Exploring the Engagement in Open Research Practices by Librarians in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study explores the engagement in open research practices by librarians in Kwara State, Nigeria. It operates with three objectives and questions. It uses descriptive survey method as its design and adopts convenience sampling technique to select 63 librarians who filled the questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Exploring the Engagement in Open Research by Librarians in Kwara State,” which was sent to respondents through their WhatsApp groups. Findings revealed that respondents used open peer review, publishing research in open access platforms and depositing research in institutional repositories as channels of engaging in open research. It further shows that open research is of benefit to respondents by helping them in the creation of good research profiles, increasing connectivity among researchers and increasing findability and broadening readership of their works, while lack of training on open research, fear of plagiarism and lack of awareness of the open research process are the major factors retarding the engagement in open research by the respondents. This study concludes that open research is one of the mainstays of scientific evolution that enables researchers to increase visibility for their works and recommends amongst others that it is imperative for librarians in Kwara State to be making their research works available in open educational resources, it is one of the states with the highest library schools in Nigeria. Through this, students and other researchers can use their research works to broaden the status of teaching and learning.