassed
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Submitted Published
Two main challenges
• Facing the rapid increase in volume of submissions
• Designing a viable business model to achieve sustainability
Risk of very high volume of submission
- Editorial staff overburdened
- Increase in backlog of unprocessed manuscripts
- Increase in manuscript processing time
- Increase frustration of authors with lost of
confidence
- Reputation of the journal in jeopardy
- Increase in production cost
Increase in running cost
To cover:
– Increase in production cost (PMC-XML)
– System development and maintenance (publishing
platform, webhosting)
– IT infrastructure (hardware and software)
– Operations (communication with authors,
formatting, invite per-reviewers, etc..)
Financial sustainability plan
A viable business model toachieve financial sustainability
A Comprehensive communication
strategy
Grant application
Institutional Affiliation
Fair author fees policy
Advertisement
Inform about what we are doing
Identify potential donors (in Africa and elsewhere and apply for grants/support)
Encourage institutions to provide support
Charge authors a small fee – Last resort
Future plans
• Deploying the editorial team into new clusters (West and
North Africa)
• Expand partnerships with African institutions
• Capacity building for editorial team
• In-house processing of PMC-XML
• Phased-implementation of the financial sustainability plan
− PAMJ is actively looking for donations, endowments, grants,
institutional affiliations
− Author- fee should remain very limited and last resort
Acknowledgements
• Dr Landry Tsague (PAMJ managing editor) for
his inputs in preparing this presentation
• PAMJ Editorial office
Special acknowledgements