database of african theses and dissertations

The Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD)

Pascal Hoba (DR) Head of Communication and Services

Association of African Universities And DATAD Program Coordinator

phoba@aau.org

DATAD Second IAALD Africa Chapter conference July,

2009; Accra, Ghana

Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.1

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

Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.

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

Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.

Current State of Scholarly Publishing

Total Expenditure of libraries on books & journal per Student (1993 - 1994)

Second IAALD Africa Chapter Conference; July, 2009, Accra, Ghana.

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

ENDThank you

Phoba@aau.org

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