Jimma University (JU) and The Elsevier Foundation, a Publisher without Border, have co-organized “Journal quality and visibility” improvement forum on the 21st of November 2019, at Jimma University. Jimma University has a vision of being “one of the premier universities in Africa and renowned in the world by 2025”. One way of achieving the vision is producing quality journals and improving the visibility and accessibility of publications.
The objective of the forum was two folds: (1) to improve JU journal’s quality and visibility, and (2) to empower and update the editorial board members of the eight JU hosted journals, ICT and library experts. During the discussion, quality and visibility related issues such as publication ethics, the role of editorial board members, journal indexing and staying in the index, copyright, license, timely release of issues, server/accessibility and other related issues were addressed. It is believed that the training plays an important role in minimizing bottlenecks that hinder the production of quality journals and visibility, accrediting JU journals nationally, indexing them internationally, and improving the University’s rank globally. The participants of the workshop reflected that they were satisfied by the training and suggested to arrange additional problem-solving trainings.
Caroline Moors and Shanthi Sira, from The Elsevier, gave the training successfully. Prof. Abraham Bantamlak, editor-in-chief of the Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences, Dr. Tsige Ketema, the Vice President for Research and Community Services, and Dr. Tesfaye Gebeyehu, director for Publication and Extension Office significantly contributed in organizing the forum. JU appreciates Elsevier and the forum participants for their substantial contribution.
