1. AJOL (African Journals Online) is an online database that provides free access to metadata and full text of African scholarly journals, with the goal of increasing access to and use of African-published research. 2. While AJOL is appreciated for being the largest aggregator of African journals, concerns about quality and evaluation of the journals have been raised. 3. Improving quality, evaluation, and impact assessment of African-published research is important for advancing higher education and development in Africa. Getting more research openly accessible online could help develop new tools to measure research quality and impact.

1. Quality, Evaluation & Impact of OA in African Learning

4. AJOL’s Vision is for African learning to translate into African development AJOL’s Mission is to promote, establish, protect, preserve and maintain an online library and archive of academic journals published throughout the continent of Africa www.ajol.info

7. AJOL participant journals are from:

9. > 55,000 unique visitors / month

10. Visits by continent 2007

21. Source: SADC Statistics database, 2003 SADC GDP proportions 2002 http://www.internetworldstats.com