The Role of COAR in Advancing Open Access in Africa


This webinar session featured Kathleen Shearer, the Executive Director of COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories), as our guest speaker.

She spoke on the topic: “The Role of COAR in Advancing Open Access in Africa”.

During the session, attendees discovered:

  • How COAR supports open access to research in Africa.
  • Ways African researchers and institutions can make their work more visible worldwide.
  • Why collaboration and global standards are important for African repositories.
  • Exciting programs and opportunities COAR offers to support African research.


 Watch the recording:

The slides are available here: https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/1817

This webinar series is co-organized by: UbuntuNet Alliance: https://ubuntunet.net/ and Access 2 Perspectives: https://access2perspectives.org/ and supported by the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) https://aosp.org.za/ 

Speaker’s profile:

Executive Director, COAR


ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8617-5781

Kathleen Shearer

Kathleen Shearer is the Executive Director of COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories) and a global leader in open access and open science. With nearly 20 years of experience, she has built a worldwide network of repositories and worked with organizations like UNESCO, LIBSENSE Africa, and the Research Data Alliance to advance open science. Kathleen has led key initiatives like COAR’s Next Generation Repositories and COAR Notify, setting new standards for repository functionality. Based in Montreal, Canada, her work has strengthened repositories as vital infrastructure for open science and supported diamond open access publishing.

Questions discussed during the Q&A session 

  1. COAR has been a significant advocate for open access globally. What specific strategies does COAR employ to support open access repository development in Africa, and how can African institutions leverage these efforts?
  2. What do you see as the biggest challenges facing African researchers and institutions in making their research outputs more globally visible, and how can COAR help address these challenges?
  3. Interoperability is a cornerstone of COAR’s mission. How can African repositories align with global standards to ensure their contributions are integrated into the wider research community?
  4. What role do you envision for African research repositories in shaping the global research and open access landscape over the next decade?
  5. Can you share examples of successful collaborations or projects that COAR has been involved in within Africa, and what lessons can be learned from them for future partnerships?
  6. How long do you take to review the membership fees to COAR?
  7. How do you envision Scholarly Publishing in and with Africa in the next 3-5 years?

Links shared during the session

COAR’s website: https://coar-repositories.org/

UNESCO Open Science Recommendation: https://www.unesco.org/en/open-science

https://www.helsinki-initiative.org

https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/1531

At AfricArXiv we have a collection with an Overview of submitted items available in African Languages

LIBSENSE Website: https://libsense.ren.africa/en/

COAR Notify: https://coar-repositories.org/what-we-do/notify/

Crossref Global Equity Membership https://www.crossref.org/gem/

For those institutions that do not have capacity to host their own repository, we offer to add an IR community collection inside the AfricArXiv repository. Contact us if that is interesting for you: info@africarxiv.org and schedule a call via https://zcal.co/access2perspectives/africarxiv

AfricArXiv’s website: https://africarxiv.org/

You can also reach us via email here: email: info@africarxiv.org 

Link to the webinar series: https://info-africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/open-science-webinar-series/ 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top