USE OF OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS BY ACADEMIC STAFF OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigates the use of open access journals by the academic staff of federal universities in North Central Nigeria. Survey research design was used with a population of 5,365 lecturers from seven federal universities in the zone. A sample size of 241 lecturers were randomly selected with a structured questionnaire designed and sued for data collection. Out of the 241 copies of the questionnaire administered, 187 copies were returned and used for analysis. Collected data were analysed using frequency counts, percentages, mean (with a benchmark of 2.5), and standard deviation. Findings revealed that the level of use of open access journals by academic staff was fairly high and there is significant effect of digital competence on use of the open access journals. Based on the findings, the study concludes that academic staff of the surveyed universities is actually using open access journals in their activities. Theregore, the study recommends, among others that, there should be constant training and retraining of the staff on digital skills, ICT and Internet use, management of the universities should install and improve their Internet services, procure and provide adequate ICT facilities that would serve the university communities effectively. The federal government should also provide adequate fund to the federal universities in order to enable them provide current information resources and ICT facilities to encourage greater use of open access journals by the lecturers.