Volume : 3, Issue : 3, March - 2014

Publishing in Open Access Journals: A Study of Nigerian Librarians and Special Educators

Okafor, V. N. , Nwachukwu, V. N. , Eskay, M.

Abstract :

 The study was conducted to find out the extent in which Nigerian liarians special educators publish their research findings in Open Access (OA) journals. The problem of study is to compare publications of Nigerian liarians and special educators with their publication in open access journals. The study was specifically interested in finding out open access journals where the liarians and educators publish, ascertain the importance of publishing in open access journals, find out problems that inhibit publishing in open access journals and suggest strategies that can enhance publishing rate in OA journals. The questionnaire was distributed at a Nigerian Liary Association and special educators meeting. 150 questionnaires were distributed and 99 were returned showing 66% return. The study revealed that 58.6% of liarian and educators published 0–4 journal articles while 2% published from 17 and above journal articles. On the other hand 92.9% published between 0–4 journal articles and out of which 41.4% did not publish any article on OA journals. The study also revealed that Liary Philosophy Practice (LPP) ranked the highest among the OA journals were the liarians and educators with 20.2%, this followed by Liary and Information Research (Lies) with 19.2%. However, it was recommended among others that training of liarians special educators in the area of ICT will help to improve their skills, creating awareness on the importance of OA publishing and mentoring of the younger liarians will improve liarians publishing in OA journals.