EIFL-JAB Project Inception Meeting and Kickoff

The kickoff meeting for the EIFL-JABS Project was held on November 18 2024 to discuss the progress and future direction of the project. The meeting brought together key University of Zambia stakeholders in order to help with strategic planning.

The EIFL-JABS project team announced the USD 20,000 grant, from the Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), awarded to the Directorate of Research and Development at the University of Zambia, for the Journal of Agricultural and Biomedical Sciences (JABS). The grant aims to is part of EIFL's "Strengthening No-fee Open Access Publishing in Africa" initiative, aimed at strengthening no-fee open access at the University of Zambia.

This funding will champion diamond open access publishing, potentially increasing the visibility and accessibility of vital research from the University of Zambia. The meeting also focused on strategic initiatives to strengthen the project and specifically focused on the following:

Their research and technical expertise will support the development of sustainable, accessible, and innovative digital publishing solutions in Africa.

• Addressing challenges related to merging university journals and improving their indexing to gain wider recognition
• Improvement of the functionality of the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform, including search capabilities and email communication
• The project is committed to building capacity through the creation of an editorial support team to streamline editorial processes