On the 1
st
of May 2009, African Journals OnLine (AJOL) launched the latest version of its online service to provide access to peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals –
www.ajol.info
.
At 346 journals from 26 countries, AJOL is the world’s largest online collection of African journals, but until now, has included only tables of content, abstracts, and journal information on the website. As of the beginning of May, 60% of the 40,000 plus articles on AJOL will be available for immediate download. By the end of 2009, AJOL aims to have 100% of its growing collection fully full-text online.
The updated site and the new functionality are possible due to a close collaboration between AJOL and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), developers of Open Journal Systems (OJS) – the open source software which powers the AJOL service. AJOL is also supported by its donor partners, INASP and the Ford Foundation.
AJOL receives an average of 60,000 visits per month, 30% of which are from the African continent and over 15% from other parts of the developing world.The global researcher community and the authors and institutions whose work is published in the portal benefit from this increased access and visibility of African knowledge provided by AJOL.The new portal helps AJOL achieve its greater goal of shifting global flows of scholarly information, so that the importance of research published from the global south is more equitably represented.
AJOL allows for both Subscription-based and Open Access journals to be hosted for free on the site, with article downloads to toll journals being processed by AJOL and income sent on to the originating journals, less AJOL cost-recovery. In the future, AJOL will begin providing access to journal management functions of OJS to its partner Open Access journals, as a way to improve editorial quality and lower production costs.
The new full-text online website is a great next step for AJOL on its path of being “a critical contributing enabler of African scholarship, by making African intellectual output accessible to world scholars, and notably to African scholars at low or no cost to the recipient” – Dr Peter Clayton, Chairperson of AJOL’s Board.
AJOL is a Non Profit Organisation based in Grahamstown, South Africa. It has been working to create conditions for African learning to be translated into African development since 1995.
For more information, contact info@ajol.info
