May 24th - May 25th 2007

The PKP African project conducted its 4th International Workshops on Scholarly (Journal) Publishing at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa from May 24th - May 25th 2007. The workshop, which was conducted by Samuel Smith Esseh saw in attendance 36 participants made of Journal editors, librarians, IT administrators, publishers etc from four Universities and four research institutions.

The two-day workshop covered the following interesting topics: Scholarly Publishing in African Universities: A case for online-publishing, introduction to the Open Journal Systems (OJS) and publishing roles, ensuring a journal's economic sustainability while increasing access to knowledge, and the Library's role in promoting online scholarly publishing.

Participants were engaged in a practical demonstration of OJS. A break - away session enabled participants to bring up and discuss issues related to online scholarly publishing in Africa and how the use of the PKP software can enhance this activity. The outcomes of the break - away sessions were discussed in a plenary session. Participants were given the opportunity to evaluate the workshop.

The following are some of the comments by participants on the workshop:

"Definite need for online publishing. Great potential for utilization of these (OJS) systems. This will advance scholarly publishing in Africa and achieve global exposure. The development of Online Publishing will advance scientific capacity and research and thereby contribute to the advancement and development of countries in Africa".

"The workshop has enhanced my understanding of Open Access and Online Publishing. ,I would have like to have more time on the 'walk through' of the software. Such workshops should have been given more time".

"Exciting concepts!! Powerful tool, versatile, easy to operate, server required not expensive, and few staff requirement. Opportunity to grasped immediately. Libraries do not get such expensive programs for free. Will be of benefits to our institution (Cape Peninsula University). A perfect tool to launch an institution's research resources. It is a tool worthwhile investing in".

"Thank you. This was useful to me to know more about OA publishing and trends. Despite the disadvantages of many people not having internet access and the limited connectivity in Africa, this is a software that has the potential to support research efforts in Africa".

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