IITA’s switch to open access on CGSpace for all knowledge products moved closer to becoming a reality this week as two parallel meetings and one seminar focusing on content and technical aspects of the switch took place in Ibadan, Nigeria. The meetings, which were organized through the IITA Capacity Development Office, took place on 19-22 October, and were facilitated by CGSpace experts―Alan Orth and Abenet Yabowork from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Also taking part in the meetings were knowledge management specialists from the Africa Rice Center which also plans to link its databases to the space.
“We believe that if all goes according to plan, we will complete the switchover to CGSpace by 23 October as a ready-to-use repository. However, the migration of the existing publications from our publication database and some necessary curation into CGSpace might take a few weeks,” noted Martin Mueller, IITA E-Research Coordinator.
With IITA joining CGSpace, eight out of the 15 CGIAR centers will now be using the platform as their institutional open access repository of choice, thereby making the body of documents available for public access more robust. At the moment, the space already hosts nearly 50,000 documented agricultural research outputs and results produced by the CGIAR centers and their partners.
“This is the right time for the switch because CGSpace gives the Institute advantages such as increased visibility, usage, and impact for our research outputs,” explained Zoumana Bamba, Head, Capacity Development Office.
With over half of the CGIAR centers already collaborate on CGSpace, it is anticipated that other centers will soon join in to curate their knowledge products on the space. Discussions are currently underway for the involvement of the CGIAR Consortium Office and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
For IITA all the groundwork has been done in terms of setting up the display implementation, data migration, equipping data with metadata, training staff members, and applying the new CGIAR metadata core, the st andard tagging system that will be used under the open access implementation.
It is just a matter of time now before the IITA community goes live.
For more information please contact:
Katherine Lopez, Head of Communication, IITA HQ, K.Lopez@cgiar.org
About IITA www.iita.org
IITA is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Its award-winning research-for-development (R4D) approach addresses the development needs of tropical countries. IITA works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is a non-profit organization founded in 1967 in Nigeria and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA works on the following crops: cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava, and maize. It is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
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