http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12283/4643 2026-07-29T09:10:54Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12283/4906 Positioning Academic Libraries as Catalysts for Open Access in Africa with Dr. Fredrick Lugya (ULIA). Lugya, Frederick Kiwuwa; Owango, Joy This episode features Dr. Frederick Kiwuwa Lugya, University Librarian at Busitema University and President of the Uganda Library and Information Association (ULIA). Dr. Lugya discusses the transformative power of Open Science and the critical role academic libraries play in bridging the gap between researchers and public access. He shares insights from his 20-year journey in librarianship, the challenges of high-cost academic resources, and his advocacy for a National Open Access Policy in Uganda to ensure that publicly funded research remains accessible to all. Key themes include: the necessity of open access and institutional repositories; policy and sustainability of open science; the evolving roles of librarians in data curation and AI; and disciplinary information literacy integrated into university curricula at Busitema University. Dr. Lugya also describes a pioneering discipline-based information literacy programme at Busitema University, funded by the Engineering Information Foundation (EIF) of New York, which embeds librarians directly into engineering curricula, enabling students to find, evaluate, cite, and ethically use information as part of competence-based learning. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12283/4681 Impact factor, predatory & plagiarism Lugya, Fredrick Kiwuwa These two working documents provide a comprehensive overview of key concepts in scholarly communication, focusing on journal evaluation and publication ethics. The first document defines journal impact factors as citation-based metrics that indicate a journal’s prestige, and introduces popular tools such as CiteScore, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), and the h-index. It also addresses the threat of predatory journals, offering resources like COPE and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to verify legitimacy. Additionally, it outlines common causes of unintentional plagiarism, including inconsistent citations and poor referencing. The second document expands on calculating and comparing impact factors using databases like Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. It provides a detailed comparison of their coverage, strengths, and weaknesses. Together, these documents serve as a practical guide for researchers to identify reputable journals, understand citation metrics, and maintain academic integrity through proper attribution. Together, these two pieces of working documents provide researchers with practical guidance on evaluating journal quality, avoiding predatory publishers, and understanding citation analysis for scholarly communication. The first document is a presentation that introduces journal impact metrics (JIF, SJR, SNIP), defines predatory journals, and outlines plagiarism causes. The second is a detailed workshop guide explaining how to find and interpret impact factors using databases like Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. It includes a comprehensive comparison table of these tools' coverage, strengths, and weaknesses. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12283/4644 Embedding national knowledge infrastructure for STI-Led innovation : positioning Uganda’s libraries, archives & information institutions in the amended UNCST act. Lugya, Fredrick Kiwuwa The paper advocates for amending the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) Act to formally position libraries, archives, and information institutions as core national knowledge infrastructure. It identifies a critical gap: despite UNCST's mandate to disseminate research, Uganda's outputs are often inaccessible—published behind international paywalls or lost in fragmented, unpublished formats—which stifles innovation and leads to duplicated efforts. The author proposes four key amendments: legally recognizing information institutions as essential STI infrastructure, mandating open-access deposition of publicly funded research in Ugandan repositories, including librarians in STI governance committees, and establishing a unified National STI Digital Knowledge Gateway. These changes aim to transform UNCST from a ceremonial clearinghouse into a functional system that preserves, organizes, and provides access to Ugandan knowledge, thereby fueling local innovation, ensuring research transparency, and maximizing the return on public investment in science and technology. This presentation by Dr. Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya argues for the strategic amendment of Uganda's UNCST Act to integrate libraries, archives, and digital repositories into the national science, technology, and innovation (STI) ecosystem. It highlights the systemic failure of Uganda to retain and utilize its own research, evidenced by case studies where critical findings are locked behind international paywalls or lost in personal archives, thereby crippling local innovation and leading to wasteful duplication. The core proposal is to legally redefine STI infrastructure to include knowledge institutions, mandate open-access deposition for publicly funded research, include librarians in STI governance bodies, and empower UNCST to create a National Digital Knowledge Gateway. These reforms aim to operationalize UNCST's mandate by building a centralized, accessible, and preserved national knowledge base, transforming research from a scattered, invisible asset into a functional "operating system" for Uganda's intelligence and innovation-driven future. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z