We are thrilled to welcome our new DOAJ Ambassadors for West Africa and Brazil! DOAJ Ambassadors play a vital role in connecting with local communities, promoting open access and best practices in scholarly publishing in their regions.
Angela Aikins, a librarian at the University for Development Studies (UDS) Library in Ghana, and Oluchi Okere, a librarian and academic at the Federal University of Technology Akure in Nigeria, will serve as DOAJ Ambassadors for West Africa. In Brazil, Carolina Dias, a Ph.D. in Information Science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, will support the local communities of publishers and journal editors.
Angela: I am thrilled to serve as a DOAJ Ambassador for West Africa. I believe that open-access publishing not only democratises knowledge but also empowers local researchers by increasing the visibility and impact of their work. I am passionate about ensuring research is available to everyone, regardless of their socio-economic background.
Carolina: Serving as an Ambassador to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) in Brazil is an honour and a responsibility. For me, promoting open access is a professional commitment to expanding and ensuring scientific knowledge is accessible to all. As a DOAJ Ambassador, I embrace the challenge of advocating for open access standards and best practices in scholarly publishing. This role is about serving the Brazilian academic community, its researchers striving for visibility, and all readers who deserve unrestricted access to knowledge.
Oluchi: As an African academic and librarian, I recognise the poor state of scholarly communication in my region. With DOAJ’s support, in my role as an Ambassador, I aim to enhance the quality and visibility of West African journals by promoting open access practices in my sub-region within the next year.
Our Ambassadors help us bridge knowledge gaps, build local publishing capacity, and address unique regional challenges. They are also crucial for supporting Diamond Open Access (OA) journals, a model that is especially important in Africa and Brazil, where it helps overcome barriers to the dissemination and access to research.
We are excited to welcome Angela, Carolina, and Oluchi to our team and look forward to their valuable contributions within their regions!
