The third webinar in the DIAMAS Conversation Series for Libraries will focus on the DIAMAS Toolsuite and Guidelines – a set of tools and resources to support Diamond Open Access (ΟΑ) and the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS).

Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, will provide an overview of no-fee open access publishing in Africa at the Regional Symposium on Democratizing Science in the Arab region.

EIFL, AJOL (African Journals Online) and WACREN (the West and Central African Research and Education Network) take pleasure in announcing the award of 17 grants that will strengthen the quality and sustainability of no-fee (Diamond) open access journals and journal hosting platforms across Africa. 

The grants, of up to US$20,000 each, were awarded to 17 projects focused on strengthening no-fee open access journals and open access journal platforms in nine countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia).

The Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES) at Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti in southwest Nigeria, has initiated a project to boost the quality, sustainability and impact of the Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy (JSDLP), and to build capacity of and share knowledge with other African journals, especially those in the southwest region of Nigeria.

Eduardo Mondlane University (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane - UEM) - in Maputo, Mozambique, has initiated a project to improve its journal publishing platform, UEM Scientific Journals (Revistas Científicas da UEM (RC-UEM).

The Kenya Association of Physicians has initiated a project that will improve the reach and impact of the Journal of the Kenya Association of Physicians (JOKAP).

JOJAP is a peer-reviewed biannual no-fee open access journal, that publishes a diverse range of original research, case reports and review papers in the health sciences, with a particular focus on research in clinical medicine.

Addis Ababa University has initiated a project to create a sustainable training programme that will build expertise and skills of journal editors, reviewers and authors, enabling them to fully utilize the Ethiopian Journals Online (EJOL) platform.

The University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania has initiated a project that will improve the quality and contribute to future sustainability of the University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal (UDSMLJ).

The UDSMLJ is a biannual peer reviewed no-fee open access interdisciplinary academic journal that publishes scholarly articles on all aspects of Library and Information Science (LIS) and related fields of study. Content analysis has shown that the journal’s scope extends beyond LIS, to include research outputs in domains such as the humanities, legal studies, management and education.

University of Zambia (UNZA) has initiated a project that aims to encourage greater institutional support for no-fee open access publishing at the university. The project will strengthen the editorial processes and procedures of the Journal of Agricultural and Biomedical Sciences (JABS), and improve discoverability of journal articles.

UNZA-JABS is an no-fee open access peer-reviewed quarterly journal that publishes research in the fields of agriculture, medicine, veterinary medicine, biomedical sciences and allied life sciences.

LINK Centre, at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, has initiated a project to strengthen the African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC).

The ‘Strengthening The African Journal of Information and Communication’ project has three objectives: to increase discoverability and visibility of AJIC articles and authors; to deepen expertise on the Editorial Advisory Board, and to enhance recognition of peer reviewers.

The National Association for Clean Air, a South African not-for-profit organization, has initiated a project that aims to enhance the discoverability, visibility and impact of its journal, and to increase community engagement in the journal through the development of a communications strategy to attract and retain more authors and readers.

The University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, has initiated a project that aims to significantly enhance the quality and sustainability of its no-fee open access journal, the Rwanda Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana has initiated a project to improve the accessibility, visibility and discoverability of Feminist Africa, a no-fee open access gender studies journal based at the institute and produced by a community of feminist scholars.

Ugne Lipeikaite, Impact Manager of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme, will attend an event organized by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The event aims to strengthen connections, develop skills, and promote sustainability in libraries across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ugne Lipeikaite, Impact Manager of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme, will attend a webinar hosted by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Statistics and Evaluation Section. The webinar is open to all, and will explore how public libraries in Canada, Norway, Poland and Sweden utilize data collection tools to engage communities and inform service planning. 

In this T-break for public librarians who have completed training-of-trainers programmes organized by the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) team and partners in Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia, we will demonstrate digital skills training for youth, with a focus on graphic design, using the free online graphic design tool, Canva.

Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, will help facilitate a break-out session for policy makers during this DIAMAS project event on the theme, ‘Creating actionable policy recommendations and guidelines for Diamond OA’. EIFL is a partner in the DIAMAS project.

Milica Ševkušić, EIFL Open Access Programme Project Coordinator, will speak at the Beaming Open Science Clustering event, a full-day event to be held at the University of Novi Sad. Her input will be about the DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project, in which EIFL is a partner. 

Milica Ševkušić, EIFL Open Access Programme Project Coordinator, will be among facilitators of the 6th OpenAIRE Open Science Train-the-Trainer Bootcamp. 

Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, will attend two conferences organized under the umbrella of the 2nd Global Summit on Diamond Open Access. 

The summit comprises three events with a common goal, namely to develop capacity for the advancement of an inclusive and equitable open access paradigm. The two conferences that Kuchma will attend are: