Volume 18, No. 2, 2021
An Informetric Analysis of Relationship between Open Access Presence and Ranking of African Universities
Ifeanyi J. Ezema and Richard N.C Ugwuanyi
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the relationship between open access presence and ranking of African universities. It adopted descriptive informetric to examine open access presence of African countries using Directory of Open Access Repositories (DOAR) and Research Gate scores (RGs) of the universities. Data was also extracted from the Journal Consortium (an African university ranking organisation) for metrics on African university ranking. Data on African open access presence was correlated with university rankings. Findings reveal that only twenty-four countries in Africa have records in DOAR and Research gate. Four of the countries (South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria) contribute more over 85% of open access records in Africa and the same produced 68% of the top 100 universities in Africa. The study found a highly significant positive but moderate correlation between open access presence and ranking of African universities. It concludes that African universities need to review their science policy in line with open access initiative to enhance the visibility and ranking of the university globally.
Pages: 1-21
DOI: 10.14704/WEB/V18I2/WEB18304
Keywords: Open Access, University Ranking, Informetric, Africa, Scientometrics, Research Evaluation.