Abstract
Research is one of the key pillars in the teaching and learning situation in any university in the world. However, the approach to research varies from one university to the other. The purpose of this study was to find out how the level of awareness and satisfaction, the challenges and extent of use of open access resources impact research productivity of faculty in *Dartum University. A quantitative survey research method was adopted. A sample size of 62 full-time lecturers and 134 part-time lecturers was selected for the study using a stratified simple random sampling technique. The findings revealed that research productivity is low despite the high level of awareness and satisfaction with open access use. Again, the findings showed that faculty members use open access to a considerable extent and point out some challenges associated with open access use. It was concluded that there is a very weak but significant influence of open access use on research productivity in Dartum University. It is recommended that African universities, and in particular Dartum University, establish or patronise institutional repositories which support open access.
Highlights
Over the past few years, there has been a tremendous increase in the emphasis on research productivity in universities
The findings revealed that research productivity is low despite the high level of awareness and satisfaction with open access use
The findings showed that faculty members use open access to a considerable extent and point out some challenges associated with open access use
Summary
Over the past few years, there has been a tremendous increase in the emphasis on research productivity in universities. Research and publication output have become tools for measuring performance among universities (Ram & Paliwal, 2016). The high emphasis on research is because of changes in government research funding patterns, nationwide research assessments and international league tables. Research productivity in universities is gaining a lot of attention mostly among researchers, administrators, scientists and policy makers. In the current academic setting, one main way of measuring academic success is the ability to publish in high status refereed journals. Many Universities encourage research by remunerating the faculty members for research productivity (Brew, Boud, Namgung, Lucas & Crawford, 2015)
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