ADDIS ABABA (MoSHE) – In June 2019, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE) of Ethiopia adopted a national open access policy for higher education institutions. The new national open access policy adopted by MoSHE will transform research and education in the country. The policy comes into effect immediately. It mandates open access to all published articles, theses, dissertations and data resulting from publicly-funded research conducted by staff and students at all Ethiopian Public universities. In addition to mandating open access to publications and data, the new policy encourages open science practices by including ‘openness’ as one of the criteria for assessment and evaluation of research proposals. The policy requires universities to ensure that all publications based on publicly-funded research are deposited in the National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia (NADRE) as well as in an institutional repository; if the university has one. Each university will have to develop an open access policy to suit its own institutional context, and which is also aligned with the national policy.
The main impact of the new policy will be to increase the visibility of Ethiopian research, within the national and international research communities. The quality of our research will improve, because researchers will be able to see and verify each other’s work, and to comment on the integrity of the methodology and results. Practitioners in organizations will have access to our research and will be able to base their work on it and so our research will have real impact. Sharing of research and data through open access will minimize duplication, thereby saving costs, time and effort. To speed up and support compliance with the new policy, MoSHE will host the institutional repositories (IR) for public universities that do not have yet.
Ina Smith, Planning Manager for Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) says, “We have been tracking it as part of the African Open Science Platform project. Ethiopia is the first African country with a national, ministerial policy. We are indeed very proud of Ethiopia and all who have worked so hard in getting this far!”
Other countries that have made some progress in Africa includes:
- Botswana – Draft White Paper on Open Research Data Strategy
- Madagascar – Lobbying for Open Data policy
- South Africa – White Paper on STI
- Uganda – Draft Open Data Policy
Source: MoSHE