Towards Curing the Predatory Publishing Malady in the South: The TriangleSCI Facilitation

 

Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari
Our team's project was accepted in June as one of the five teams (projects) to participate in the ongoing Triangle Scholarly Communication Institute in Duke University, Durham, NC, United States. Our project aims to mitigate the predatory publishing debacle through a community of practice (CoP)-developed toolkit and/or strategies. Members of our team have varying expertise in the core components and contexts of the project. The cross-regional team represents a good example of North-South collaboration of scholars/librarians from Canada- Prof Dan O'Donnell; Algeria- Prof Samir Hachani; Canada/United States- Dr. Nathan Woods; Bangladesh- Shaharima Parvin; Nigeria- Dr. Basiru Adetomiwa and Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari. Post TriangleSCI, we hope to expand the project to other regions of the Global South therefore recruiting more participants into a named community. 

So far it has been a wonderful experience participating in the institute generously funded by the Mellon Foundation. 

The participating teams and projects in the 2022 institute include:

• A Post-Pandemic Reckoning: Improving Metadata for Better Accessibility to Scholarly Archives for People with Disabilities by Erika Fülöp, Dene Grigar, Jarah Moesch, Richard Snyder
• Building a contextual alternative to scholarly journal un/safelists by Joshua Neds-Fox, Matt Ruen, Teresa Schultz, Brianne Selman, Leila Sterman, Stephanie Towery
• Equity Toolkit for Disability Inclusion by Karen Stoll Farrell, Kimberly Gladfelter Graham, Simon Holt, Sylvia Izzo Hunter, Erin Osborne-Martin, Stacy Scott
• Intercultural & interdisciplinary open resources supporting environmental justice by Nadine Aboulmagd, Alex Armstrong, Elena Berg, Jeff Gima, Fiona Glasgow, Antonio Lopez, Dalal Rahme
• Towards Curing the Predatory Publishing Malady in the South: Community of Practice Approach to Developing Local Strategies and Toolkits by Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari, Basiru Adetomiwa, Samir Hachani, Dan Paul O’Donnell, Shaharima Parvin, Nathan Woods

We would be leaving Durham energized to pursue the implementation of our project and by that contribute to the public good. We however express our profound gratitude to the TriangleSCI team, Paolo Mangiafico, Mellon Foundation and of course, our home institutions.

"Libraries on the Front Line of War": Iryna Kuchma's Narration of Libraries' Inspiring Roles during the Russia Invasion of Ukraine

Iryna Kuchma

Originally posted to EIFL blog

I am just a few kilometres away from Kyiv with my family and every   day I hear another story about how libraries are supporting their  communities. I hugely admire them. 

In times like these everyone is doing much more than they can. The Ukrainian Library Association reports that libraries are providing shelters, facilitating access to information and the internet, launching humanitarian hubs, documenting the war and supporting each other. 

Many libraries have turned their book storage spaces into bomb shelters for local communities - cozy with lots of interesting books around! Tea and support is also offered, so this is already considered a new library service. 

In more or less quiet parts of Ukraine, libraries continue to offer access to information - guides from local authorities, tips from psychologists for coping each day, motivational quotes from literature - and access to the internet. They also serve as hubs to collect goods and humanitarian aid for defence units and hospitals, and to sew medical gowns and knit camouflage nets. 

A national digital library kicks-off, recording the war - photo, video and audio facts that document the Russian aggression and the Ukrainian struggle; posters, memes and jokes showcasing creativity; information showing support from the international library community and drawing attention to fake news and information. 

A librarian self-support network is also being built, offering help and responding to requests for help. 

And planning for rebuilding of  damaged library buildings has started as well - together with the Ukrainian charitable foundation Library Country which is documenting the damage.

About the writer

Iryna Kuchma is a multilingual expert in open access, open data and open science. She works with EIFL as Open Access Programme Manager since 2008 where in collaboration with libraries and library consortia in more than 60 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, she advocates for open access to research results, facilitates the development and implementation of open science policies and infrastructures, and provides support and training. Iryna is based in Ukraine.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Re: Internationalizing Nigerian Journals Using OJS: Time to Act is Now!

Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari 

With reference to my December 3, 2018 post titled "Internationalizing Nigerian Journals Using OJS: Time to Act is Now!", I am glad to announce the huge role I played leading to the online presence of two Nigerian journals and still counting. With my advice and expertise in conjunction with the technical prowess of a colleague and the goodwill of the editorial teams of these two journals we have now begun the journey to massively enroll more Nigerian journals online and consequently put them on the International map. The PKP's Open Journal System is the preferred choice of platform given its leading role in the sector and being a supporting infrastructure for Open as default (Open- Science, Access, etc) which I actively advocate for.

I hereby gladly present our two latest journals online as mediums of communicating credible research of scholars in cognate fields from every part of the world:

1. ABUAD International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences (AIJNAS)

AIJNAS

AIJNAS is a university-based scholarly journal of the College of Science, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The journal publishes research articles, based on theoretical or experimental research works in all the fields of natural and applied sciences. In addition to having a journal-level digital object identifier (DOI)- https://doi.org/10.53982/aijnas, every accepted and published article carries its unique DOI and indexed in many reputable scholarly databases and archiving infrastructures for persistent visibility and access. Authors are thereby cordially invited to submit original and unpublished full-length papers for the forthcoming issues of the ABUAD International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences (AIJNAS). 

2. Fountain of Knowledge Journal of Library and Information Science (FKJOLIS)

FKJOLIS

FKJOLIS is a scholarly society journal of the Nigerian Library Association (NLA) Ekiti State Chapter. The journal is a peer reviewed publication that publishes scholarly articles and essays that contribute to knowledge and boost the frontiers of research in the areas of library and information science (LIS) scholarship and practice. 

In addition to these, we have improved capacity through experience in getting Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for published articles which will go a long way in giving Nigerian journals permanent footprints in the scholarly communications landscape.

Call it walking the talk, you are absolutely not wrong!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Alleged 'Plagiarism': Appeal Quashed, Justice Served for FUNAAB's Associate Professor and Assistant Lecturer

Nine years after they were maliciously accused of 'plagiarism' and unjustly dismissed by the authorities of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Dr. Janet Bamgbose and Mr. Akeem Bamigbade have, for the second time in six years, received favourable court ruling on the case they filed suing the university. An Appeal Court sitting in  Lagos has on November 25, 2021 dismissed a case of plagiarism filed by the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, against them reported The Punch, Tribune and many other news media as the details of the court verdict emerged.

Prior to this round of legal victory for the victimized duo, Hon. Justice J. D. Peters of the National Industrial Court sitting at the Lagos Judicial Division in the Suit No: NICN/IA/ 371/2013 on the 1st of December 2016, granted the reliefs sought by Bamgbose and Bamigbade against which the university filed the failed appeal. Both  Bamgbose and Bamigbade were Associate Professor and Assistant Lecturer of Chemistry respectively before their acrimonious disengagement from the service of the university. 

It is hoped that the university will now do the needful and learn to follow due process especially shunning malice and vendetta when handling a serious issue like plagiarism. It would be recalled, however, that the illegality was perpetrated in May 2013 during the administration of the then Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olusola Oyewole.

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn- The Holy Bible

 

 

Now that I'm a graduate: My degree and the World

 Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari

A presentation to graduating students of Library and Information Science Department, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria on Tuesday, August 24, 2021. The central theme is getting the college grads inspired to think beyond their degrees as they transit to the larger society. A sub-theme is the touch on emerging technologies poised to change the world and the library and information science profession. Click to read and download.

Our Published Article on ICT Skills of University Freshmen and their Projections for Improvement upon Graduation...

 Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari

We researched and published the ICT Skills of University Freshmen and their Projections for Improvement uponGraduation: A Case Study of Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Nigeria. 

Authored by Adegbilero-Iwari, Idowu; Odefadehan, Oluwaseun O.; Owoeye, Olubunmi Idowu Mrs.; and Christopher, Abraham, the paper reported the outcomes of the assessment of the information and communication technology (ICT) skills of freshmen in a Nigerian private university and the projection of the students for improvement at graduation. It became necessary in this digital era, where it is assumed the Millennial are digital natives, to know what computing capabilities fresh university students are coming with from their earlier educational exposures and also to know their expectations for ICT skills honing at higher educational level. The findings show that although many of the students are proficient users of varying devices (desktop, laptop and mobile devices), laptop is their preferred device for academic work. It also indicated that laptop and smartphones are their best choice for a device combination. The students are more skillful in E-mail (59%), web browsing (53%), online registration (57%), mobile apps use (53%), e-banking (49%), e-commerce (44%). Whereas they show interest in learning other skills, they indicated that the ICT unit is the arm of the university perceived to contribute the most to their skills improvement during the study years. Recommendations were made based on the findings.

Having Both Landscape and Portrait Pages in the Same Word Document: How to Do It

The page layout of your Word document, usually, is either in Portrait (vertical sort of) or Landscape (horizontal so to say) format. However, there could be instances when yo want to combine both formats in a single document. The how to do it is shown in three steps below:

Step 1: Open the Microsoft Word document, place your cursor at the start of the page that you want to change to landscape or portrait.

Step 2: Select PAGE LAYOUT, then Breaks, then Next Page to place a section break where you had your cursor.

Step 3: While ensuring your cursor is still at the start of that page, go to the Orientation option. Select Landscape, and you’ll notice how everything after our section break has changed to horizontal.

All you have to do now is go to the next page, insert another break, change the orientation back to portrait, and the pages after will be portrait.

Repeat the same steps if your document is originally in landscape and you need to insert portrait in between.

Just Before We M…

by Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari

Source: https://www.dreamstime.com/

While you seek to mine the Moon and move to Mars,

Never forget to make it a duty, 

The Earth to mind, to mind the Earth I say;

To wane her many woes;

The myriads of mire that threatens her life.

Neither for her errors nor the Maker’s though,

But for the horrors of your works and time in her.

This also note, O man!

Less a safe Earth,

Your sail to Space beyond may not persuade.

Now, you must do all you can,

To delay, nay, avert her derail as Pangaea.

Should you not, and proceed as Babel,

You may not be the one to tell how unwarm the Earth once was. 

A sonnet, composed @Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti on 28th October, 2020.

My first book, There is a Country..., is published: Hurray!

 Fresh form the mills, There is a Country...: Poetic Comments on the Place of My Nativity, is published online and available on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KWB9MGD?

The book is about Nigeria: her people, places, events (sweet and sour), her political struggles, insurgency and all. In the book, I have put together comments that events, places and peoples in Nigeria have forced my witty hands to print against the pulp. They cover various issues that may get you mad at my thoughts, plaster your face with irresistible smile or altogether get your head nodding agreement or bending down in pity and/or angst or stir you up to action. Having said that, There is a Country… has the central theme, Nigeria, and in it, patriotism, political activism, terrorism, people and an enterprise of Nigerian origin that I have reflected upon.

A comment from a Literature Scholar:

This book, a brilliant piece of art in your hand is a treasure of knowledge. I welcome you, the readers into the ‘Excavations’ of excellent and illuminating endeavors. There is a Country chronicles the inherent diseases that have crippled the nation, Nigeria—the land that flows with quality milk and honey. Each poem in this book points the readers to the moral and socio-political degeneration that has eaten deep into the fabrics of a nation. Mr. Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari expresses deep concern about the laxity of the leaders on the political, Social, Economic, and humanity at large, but not without hope for a better tomorrow.

The presentation of the poems in this book aesthetically details the personal experience of the author as profoundly expressed in the fluidity of the language that is beautifully woven in the manner that the readers become glued to the pages from the beginning to the end. The author’s thoughts are detailed lucidly in an easy to understand language that feels the readers with a mixed emotion of sadness and excitement....

 Ayoola Gabriel (PhD.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Encouraging me will mean: one, getting your copy; two, recommending by sharing to your networks and communities.

The print edition is also being worked upon, to come out soon. So, watch out.

Mendeley Desktop App Fails to Launch after Installation: How to Fix it

 Mendeley is evolving a multipurpose scholarly technology given its widening capabilities as academic social network, data repository, literature database, jobs and grants hub and much more the reference manager it sets out to be. Operating as both a web site and a desktop application, users can optimize all of Mendeley's functionalities, but, the Mendeley Desktop app is needed to fully deploy the citation management capabilities of Mendeley. The app must be downloaded, installed, launched and signed on to. Kindly note that the Mendeley desktop app works well on any machine be it Windows, Mac or Linux to help researchers manage their citation database, and to do write and cite.

However, the app may fail to launch on certain systems indicating an error message like the one shown below.

This is how to fix it.

There are a couple of approaches but one of them which worked for me and others I have also helped is by updating your devices's (Windows) Visual C++ Redistributable  program. This is how to do it:

1. Go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

2. Select your language and click on Download 

3. Download the appropriate Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable executable file based on your device's operating system, vc_redist.x86.exe for 32bits or vc_redist.x64.exe for 64bits.

4. Run the downloaded file and relaunch your Mendeley desktop app, it should be up and good.

 

I hope the information helps. Kindly bookmark and always check back this site for more useful information.

Idowu.

Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Africa Chapter Approved

Olufunmilayo Fati

The Board of Directors of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) approved the new ASIS&T Africa Chapter on 17 June 2020.

The purpose of the Chapter is to provide an organization through which members of ASIS&T located within the Chapter area (Africa) may participate in and carry forward the programs and purposes of ASIS&T. The Chapter shall promote the interests of the Association and its programs and shall make every reasonable effort to involve students of information science and related disciplines who are located within its boundaries.

"The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is the only professional association that bridges the gap between information science practice and research. For nearly 80 years, ASIS&T has been leading the search for new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information.

Our members—thousands of researchers, developers, practitioners, students, and professors in the field of information science and technology from 50 countries around the world—have made ASIS&T an important part of their professional development.

Members share a common interest in improving the ways society stores, retrieves, analyzes, manages, archives and disseminates information."

Elected Founding Africa Chapter Officers

Chair:

Tandi E Lwoga (Tanzania)

Chair-Elect:

Noureddine Elmqaddem (Morocco)

Chapter Assembly Representative:

Andiswa Mfengu (South Africa)

Alternate Chapter Assembly Representative:

Marlene Holmner (South Africa)

Secretary-Treasurer:

Blessing Mawire (South Africa)

Webmaster & Social Media/Communications Manager(2 seats):

Olufunmilayo Fati (Nigeria)

Onan Mulumba (Uganda)

Advisor(5 seats):

Abebe Rorissa (United States of America)

Diane H. Sonnenwald (Ireland)

Daniel Gelaw Alemneh (United States of America)

Nadia Caidi (Canada)

Salah Eddine Bahji (Morocco)

A LIBRARY FOR UWA by Shade Adepoju

A library poem by Shade Adepoju

Uwaila Omozuwa

Those who raped Uwa Omozuwa, leading to her death, must have kept a trail on her. 

They must have known she was headed for the church at that point in time on that fateful day.

They must have known she found the church as an option to a library that was never available for her to study.

Uwa's is a story of failure

The failure of hope, in our desire to return the dying reading culture among young people.

Uwa's community failed her.

Her country failed her.

The lack of a library failed her.

We failed her.

We should have known better to avail Uwa a Library to read.

Her community would have obliged her a library to read

Her country should have obliged her a library to read

Maybe, just may be, she would have still been alive.

If only Uwa had a library in her community. 

She wouldn't have been exposed to the company of her rapists, alone.

If only governments funded libraries.

There would have been several for other Uwas who love to read.

If only governments would do better, virtual libraries will offer benefits to users with remote access.

For every Uwa out there in search of a place to read.

You don't deserve to die in pursuit of it.

It should not be.

Your community owes you a library, if government fails to provide one.

We owe one another a  library.

As everyone deserves one

Just as Uwa did.

#FundLibraries

#SafeSpace

-Shade Adepoju. 

National Library of Nigeria

Abuja

Note:

Uwaila Omozuwa simply known as Uwa, was the first-year Microbiology student of the University of Benin who was raped and brutally murdered while studying in a church in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria on May 27, 2020.