{"id":12766,"date":"2026-06-20T12:24:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:47:11","slug":"why-go-open-access","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Why go Open Access…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpts from a discussion with Martin Mueller, E-Research Coordinator and Database and Knowledge Manager<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Picture<\/a>
Martin Mueller<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should the rest of the world have unlimited, free, and unrestricted access to findings from our research through the Internet? What would be the implications for IITA<\/a> and its science? The debate has lingered on for a very long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview, Martin Mueller<\/a> makes a case for Acc\u00e8s libre<\/a> (OA) by highlighting the benefits, the implications for future and ongoing research by the Institute, and the changes scientists must look forward to starting in September 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In explaining OA, Martin said that it is a global trend, a movement that is already 20 years old but had become more pressing because of the numerous opportunities provided by the Internet in developing repositories (archives) that can harvest data from very distributed or dispersed sources and make data much more discoverable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you \u2018open\u2019 data then you also open them for completely different user groups and research purposes; farmers, engineer, traders, and development agencies may have a deep interest in our data and publications. In all, they contribute piece by piece to change and that is what we want; we want impact. The donors do not fund research for the sake of doing research; they fund research to get impact. IITA is a research-for-development institution so our work is for a purpose. OA is able to unlock potentials by spreading information itself and by inspiring people in different knowledge contexts\u2026going OA is also a signal to donor agencies that IITA st ands by its responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet us imagine a situation 20 years from now,\u201d he continued. \u201cLet\u2019s imagine that IITA has not gone for OA. All other agricultural research institutes would be having a strong sharing approach, not only by sharing data with one another but also by being supplied with data by all others. This might not be the case for IITA. I doubt that other research institutes would share their data with IITA if they did not receive the same from IITA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin further highlighted that most of the challenges restricting scientists from going OA can be effectively addressed by accompanying data with proper, informative metadata<\/a> (additional accompanying data, e.g., source, date, venue, file type, etc.) and with a proper peer review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open Access was defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) as follows: \u201cBy \u2018open access\u2019 to literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world is changing rapidly and IITA will be missing the train if it does not go OA as well. So change is the price we have to pay to keep pace. There are challenges that we need to consider. For example, we need to react if a researcher has doubts that the \u2018right\u2019, knowledgeable people get the data or if the quality of further processing open data is adequate. This can be solved by accompanying open data with proper metadata. This ensures that the scientist is cited correctly. When we open our data, we do that bound by the restriction that users all over the world must cite us. If we don\u2019t, then people will build their own interpretation and use the open data for an inadequate, \u2018rough and dirty\u2019 analysis, resulting in wrong recommendations and so to an anti-productive impact… What we get back when we give our data is visibility and visibility is the future currency in research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Martin, IITA is in the process of enlisting with the Espace CG<\/a> repository of OA. Several activities are ongoing, such as designing the workflows and communicating what must be done: setting up, data migration, adding metadata, training staff, etc. Once these activities are completed, hopefully in September, IITA will launch this platform together with a new version of CG Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pour plus d'informations :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Gros, Chef de la communication, Si\u00e8ge de l'IITA, a.gros@cgiar.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c0 propos de l'IITA<\/strong> www.iita.org<\/a>
L'IITA est l'un des principaux partenaires de recherche au monde pour trouver des solutions \u00e0 la faim, \u00e0 la malnutrition et \u00e0 la pauvret\u00e9. Son approche prim\u00e9e de recherche pour le d\u00e9veloppement (R4D) r\u00e9pond aux besoins de d\u00e9veloppement des pays tropicaux. L'IITA travaille avec des partenaires pour am\u00e9liorer la qualit\u00e9 et la productivit\u00e9 des cultures, r\u00e9duire les risques pour les producteurs et les consommateurs, et g\u00e9n\u00e9rer de la richesse \u00e0 partir de l'agriculture. L'IITA est une organisation \u00e0 but non lucratif fond\u00e9e en 1967 au Nig\u00e9ria et r\u00e9gie par un Conseil d'administration. L'IITA travaille sur les cultures suivantes : le ni\u00e9b\u00e9, le soja, la banane\/banane plantain, l'igname, le manioc et le ma\u00efs. Il est membre du CGIAR, un partenariat mondial de recherche agricole pour un avenir s\u00fbr sur le plan alimentaire.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should the rest of the world have unlimited, free, and unrestricted access to findings from our research through the Internet? What would be the implications for IITA and its science? The debate has lingered on for a very long time.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":12767,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[281],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[32],"news-type":[],"hub":[],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[193],"class_list":["post-12766","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-open-access","location-nigeria","item-year-193"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy go Open Access... - IITA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why go Open Access... - IITA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Should the rest of the world have unlimited, free, and unrestricted access to findings from our research through the Internet? What would be the implications for IITA and its science? The debate has lingered on for a very long time.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IITA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/IITA.CGIAR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-29T21:47:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@IITA_CGIAR\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why go Open Access... - IITA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-20T12:24:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-29T21:47:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":708},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/why-go-open-access\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/news-item\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Why go Open Access…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"IITA\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"International Institute of Tropical Agriculture\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/IITA-Logo-finalll.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/IITA-Logo-finalll.png\",\"width\":1788,\"height\":591,\"caption\":\"International Institute of Tropical Agriculture\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/iita.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/IITA.CGIAR\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/IITA_CGIAR\",\"http:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/iita\",\"http:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/IITAPUBLISHING\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why go Open Access... - IITA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/","og_locale":"fr_FR","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why go Open Access... - IITA","og_description":"Should the rest of the world have unlimited, free, and unrestricted access to findings from our research through the Internet? What would be the implications for IITA and its science? The debate has lingered on for a very long time.","og_url":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/","og_site_name":"IITA","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/IITA.CGIAR","article_modified_time":"2026-06-29T21:47:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":708,"url":"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@IITA_CGIAR","twitter_misc":{"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/","url":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/","name":"Why go Open Access... - IITA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-20T12:24:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-29T21:47:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"fr-FR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1024_IMG_0367_0617-e1496949046667.jpg","width":1024,"height":708},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/why-go-open-access\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/iita.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/iita.org\/news-item\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why go Open Access…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/iita.org\/","name":"IITA","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/iita.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"fr-FR"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/#organization","name":"Institut International d'Agriculture Tropicale","url":"https:\/\/iita.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IITA-Logo-finalll.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IITA-Logo-finalll.png","width":1788,"height":591,"caption":"International Institute of Tropical Agriculture"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/iita.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/IITA.CGIAR","https:\/\/x.com\/IITA_CGIAR","http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/iita","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/IITAPUBLISHING"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30873,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12766\/revisions\/30873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=12766"}],"curies":[{"name":"bien jou\u00e9","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}