COAR in Africa

COAR, with other partners including WACREN (West and Central African Research and Education Network) and EIFL, is coordinating a repository workshop in Zanzibar, Tanzania on November 19-20, 2018. This is the first in a series of meetings to develop a more cohesive strategy for strengthening and building more comprehensive repository networks in Africa. The two-day workshop, which will take place in conjunction with the UbuntuNet Conference, will convene library and NREN (research and education high speed networks) stakeholders from African countries to explore how library-based repositories can better engage with NREN services in order to break down institutional silos, add value to repositories, and support the growth of open science in the region. Read more

News from Latin America

COAR Executive Director, Kathleen Shearer attended two weeks ago in Santiago, Chile. The meetings were organised by LA Referencia and the Licensing Consortia from Latin America and the Caribbean. The meetings offered an opportunity to share information about the financial and licensing issues related to the big deals, and also the challenges for these countries that would arise with a potential flip to APCs. In Latin America, where they already have significant government investments in their local journal infrastructure (especially through the SciELO and Redalyc platforms), they are firm in their support for repositories as the preferred road for open access to articles published in the large commercial journals. Read more