Re: Convergent IR Deposit Mandates vs. Divergent CR Deposit Mandates

From: Ept <ept_at_BIOSTRAT.DEMON.CO.UK>
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:43:43 +0100

I would like to add a comment to this debate from the point of view of the
research communities in the developing countries - where most of the world's
health, environmental and agricultural problems exist.



There are currently 1111 institutional repositories recorded in the ROAR
database and maybe 3 central repositories (I stand to be corrected on this),
all holding refereed, published research articles. From the point of view of
users in the developing world, it matters not atall where articles are
archived since all are interoperable and indexed by the search engines.



However, from the point of view of a depositor (author) in a developing
country, it makes a very big difference indeed. The centralised repositories
are established by large funding organisations that probably don't often
fund research projects carried out in the poorer regions. Moreover, they
largely fund medical research and will not be working with agricultural,
food or environmental research that is of particular importance to
economically struggling regions.



Further, the establishment of repositories in institutes and universities in
developing regions has a significant impact on their international standing
and will encourage the distribution of the 'invisible' research that does
not reach a global audience.



So it remains very important that research organisations in the developing
world set up their own institutional repositories to ensure the important,
often low-visibility research becomes internationally recognised and
contributes to the establishment of appropriate international programmes for
sustainable development.



Let every flower bloom, but I, and many colleagues working in the
information-deprived regions, are strong advocates of institutional
repositories as magnificent tools for strengthening local research and
providing independence.



Barbara Kirsop

Electronic Publishing Trust for Development
Received on Fri Jul 25 2008 - 20:58:39 BST