Acceptance and usage of open access scholarly Communication by Postgraduate students at the Sokoine university of agriculture and the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

African Journal of Libriary Archives & information Science, 2011; 21 (1): 17-27Thisstudy assessed the awareness and usage of OpenAccess (OA)for scholarly communication by postgraduate students at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). A semistructured self-administered questionnaire survey was undertaken using a convenience sample of 230 postgraduate students of whom 128 (55.6%) participated in the study. The open access concept was familiar to 58.6% of the respondents; however, although 60.9% of them acknowledged having accessed OA content, only10.9% of them had disseminated research findings through ~A. The respondents' perceptionstoward OA were generally positive. Lowawareness of the OA concept, inadequate onlinescholarly communication skills, and the slowInternet connectivity 'H'erepossible factors affecting the exploitation of OA in the study area. The review and formalisation of the existing postgraduate information literacy training modules at the two universities is recommended in order to improve the adoption of OA and exploitation of the online resources in general