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PERI—enhancing access toresearch information indeveloping countriesPeter Ballantyne Deputy Directora INASP , 58 St. Aldates, OX1 1WG, PO Box 516,Oxford, UK E-mail:Published online: 17 Feb 2007.

To cite this article: Peter Ballantyne Deputy Director (2004) PERI—enhancing access toresearch information in developing countries, New Review of Information Networking,10:1, 107-114, DOI: 10.1080/13614570412331312030

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PERI*/ENHANCING ACCESS TO

RESEARCH INFORMATION IN

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Peter Ballantyne

Introduction

Despite the massive growth in Internet connectivity and the many

discussions on emerging ‘information societies’ and the need to bridge digital

divides, many libraries in developing countries*/and the researchers and

educators they serve*/lack access to up-to-date journals, databases, and other

information resources. As a result, they are limited in their ability to communicate

the results of their own research to local and global audiences.

The problems are partly technological*/many universities and research

institutions in developing countries are short of bandwidth, for a variety of

reasons including its high costs or because its use is not optimised and managed

properly. They can also be ‘political’ with researchers preferring to publish their

findings in international journals instead of locally. Funds are also limited,

especially to pay for increasingly expensive electronic resources and content.

There are also awareness and skills gaps, with librarians and researchers often

unaware what resources are available and lacking skills in how to best exploit

them. This is all compounded by the sense that libraries and the resources they

provide are somehow less valuable to researchers and academics that each have

their own access to the mass of ‘free’ information on the Internet. Getting

individuals connected often becomes a higher priority than investing in

institutional capacities to manage, produce, and provide content.

The International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications

(INASP) worked with researchers in Africa, Asia and Latin America in 1999 and

2000 to explore how issues around information access and production could be

addressed through a mix of partnerships and capacity strengthening.1 As a result

of this, a pilot project was established in 2001 with university libraries in Africa to

test the logistics of providing access to up-to-date international scholarly

information and knowledge held in databases and journals, to enable developing

country research to be published, accessed and disseminated locally, and to

provide appropriate training needed to achieve these ends. The pilot revealed

several promising strands for future work.

PERI Today

Today, with financial support from the British, Danish, Norwegian, and

Swedish governments, INASP coordinates a ‘Programme for the Enhancement of

The New Review of Information Networking, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2004ISSN 1361-4576 print/1740-7869 online/04/010107-08

# 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/13614570412331312030

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Research Information’ (PERI) with in-depth activities in 20 countries (mainly in

Africa) and other collaboration in a further 40 countries worldwide. PERI

strengthens research capacities in developing and transitional countries by

reinforcing local efforts to produce, disseminate and gain access to scholarly

information and knowledge. It does this by bringing affordable ‘global’

information to researchers in developing countries, by stimulating and support-

ing the publication and dissemination of in-country research findings, and by

providing information and communication skills training for researchers, practi-

tioners, librarians and publishers. A key element is to strengthen local capacities

to design and deliver training and to effectively manage countrywide activities

that use information to enhance research.

PERI Components

The programme comprises four main elements. Some (delivery and

training) require intense local commitment and involvement and these are

currently limited to the 20 countries; the other components are usually present in

all these countries as well as elsewhere in more stand-alone modes.

Delivering Research and Scholarly Information

Activities in this component aim to improve ICT-enabled national access to

international research findings. The intention is to secure local access to an

appropriate range of international and other information resources to support

identified research needs and to ensure that this access is locally sustainable

beyond any agreed period of assisted funding. It is essentially about local

institutions, usually libraries, obtaining affordable access to international electro-

nic resources, mainly databases and full text journals. A document delivery

component is included. Here, INASP acts as a broker, working with the local

institutions to identify needed resources and with international publishers to

negotiate country access licences at rates that can be afforded locally. Depending

on which country they are in, libraries participating in PERI have access to more

than 11,000 full text titles plus several bibliographic databases backed up by

document delivery from the British Library. In principle, content licensed through

PERI is free to access for all not-for-profit local organisations located in a country.

At present, 19 publishers participate in the programme, though not all in each

country, and prices negotiated for a country differ across countries usually

according to the size of any existing market that a publisher has. Preferential rates

negotiated by INASP usually represent a 90% or more saving on the international

list price of a package.

The primary communities ‘targeted’ are researchers, university libraries and

information managers within development research institutes and universities.

However, given the countrywide nature of the services available, the programme

is normally open to any researcher, academic or professional from a non-profit

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environment. At 31 December 2003, over 900 institutions were ‘registered’ with

PERI (almost double the 2002 figure), as shown in Table 1.

Major challenges encountered are linked to the usage of the resources as

well as the financing and management of the country access licences.

Regarding usage, we see some countries and institutions making large use

of the content and others making very little use. Getting to understand the

statistical data and the reasons for this variability is now an urgent issue for INASP

as well as for the participating libraries. One challenging question when the

baseline is unknown is what constitutes ‘high’ or ‘good’ use. In 2003 for instance,

users from 19 participating developing countries carried out 205,000 searches,

downloaded 136,000 abstracts and downloaded 165,000 articles (of which

100,000 were from four countries). If the starting point was zero, these are

excellent figures. If we compare them to a British university, they may be very

disappointing. Another question is how the impact of this enhanced access to

content can be assessed. We also worry that use is concentrated in a few

organisations and that the ‘country-wide’ possibilities are rarely taken up,

perhaps because of poor connectivity outside some key centres, or because

the wider awareness is not there, or because not enough people have been

trained to exploit the electronic resources. In the latter case, we see a clear

TABLE 1Countries registered with PERI

Country Total

Armenia 156

Belarus 26

Bolivia 13

Ecuador 56

Ethiopia 41

Ghana 55

Kenya 86

Malawi 28

Moldova 19

Mozambique 20

Nepal 85

Pakistan 10

Rwanda 10

Senegal 15

Sri Lanka 31

Tanzania 68

Turkmenistan 23

Uganda 58

Uzbekistan 35

Vietnam 14

Zambia 20

Zimbabwe 43

Total 912

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positive relationship between both the delivery of a training workshop locally

and the promotion of a specific resource to a country, and the usage of

the resources.

Regarding the licences, and related to the ‘national’ focus of the

programme, a major challenge is to find or build appropriate local institutional

collaboration and coordination mechanisms that can effectively manage the

access, including ‘policing’ use of the content to avoid inappropriate or illegal

behaviours. To pay even for the discounted access, we see that some countries

face difficulties in raising the required funds on a regular basis. The trend towards

consortia building is therefore positive, as this provides a platform where

interested organisations can join forces and buying power and can together

sustain the recurring access costs. However it is not always clear how consortia,

usually with limited and paid for membership, can be reconciled with free access

for all in a country, including those who do not pay. It is further quite difficult to

catalyse cooperation among organisations that historically have not had much

history of working together, or who work in different sectors. Yet the local

‘ownership’ by appropriate institutions of the programme seems to be absolutely

critical to the sustaining of these access activities.

Finally for this component, the broker role of INASP is necessarily time-

bound and for each country we see ourselves handing this task on to a local

consortium or association. From a local sustainability perspective, this is clearly

essential. However, exactly how this transition is managed and which skills or

aptitudes in negotiating with content providers need to be developed in each

country still need to be determined.

Disseminating National Research

Activities in this component aim to increase the visibility and accessibility of

research carried out in developing countries. By moving to electronic publishing

and indexing platforms and through wider promotion, the intention is to increase

the number of people, in the north and the south, who are able to gain access to

research results published in developing country journals. As well as reaching

researchers, academics and libraries in developed countries, it is hoped that

increased ‘south�/south’ exchange of results among researchers in developing

countries can be achieved.

The primary activity here is the African Journals Online (AJOL) service.2 This

is a web platform containing tables of contents and abstracts from more than

180 African-published peer-reviewed journals (from 21 African countries), with

links to the full text if available. Supported by a document delivery service, it

targets readers worldwide and particularly promotes subscriptions by African

libraries to African journals. Currently, around 8,000 people have registered to use

the content and document delivery requests, mainly from within Africa, are

growing rapidly. A 2002 evaluation of the first phase of AJOL was very positive on

progress so far. Journal editors were overwhelmingly appreciative of its general

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impact, in that it enabled African journals to reach more readers and offered a

combined African platform on which journals were showcased alongside other

African titles. They felt that AJOL gave a journal respectability and credibility, as

well as international visibility. However, both AJOL users and the journals

themselves placed online access/electronic delivery or assistance in mounting full

text online as priorities for the future.

One current challenge is therefore to extend the contents from being an

African journals indexing tool to becoming an African journals publishing

platform. The challenge is now to encourage as many journal editors as possible

to move their production to an electronic platform. For those willing to provide

open access to their content, a new indexing and publishing system for AJOL has

been put in place using the open source Open Journals System software

developed by the Public Knowledge Project in Canada. Some editors, however,

are not yet convinced of the open access publishing revenue model and we assist

them to explore how they can also publish in full text using a commercial service

such as Ingenta or Extenza. Irrespective of the choice they make, we foresee the

need for much training and other support to be provided to the editors as they

seek to enhance both the quality of their products as well as their visibility and

the move to electronic publishing.

A second major challenge is to move the AJOL service and its management

from INASP to Africa. This is planned to take place during 2004�/2005 and is

certain to pose many questions as we seek to find a partner or partners who have

the interest and capacities and mandate to coordinate a continent-wide service

of this type. One opportunity it provides is the chance to re-assess the model and

how it is managed so that it can be adapted to the emerging local situations in

Africa. More generally, researchers and journals in many other parts of the world

have welcomed the AJOL ‘model’ and we are discussing with Bangladesh, Nepal

and Sri Lanka how such services could be set up in their countries. A similar

service has also been developed with INASP support in the Caribbean, where

CARINDEX provides an index to the contents of some 70 West Indian journals.

Enhancing ICT Skills

Activities in this component aim to enhance the skills of information

professionals, researchers and academics in developing countries to make

effective use of electronic information resources and tools. It is essentially about

the delivery of various training courses to ‘end users’ like researchers and

academics in developing countries. To ensure that modules are adapted to local

conditions, local information ‘enablers’ are trained and supported to become the

frontline trainers in a country or region and to deliver their own local, national

and regional courses. Just as importantly, such training of trainers helps to build

up a local pool of experienced information professionals with the confidence and

skills to monitor training needs, develop or adapt training materials, and deliver

workshops or other events as required.

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In an effort to promote learning across institutes in a country and countries

in a region, a ‘cascading’ methodology is used in which training courses ‘travel’

south�/south, drawing on local expertise from country A to co-facilitate a

workshop in country B, and so on. This strengthens the pool of local trainers and,

by reducing direct INASP staff involvement, allows the programme to deliver

many more events in more countries than would otherwise be possible. Four ICT

training workshop series are currently available as part of PERI:

. Introduction to Using the Internet

. Electronic Journals and Electronic Resources Library Management

. Web Page Design and Authoring, leading to Library Web Pages (fully developed)

. ICT Troubleshooting for Librarians and Information Personnel (under develop-

ment)

A course on Training Trainers is being developed with the International

Institute for Communication and Development as part of the wider ItrainOnline

collaboration.3 All the workshop materials are available for download from the

INASP website where they can be borrowed and adapted as needed.4 During

2003, 21 workshops were delivered reaching 368 people from 129 different

institutions in 11 countries: Bolivia, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique,

Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Local facilitators and

subject experts delivered the vast majority of these workshops.

The major challenges encountered relate to the development and

adaptation of the workshop materials and to the difficulty in assessing impact

from the training activities. We have seen a poor level of local adaptation of

workshop materials and content*/although many follow-on local workshops

have been run, they tend to use the ‘INASP materials’ without much local

adaptation. There have been no complaints to accompany this, but it probably

has an influence on impact. We have also found it difficult to find suitable local

content developers for some of the more technical workshop materials and have

had to rely on European experts. Despite the involvement of many local

facilitators in the local workshops, which suggests that local training capacities

are being strengthened, we are concerned that wider capacities to set up and

manage training activities, especially the materials development and adaptation,

are not yet sufficiently developed.

To address these issues, we are increasing our efforts to ensure that local

partners undertake local content development and that we provide mechanisms

for experience and skills sharing in this area. We are also looking at ways to work

with specialist training partners who may be outside the groups that INASP has

traditionally worked with, perhaps also including national and regional library

schools with whom we could jointly design and deliver workshops and training

activities.

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Strengthening Local Publishing

Activities in this component aim to strengthen the efforts of scientific and

scholarly editors and publishers in developing countries to more effectively

produce, publish and disseminate research information. The intention is to

improve the quality of research and scholarly publishing in developing countries,

helping to make it more viable and more sustainable. The emphasis is on skills

development via training (either in workshops, staff visits or conferences) and the

development of best practice via publications and information sharing and

dissemination. Examples include a series of journals management and online

publishing workshops in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal and Uganda, support for a

medical editors’ symposium in Kenya, support for a Latin American workshop on

strengthening editors’ and scientists’ capabilities in electronic publishing, and

smaller contributions to many other local activities around the world.

Other Elements

As well as these four main components the programme also supports the

emergence of stronger local mechanisms for country-level information resource

sharing and collaboration (that are essential to the longer-terms sustainability of

the local activities), as well as small research and learning studies to address

emerging issues, such as effective bandwidth management, that are encountered

during implementation. Two areas that we are currently ‘researching’ with local

and international partners focus directly on the accessibility of the electronic

resources that the local institutions are now receiving. The first is to find a tool

that will act as an easy to use and maintain ‘front end’ inside the institutions

where all electronic resources can be searched with a single query. Currently,

searches need to be repeated with each content package. The second is to find

ways to optimise the various Internet tools and resources to conserve

international bandwidth. In most institutions, local area bandwidth is under-

used while international bandwidth is restricted and costly. If more actions, such

as searching, could be performed locally, then much more effective use could be

made of the international connections than now.

Emerging Issues

Within the discussion above, we allude to some particular challenges facing

specific components of the programme. Here, we briefly describe some higher-

level and crosscutting issues that are important to a programme such as this and

where we are still looking for ‘answers’.

. Sustainability: The whole programme is funded on the understanding that it will

lead to activities in countries and regions that can be locally sustained. This

means that costs need to be affordable, locally, and that necessary political and

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technical skills and capacities are present and maintained over time. Key to the

country-level sustainability is the emergence of strong local institutional

mechanisms that will take ownership and give direction to the various

activities*/whether joint purchasing, shared indexing, electronic publishing,

document delivery, or training. Not every country has a natural candidate to

take on these roles; some countries have several competing candidates.

. Coherence: Recent discussions on the problems of the ‘digital divide’ have given

an increased impetus to all sorts of useful and well-meaning projects to support

colleagues and institutions in developing countries. For instance, there are

dozens of small and large journal access programmes for developing countries,

each with its own niche. In terms of management and efficiency, these pose

quite substantial challenges in the receiving or beneficiary countries. Very often

also, the initiatives are not interoperable, may even cause harm through

competition, and combining efforts to maximise benefits for beneficiaries is

difficult to achieve.

. Impact: As was alluded to above, the whole area of results, evaluation and impact

is very difficult. Yet, data or evidence is needed to convince international

sponsors as well as local administrators that investing in such information

activities does enhance the quality and impact of research and teaching. This is

probably one area where dialogue between information professionals in the

developing countries could be increased with colleagues in richer countries and

institutions*/to mobilise examples and methodologies that work worldwide.

Notes

1. http://www.inasp.info/peri/

2. http://www.ajol.info

3. http://www.itrainonline.org/

4. http://www.inasp.info/training/

Peter Ballantyne, Deputy Director, INASP, PO Box 516, 58 St. Aldates, Oxford,

OX1 1WG, UK. E-mail: pballantyne@inasp.info

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