| dc.description.abstract | Literature has revealed that open access journals and institutional repositories provide an
outlet used for dissemination of scholarly research. Although the introduction of these
outlets in universities has led to increased access and dissemination of research findings,
the usage of these outlets is yet to be realized. The aim of this study was to investigate the
adoption of open access initiatives in dissemination of research findings by academic
staff in selected universities in Kenya. The objectives of this study were; to establish the
types of outlets accessed by academic staff, find out the extent to which academic staff
were aware of open access, to determine the level of usage of OA outlets by academic
staff in accessing and disseminating their research work and to find out the attitude of
academic staff towards open access initiatives. The study utilized the theory of
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Descriptive research design was used for this
study. In total 301 academic staff from both University of Nairobi and Africa Nazarene
University were selected using simple random sampling methods. Stratified sampling
was used to stratify the academic staff according to their academic status and simple
random sampling was used to get samples from each of the strata. Questionnaires,
document and desk review were used to collect data and information. A Pilot study was
conducted at Catholic University of Eastern Africa to assure validity and reliability.
Analysis of data was through Microsoft excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) and was presented in form of tables of frequencies and percentages, and charts.
Descriptive statistics such as percentages and means were used for analysis. Findings
from this study revealed that the attitude of academic staff towards OA was positive
signifying acceptance of this mode of scholarly communication. However, traditional
outlets were still the preferred mode of scholarly communication by academic staff and
that open access publishing was low. The study recommends institutionalization of open
access publishing in Universities in Kenya and training on open access issues to improve
access and dissemination of scholarly research. This research will be useful to academic
institutions, education and policy administrators and libraries in Kenya so as to improve
the usage of open access outlets among academic staff. | en_US |
