Profile of raymond
raymond Sir
Beginning in 1998 as simple HTML pages on the INASP
website, the methodology for the INASP Journals Online
Project (JOLs) has evolved through experience with
the initial African Journals Online project (AJOL). Most
of the journals did not have PDFs of their full text and
many were not willing to make their content available
for free, so a document delivery service was created to
disseminate the full text freely to developing countries
and for a small charge to developed countries.
A partnership with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP)
in Canada in 2004 allowed AJOL to be transferred to
the Open Journal System (OJS). INASP developed the
software to suit the needs of the multiple journal AJOL
website thus providing a much more sophisticated, but
low cost and low bandwidth website which improved the
user experience as well as providing a robust database
for the service. As a result of the AJOL developments,
PKP went on to produce new versions of their software
which incorporated the multiple journal site and a number
of the other innovations originally developed for AJOL.
In accordance with INASP’s mandate to develop
sustainability and local capacity, AJOL was moved to
Africa in 2005 and it is now managed by a not-for-profit
trust in South Africa. It has gone from strength to strength
with more than 370 journals from 27 countries on the site
in November 2009 and the website was recently updated
and re-launched.
Two evaluations were carried out on AJOL and the
experience gained was used in the development of
an Asian JOL, but after a lot of discussion from the
interested parties, a different approach was used. Instead
of having one large site incorporating journals from many
countries, individual country sites were developed and
then combined into a search portal called AsiaJOL.
In order to assist editors to improve the quality of their
journals and train them in the use of the online peer-
review system, a series of in-country workshops was
developed and has become an important part of the JOL
concept. The first workshop usually discusses the issues
of online publishing and then editors are encouraged to
create their own online strategies and promotion plans.
The second workshop is usually held after a country
JOL has been established and it addresses some of the
production quality issues, but mainly focuses on training
the editors to load their own content onto the website.
The third workshop brings together the same editors
to discuss the functions of an editorial office and goes
through the full online peer-review process using the
JOL website. In some instances, the second and third
workshops are combined.
The visibility of the research on the JOLs was further
enhanced when INASP entered into an agreement with
CrossRef to allow all articles published on the JOLs to
have digital object identifiers (DOIs) assigned to them.
Journals are encouraged to include DOIs in the reference
lists of their own articles so as to improve the experience
of researchers using the articles.
Asian JOLs
The following Asian JOLs have been set up: Vietnam
(VJOL) and Nepal (NepJOL) 2006, Bangladesh
(BanglaJOL) 2007, Philippines (PhilJOL) and Sri Lanka
(SLJOL) 2008.
The INASP Journals Online (JOLs) project supports peer-reviewed journals from developing and emerging countries
to publish their journals online, giving researchers access to local knowledge and the opportunity to contribute their
own articles. The aim is to increase the visibility of research from these countries while also increasing the capacity of
journal editors to improve the quality of their journals, and manage them online.
Communication, knowledge and networks for sustainable and equitable development
Uncovering Hidden Gems
The Journals Online project at INASP
Sioux Cumming, 2009
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