Establishing Institutional Repositories as a catalyst to advance research output in Academic Institutions

Agyemang Badu Boateng, Akwoyire Yaw Aviamu, Simon Ameyaw, Veronica Opoku, Beatrice Arthur

Abstract


This study explores the establishment of Institutional Repositories (IRs) in academic institutions in Ghana to enhance research output. A mixed-methods approach was used to gathered data through questionnaires and interviews from top most Ghana’s Colleges of Education. Using stratified random sampling technique 286 respondents, comprising administrators, lecturers, and librarians were select for the study. The study aimed to assess the awareness, expertise, and challenges associated with IR creation in academic institutions. Findings revealed that while there was a general awareness of IRs, funding and technical expertise were major obstacles. The results align with previous research, emphasizing the importance of human and financial resources for IR success. Managers in Ghana’s academic institutions would find the results useful to prioritize IR awareness campaigns. Higher education policymakers and stakeholders in Ghana would make IRs a national policy, and provide adequate training and funding to support implementation of IRs.


Keywords


Institutional Repositories, Colleges of Education, Research Output, Funding, Expertise, Ghana, Policy

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adam, U. A., & Kaur, K. (2022). Institutional repositories in Africa: Regaining direction. Information Development, 38(2), 166–178. https://doi.org/10.1177/02666669211015429.

Ahmad, F., & Karim, M. (2019). Impacts of knowledge sharing: a review and directions for future research. Journal of Workplace Learning, 31(3), 207–230. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-07-2018-0096

Anene, I., Ozor, S., & Baro, E. (2020). Institutional repository development in Nigerian universities: Benefits and challenges. Niger Delta Journal of Library and Information Science, 1(1).

Anyaoku, E. N., Echedom, A. U. N., & Baro, E. E. (2019). Digital preservation practices in university libraries: An investigation of institutional repositories in Africa. Digital Library Perspectives, 35(1), 41–64. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-10-2017-0041

Azmeh, C. (2022). Quantity and quality of research output and economic growth: empirical investigation for all research areas in the MENA countries. Scientometrics, 127(11), 6147–6163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04512-5

Bangani, S. (2018). The impact of electronic theses and dissertations: a study of the institutional repository of a university in South Africa. Scientometrics, 115(1), 131–151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2657-2

Barwick, J., & Pickton, M. (2006). Loughborough University Institutional Repository A librarian ’ s guide to institutional repositories. ELucidate, 3(2), 3–9.

Bashir, S., Gul, S., Bashir, S., Nisa, N. T., & Ganaie, S. A. (2022). Evolution of institutional repositories: Managing institutional research output to remove the gap of academic elitism. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 54(3), 518–531. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006211009592

Carradore, M. (2022). Academic research output on social capital: a bibliometric and visualization analysis. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 42(13–14), 113–134. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-11-2022-0281

Chilimo, W. L. (2016). Green Open Access in Kenya: a Review of the Content, Policies and Usage of Institutional Repositories. Mousaion: South African Journal of Information Studies, 33(3), 25–54. https://doi.org/10.25159/0027-2639/198

Dhanavandan, S., & Tamizhchelvan, M. (2013). A Critical Study on Attitudes and Awareness of Institutional Repositories and Open Access Publishing. Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice, 1(4), 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1633/jistap.2013.1.4.5

Dlamini, N. N., & Snyman, M. (2017). Institutional repositories in Africa: obstacles and challenges. Library Review, 66(6–7), 535–548. https://doi.org/10.1108/LR-03-2017-0021

Dzandza, P. E. (2020). Digitizing the intellectual output of Ghanaian universities. Collection and Curation, 39(3), 69–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-05-2019-0012

Ejikeme, A. N., & Ezema, I. J. (2019). The Potentials of Open Access Initiative and the Development of Institutional Repositories in Nigeria: Implications for Scholarly Communication. Publishing Research Quarterly, 35(1), 6–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-018-09626-4

Frank Elia, E. (2019). Institutional repositories adoption and use in selected Tanzanian higher learning institutions Israel Malweta Nunda Centre for Foreign Relations, Tanzania. International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 15(1), 150–164.

Government of Ghana Colleges of education Act 2012, Pub. L. No. Act 847 (2012).

Gutiérrez-Galicia, F., Coria-Páez, A. L., Tejeida-Padilla, R., & Galicia-Haro, E. F. (2021). A system for the inclusion of the informal recycling sector (IRS) in Mexico city’s solid waste management. Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(22), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212490

Huang, C. K., Neylon, C., Montgomery, L., Hosking, R., Diprose, J. P., Handcock, R. N., & Wilson, K. (2024). Open access research outputs receive more diverse citations. Scientometrics, 129(2), 825–845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04894-0

Islam, M., Munshi, N. U., Islam, N., & Hossain, A. (2020). Digital preservation activities of institutional repositories in some selected Public University Libraries of Bangladesh: an analytical study. The Eastern Librarian, Volume 25(1), 24–40.

Jantz, R., & Giarlo, M. J. (2005). Digital Preservation: Architecture and Technology for Trusted Digital Repositories. Microform & Imaging Review, 34(3). https://doi.org/10.1515/MFIR.2005.135

Jelagat, S. L., Odini, C., & Wamukoya, J. (2021). Content Recruitment and Institutional Repositories in Kenyan Universities. Regional Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 6(1), 76–96. https://doi.org/10.70759/4tx3rp13

Kodua-Ntim, K. (2021). University Academics’ Usage of Open Access Institutional Repositories. Journal of Library Resource Sharing, 30(3–5), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/1072303x.2022.2103227

Kodua-Ntim, K., & Fombad, M. C. (2020). Strategies for the use of open access institutional repositories at universities in Ghana. Library Management, 41(6–7), 515–530. https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-02-2020-0023

Kumah, M. A., Adzadi, G., & Imoro, O. (2020). Strategies for Promoting an Institutional Repository at the University of Cape Coast (UCCSpace), Ghana. http://publishingindia.com/ijisl/

Lwoga, E. T., & Questier, F. (2014). Faculty adoption and usage behaviour of open access scholarly communication in health science universities. New Library World, 115(3), 116–139. https://doi.org/10.1108/NLW-01-2014-0006

Martin-Yeboah, E. (2016). Real or subtle: The mentorship experience of University of Cape Coast library staff. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2016(1).

Muneja, P. . (2010). A reflection of Tanzanian libraries in the digital age: Challenges and prospects. A Paper Presented as a Key Note Address During the Annual Conference for the Tanzania Library Association (TLA) Held in February, 2010 in Mbeya Tanzania., October, 6–9.

Mwalubanda, J. (2021). The development of institutional repositories in East Africa countries: A comparative analysis of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. IASSIST Quarterly, 45(3–4), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.29173/iq1012

Ndegwa, H., Bosire, E., & Odero, D. (2022). The status of the digital preservation policies and plans of the institutional repositories of selected public universities in Kenya. Insights: The UKSG Journal, 35(April 2021), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.590

Nicholas, D., & Rowlands, I. (2005). Open access publishing: The evidence from the authors. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(3), 179–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2005.02.005

Osman, I., & Nampombe, S. . (2024). Institutional repository infrastructure: a survey of Ghanaian public universities. Collection and Curation, 43(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-11-2022-0038

Pinto, T., & Teixeira, A. A. C. (2024). Research output and economic growth in technological laggard contexts: a longitudinal analysis (1980–2019) by type of research. In Scientometrics (Vol. 129, Issue 3). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04893-1

Saini, O. P. (2018). Understanding the role of institutional repository in digital preservation in academic libraries: A review of literature. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2018(July).

Santos-Hermosa, G. (2023). The Role of Institutional Repositories in Higher Education: Purpose and Level of Openness. In Distributed Learning Ecosystems (pp. 47–70). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38703-7_4

Sarpong, D., Boakye, D., Ofosu, G., & Botchie, D. (2023). The three pointers of research and development (R&D) for growth-boosting sustainable innovation system. Technovation, 122(November 2021), 102581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2022.102581

Sivankalai, S. (2021). The Impact of Cloud Computing on Academic Libraries. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2021(September 2021).

Stock, W. G., Dorsch, I., Reichmann, G., & Schlögl, C. (2023). Counting Research Publications, Citations, and Topics: A Critical Assessment of the Empirical Basis of Scientometrics and Research Evaluation. Journal of Information Science Theory & Practice (JIStaP), 11(2).

Tiemo, A. P., & Ebiagbe, J. E. (2016). Awareness and attitude of lecturers toward establishing institutional repository in Niger Delta University , Bayelsa State ,. Information and Knowledge Management, 6(6), 1–6. http://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/IKM/article/viewFile/31031/31864

Wojcik, J., & Rataj, M. (2020). Learning objects lost in the network. Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE, 2020-Octob. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274278

Yang, Z. Y. (Lan), & Li, Y. (2015). University Faculty Awareness and Attitudes towards Open Access Publishing and the Institutional Repository: A Case Study. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1210




DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/edulib.v16i1.79506

DOI (PDF): https://doi.org/10.17509/edulib.v16i1.79506.g36491

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2026 Edulib

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

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

merahtoto

 

merahtoto

 

merahtoto