AfricArXiv Principles for Open Access in Scholarly Communication
- Academic research and knowledge from and about Africa should be freely available to all who wish to access, use, or reuse it, while at the same time being protected from misuse and misappropriation.
- African scientists and scientists working on African topics and/or territory will make research achievements, including underlying datasets, available in a digital Open Access repository or journal, and an explicit licence to enable reuse is applied.
- African research output should be made available in the principal common language of the global science community and one or more local African languages, at least in summary and with translated metadata.
- It is important to integrate indigenous and traditional knowledge in its various forms by collaborating with indigenous groups and local communities.
- It is necessary to respect the different dynamics of knowledge generation and circulation of knowledge by discipline and geographical area.
- It is necessary to recognise, respect, and acknowledge the regional diversity of African scientific journals, institutional repositories, and academic systems.
- African research institutions should promote and support the adoption of Open Access policies and initiatives on Open Scholarship, Open Source, and Open Standards for interoperability purposes.
- Multi-stakeholder mechanisms for collaboration and cooperation should be established to ensure equal participation across the African continent.
- Economic investment in Open Science and Open Access is consistent with its benefit to societies on the African continent; therefore, institutions and governments in Africa should provide the enabling environment, infrastructure, and capacity-building measures.
- African Open Access stakeholders and actors should keep up close dialogues with representatives from all world regions, namely Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.
These Principles are based on the following principles and guidelines
- Dakar Declaration on Open Access Publishing in Africa and the Global South (2016): https://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article2595
- AmeliCA Principles and Values: http://www.amelica.org/en/index.php/principios-y-valores/
- FAIR Open Access Principles by FOA: https://www.fairopenaccess.org/
- Principles of the scholarly commons: https://www.force11.org/scholarly-commons/principles
- Vienna Principles – a vision for scholarly communication: https://viennaprinciples.org/
- Jussieu Call for Open science and bibliodiversity: https://jussieucall.org/jussieu-appell/
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