ATTITUDES OF NIGERIAN RESEARCHERS TOWARD OPEN DATA AND OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING

Abstract

This research looked into the attitude of Nigerian researchers to open data and open access publishing. This study specifically examined the awareness, attitude and perception of researchers and the barriers and facilitators to the adoption of open science practices in Nigeria. For the study, a descriptive survey research design was followed. The population was Nigerian researchers from various academic disciplines in federal, state and private universities. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire titled, “Questionnaire on Attitudes of Nigerian Researchers Toward Open Data and Open Access Publishing.” The IBM SPSS Version 27 software program was used to analyze 400 questionnaires administered. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (frequency count, percentage, mean and standard deviation), and inferential statistics (one-way ANOVA, hierarchical multiple regression and paired-samples t-test) at the 0.05 level of significance were used to test the study objectives and hypotheses.

Results showed that the level of awareness among researchers in Nigeria were within the moderate to high range, with STEM researchers having a high awareness compared to Social Sciences and Humanities researchers. The study also revealed that the attitude of researchers towards open access publishing was positively related to performance expectancy and institutional support, and negatively related to concerns about “data scooping”. Furthermore, the barriers of high APCs and weak Internet connectivity overpowered the facilitators of open access adoption. The study identified financial, institutional and infrastructural challenges as the major constraints for effective implementation of open science practices among Nigerian researchers and found that their general attitude is positive towards open science practices.