MaliIntroduction
To date there are three Open Access journals published in the country: Recherches Africaines, the journal of the Faculty of Arts, Languages, Arts and Humanities at the University of Bamako, Mali Médical published by Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odonto-Stomatology, University of Bamako, and The books Mandé Bukari published by the University of Mande Bukari.
Women’s rights organization AMSOPT – Association Malienne pour le Suivi et l'Orientation des Pratiques Traditionnelles – has signed the Budapest Open Access Initiative – a major declaration in support of Open Access.
Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odonto-Stomatology, University of Bamako, provides Open Access to theses and dissertations defended from 2002 to 2004.
In 2013, researchers from Mali were reported to publish articles in international Open Access journals, for example 75 articles have been published with BioMed Central – an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the Open Access publishing model – and among them there are highly accessed articles by researchers from Aidemet, Direction Régional de la Santé de Kayes (Conseiller technique), Ecole Nationale de Médecine, Medical Research and Training Centre, University of Mali, Hôpital de Sikasso, Fondation Merieux Mali, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odontostomatology, University of Bamako, Department of Traditional Medicine, UNICEF Mali and WHO.
84 articles have been published in Public Library of Science (PLoS) international Open Access journals: PLoS ONE, PLoS Biology, PLoS Medicine and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases by researchers from Centre de Santé de Référence de Kati; Centre pour le Développement des Vaccins; Centre National d'Appui à la Lutte contre la Maladie; Direction Nationale de la Santé; Hôpital Gabriel Touré; Institut National de la Recherche en Santé Publique, Ministère de la Santé; Institute of African Tropical Ophthalmology; International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); Laboratoire Central Vétérinaire; Malaria Research and Training Centre, Faculty of Medicine Pharmacy and Dentistry, and Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Bamako; Programme National de Lutte contre la Cécité du Mali, and Programme National de Lutte Contre la Schistosomiase, Ministère de la Santé.
There are currently no OA policies registered in ROARMAP.
Enabling Environment
Research articles are not accessible
Most research articles are published in the foreign journals and very few publications are available online to Malian researchers.
Massive brain drain
Researchers with doctorate degrees tend to work and live outside the country. And local scientific research is not well developed. For example the University of Bamako notoriously lacks professors. And professors teaching at the University of Bamako lack time to do research. So there is not enough research output produced in the country.
Lack of infrastructure
The Malian researchers lack equipment, infrastructure and research environment. A public University of Bamako has just been split into four universities and administration teams are still to be appointed. This inhibits new Open Access projects developments.
Key Organizations
Consortium Malien des Bibliothèques (COMBI): includes Faculty of Medicine Pharmacy and Odontology, University of Bamako; Faculty of Sciences and Technologies, University of Bamako; Faculty of Languages Arts and Humanities, University of Bamako; Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Bamako; Faculty of Languages, Arts and Human Sciences, University of Bamako; Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Bamako; Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Bamako; University Institute of Administration (UIG in French) and Higher Institute of Training and Applied Research (ISFRA in French). Contact: Cheick Oumar Diawara, diawara [at] mrtcbko.org, and Abdrahamane Anne, girlajo [at] gmail.com.
Mali Médical is an Open Access journal published by the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odonto-Stomatology, University of Bamako. The journal publishes original articles, clinical cases, editorials, letters to the editor (original facts or technical notes), general reviews, reviews, the "Quid" (What is your diagnosis); and the minutes of scientific meetings. Mali Medical acknowledges support provided by the African Medical Journals Partnership Project that is funded by the US National Institutes of Health (through the National Library of Medicine and the Fogarty International Center) and facilitated by the Council of Science Editors. Mali Medical's partners are Environmental Health Perspectives and the American Journal of Public Health. Contact: Secrétariat de rédaction, Faculté de Médecine, de Pharmacie et d'Odontostomatologie du Mali – Bamko, BP 1805, Tel.: (223) 22 52 77, Fax: (223) 22 96 58, sidibes(at)hotmail.com.
Recherches Africaines: Annales de la Faculté des lettres, langues, arts et sciences humaines de Bamako: the journal of the Faculty of Arts, Languages, Arts and Humanities at the University of Bamako. It is a multidisciplinary Open Access journal publishing articles in literature, languages and social sciences and humanities. The journal is open to researchers from other universities. Online since 2005.
The books Mandé Bukari is a quarterly Open Access journal published by the University of Mande Bukhari Bamako in partnership with the Free University of Brussels and the University of Notre Dame de la Paix de Namur with the support of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and hosted on the site of the CNF Bamako. The journal's goal is to enlighten the general public on crucial issues affecting economic, social and cultural development.
Events and Programs
Keneya Blown – Malian public health information portal – and the library of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bamako organised a conference «Role of Open Access in access to scientific information in developing countries» on October 18-19, 2010. Among the speakers were: Abdrahamane Anne and Lassina Diallo, University of Bamako.
On the 1st of March 2011 Abdrahamane Anne, the library of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bamako, gave a keynote speech "Role of Open Access in Strengthening Human Resources for Health" at the Malian Medical Informatics Association conference on "IT and human resources for health."
On August 13, 2011, Consortium Malien des Bibliothèques (COMBI) organized a workshop on access and use of e-resources (both commercial and Open Access). Over 20 PhD students from faculties across the University of Bamako attended the workshop at the Bamako Francophone Digital Campus. One of the participants from the Center for Higher Education in Bamako expressed his appreciation “Je vous en remercie infiniment. Vous nous offrez ainsi des documents très utiles et très précieux. Vous nous faites gagner énormément de temps dans nos travaux de recherche. Nous comptons sur vous pour des compléments d'informations au besoin.” [Translation: Thank you very much. You also provided us with very useful and valuable documents. You helped us to save a lot of time in our research work. We can count on you to provide information that we need.] The participants learned about key topics related to e-resources including: the importance of research information for the researcher and the teacher, the methodology of information retrieval, and the problem of the quality of online information. In addition, they also received hands-on training in a variety of tools and information resources: including, websites directories and search engines, bibliographic databases, and digital libraries. There was a special focus on resources made freely available through EIFL for Malian institutions and also on the various international initiatives working to improve access to scientific information in Mali. And digital libraries and Open Access journals were also demonstrated.
Past and Future OA Related Activities
There are plans to set up Mali Science portal providing Open Access to scientific journals and other research outputs from Mali and showcasing directory of the researchers and current events.