QA with Open Access Activist of Nepal
Nikesh Balami - October 29, 2016 in Events, Working Group

Mr. Jagadish Aryal
Country Coordinator | EIFL and Secretary | NeLIC
1) Brief about Nepal Library and Information Consortium (NeLIC)? The Nepal Library and Information Consortium (NeLIC) was established by a group of institutions with the idea of facilitating access to electronic resources to Nepali educational institutions. Its core area of activities is Open Access, Free and Open Source Software, Intellectual Property Rights, & Sharing of the available e-resources. More information can be found at www.nelic.org. 2) How is NeLIC using and promoting Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)? NeLIC is promoting the use of ICT in libraries for better service and modernizing the library according to global trends. For that we recommend FOSS. Presently Koha, PMB, DSpace, GSDL, etc. are the FOSS being used in Nepalese library. 3) Brief about NeLIC Open Access Repository? Central OA Repository is a web archive run by Nepal Library and Information Consortium (NeLIC) for the collection, preservation, and dissemination of intellectual outputs of an institution or an individual. Outputs may be journaled articles, research reports, and conference papers in a digital form. Researchers and students will have access to these materials through a single-point open access system. 4) How can libraries be used by businesses to provide professional development opportunities? Libraries can be used by any professionals to enrich their professional knowledge and sharpen them by getting exhaustive and up to date information in the particular field. 5) How many institutes are currently the member of NeLIC and is the number increasing? Currently, there are 56 members in NeLIC. The number of members is open to all Nepalese institutions which have a library and /or which are involved in learning, teaching and research activities. So it is growing continuously.Mr. Kshitiz Khanal
Open Science & Research Team Lead | Open Knowledge Nepal
1) Brief about Open Knowledge Nepal? A working group of Open Knowledge in Nepal. An open network of mostly young people working towards increasing openness in data, education, science, and other and increasing opportunities for many people. 2) Brief about Open Science & Open Research working group and their interconnection? Science is advanced by research. Research is a methodology with which all science progresses. These two are always interconnected. 3) When does a researcher satisfy the requirement for Open Access? Most important thing, at first, is a commitment by researcher themselves. But that can only the cause of open access so far. The researcher can study more about types of open access, find open access journals in their domain, talk about open access with their colleagues. 4) How do you see the current open science practice of Nepal? At least all journals in Nepal are Open access. However, there is no culture of sharing research data among Nepali researchers. Practice is influenced by culture, and culture by practice. We need to sensitize researchers and academics about open access and open science in Nepal. If all government funded research in Nepal mandates publication as open access and sharing of raw data in an open license, it will increase open science practice. Movements take time and we have only just begun. There’s a lot to do. 5) What are the expected challenges?- Researchers want to publish data in the most reputed journal that they can publish, and most such journals are not open by default.
- Publishing in Nepali open access journals is frowned upon. The quality of paper matters more than the ranking of journals.
- We should push for raising the standard of Nepali journals. More rigorous peer review.
- Very few researchers of Nepal publish papers and conduct academic research. The potential of students and academics is wasted in Nepal.
Dr. Roshan Kumar Karn
Director | Open Access Nepal
1) Brief about Open Access Nepal? Open Access Nepal is a non-profit and non-governmental organization and was established in March 2014. OANepal is the affiliate chapter of U.S. based organization “Right to Research Coalition (R2RC)”. The main objective of Open Access Nepal is to advocate and promote the policies and principles of Open Access, Open Education, Open Data and Open Repository in Nepal. It aims to nurture potential researchers with unrestricted access to scholarly articles. The activities of OANepal are supported by EIFL, INASP, R2RC and OCSD NET. 2) Brief about Open Access Button and Open Access Journals? Open Access Button: OA Button is a browser bookmarklet which registers when people hit a paywall to a scholarly article and supports these researchers in 3 ways:- Finding available research: OA Button searches thousands of sources with millions of articles to find legal access to research articles for the researchers.
- Requesting Research: OA Button was designed as a transparent and effective request system to help make more research accessible. If you are unable to get access, you can quickly create a request with the OA Button.
- Making Research available: Request for articles are sent to the author and other Button users can support your request. Together we strive for more accessibility to research.
Nikesh, I think rather than taking about the steady growth of OA publishing which is not true anymore. If you see the recent entries in DOAJ, there has been a dramatic increase in open publications in the last couple of years. Therefore, here I have discussed why OA publishing is important to different groups. But I have also answered your exact question at the end.Open publishing seeks to return scholarly publishing to its original and core purpose viz to spread knowledge and allow that knowledge to resonate and be built upon. There are several factors in play that has led to the growth of OA publication in the past few years. For Students:
- Open Publications provides a complete education to students by providing them access to the latest research.
- With science advancing at an ever increasing pace it is crucial that professors have access to cutting edge research so students’ education is not outdated before they even finish a course. OA publishing has given the professors access to these cutting-edge researches and advancements.
- It provides research for your papers.
- OA gives the opportunity to the students to be innovative and conduct researches beyond their degree.
- Better visibility and higher impact for the scholarship.
- No researcher wants to waste time and money conducting a study that has already been done. Open publication helps researchers to avoid duplication.
- Opening access to research will allow doctors access to all relevant information, enabling them to make better decisions – decisions based on the most up-to-date medical knowledge, leading to more effective treatment and better outcomes.
- Open publishing provides patients and their advocates the access to the corpus of medical research.
- Access to the latest research speeds innovation.
- Return on public’s investment as most research are funded by the taxpayers’ money.
- Exercising the right to research: as taxpayers who pay for much of the research published in journals, the public has a collective right to access the information resulting from their investment.
- Demonstrated benefits: numerous publishers, both non-profit and for-profit, voluntarily make their articles openly available at the time of publication or within 6-12 months. Many have switched from a closed, subscription model to an open one as a strategic business decision to increase their journal’s exposure and impact, and have done so with great success
- Lack of awareness, advocacy, knowledge and benefits of OA publishing amongst the researchers.
- Issues related to impact factor of the open journals.
- The reluctance of PI to opt in for the open model of publishing.
- The poor government policy of making public funded researchers available publicly.
- Lack of repositories.
- Lack of funding.
- Inadequate development of the R&D sector of Nepal.
- Overindulgence and extremely powerful lobbyists for the traditional model of publishing.
- Lack of adequate investment from the government in the development of research and laboratory facilities.
- Researchers are not yet totally convinced that open publication will be advantageous for their careers the same as subscription journals.
- Fear of loss of credibility among the peers.
- Decreased visibility, usage and impact of their work.
- Open access increases the impact of research in which public money is invested and therefore publishing in a closed model is a bad return on taxpayers’ investment.
- Society as a whole will be barred from the benefits of their research as open research is more efficient and more effective, delivering better and faster outcomes.
- Obstruction in the nation’s’ technological advancement and economic growth.
- Students and researchers from a developing country like Nepal will never be able to read and use world class literature because of the high subscription fees if researchers don’t make it openly available.