The Information Program will be supporting three candidates (Dick Kawooya, Prashant Iyengar, and Eve Gray) from OSI's International Policy Fellowships Program (IPF) to complete their research on topics in the field of Open Information Policy. IPF, which is affiliated with the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University, Budapest, provides each fellow with webspace to document their research.

Below are the research outlines proposed by the three fellows. The group advisor is Lawrence Liang, cofounder of the Alternative Law Forum, India.

Sustainability Models for Open Access Social Science Research Publication in Africa: Policy and Practice
Eve Gray, South Africa
Websites: www.policy.hu/gray, www.evegray.co.za

The project will review the overlapping national and institutional policies that affect scholarly publishing in South Africa, with a comparative overview in two other African countries: Senegal and Uganda. A key question will be whether Open Access publishing models could offer greater impact for African research dissemination. The project will identify the shape of a sustainable and enabling policy environment for research publication that might enhance the dissemination of African research and impact positively on national development priorities. It will make practical recommendations for sustainability models and quality control mechanisms. A 20-page policy study and research paper will be written, in consultation with the group adviser. A coordinated advocacy campaign will target national government departments, primarily the Department of Science and Technology; national research agencies, and the universities.

Collaborative Knowledge Practices and Open Information Policy
Prashant Iyengar, India
Website: www.policy.hu/iyengar

The objectives of the project are to study open online collaborative knowledge production practices and use insights gained to draft a set of principles for an information policy for academic institutions in India; develop a collaborative website for sharing research through the active involvement of students from Indian law universities; and write a 20-page policy study and research paper in coordination with the group advisor for selective adoption by the relevant agencies for promotion/regulation of higher education in India.

Copyright and E-Resources in Africa’s Institutions of Higher Learning: The Case of Ugandan Institutions
Dick Kawooya, Uganda
Website: www.policy.hu/kawooya

The study tackles three broad questions:

• How does copyright as a control mechanism mediate to hinder or promote access to electronic knowledge in Uganda’s education and research settings?
• How does copyright distort representation of Africa’s scholarship in the global knowledge flows evidenced through electronic database?
• How should Africa’s educational and research institutions leverage internal copyright practices and knowledge to formulate institutional policies but also participate and influence national and international information policy spaces and dialogs?

Specific objectives include:

• understanding how copyright factors into access and use of electronic resources by academics, students and researchers on and off campus using both proprietary and non-proprietary electronic resources;
• exploring from the perspective of academic, students and researchers, how African scholarship is represented in the e-resources they use;
• determining how internal practices and empirical findings can be utilized by university and research institutions to develop, not only their own institutional policies on copyright, but also influence national and international policy dialogs and spaces.

Based on the comprehensive review of literature and preliminary consultations, focus group discussions will be conducted in three institutions: Makerere University (public), Nkumba University (private), and Centre for Basic Research (research), all in Uganda. FGDs will enlist participants’ deep understanding of access and representation issues in copyright contexts based on use of electronic resources.