Creating a global visibility for Ghanaian scholarly research: a framework for a national research repository

Background: Starting with the KNUST in 2008 a growing number of Ghanaian universities have established repositories and by 2017, nine more universities and colleges had set up institutional OA repositories (EIFL, n.d. ; Corletey, 2011). Problem: With the number of universities, both public and private standing at just over ninety, the level of penetration is woefully low. Approach: We need a strategy to use the current IRs as models of open research portals for a national resource. Collaboration to create a national institutional repository must be led by the CARLIGH consortium and the Committee of University Librarians and their Deputies (CULD). There is enough expertise and technical know-how to create a national repository for Ghana. In fact, EIFL has launched an advocacy campaign in 2012 for this national resource. Conclusion and recommendations: The country needs a national repository to ensure the visibility of the country's research output. As part of quality assurance, the NAB must require all universities to establish and run institutional repositories with CARLIGH as the local facilitator. Government must fund research to improve on the productivity and build the capacity of Ghanaian researchers.