Open access awareness, scholarly communication and research data management as predictors of knowledge dissemination among librarians in selected university libraries in Osun state, Nigeria

Abstract

The transition from conventional scholarly publishing to open, data intensive and mediated research environments has expanded the responsibilities of academic librarians for knowledge dissemination. Evidence on how open access awareness, scholarly communication and research data management jointly relate to knowledge dissemination among librarians in Nigerian university libraries nevertheless remains limited, in part because these three domains are usually studied separately. This study examined the relationships among these variables among librarians in three university libraries in Osun State, Nigeria. A cross sectional survey design was adopted. The population comprised 46 professional librarians at Osun State University, the University of Ilesa and Obafemi Awolowo University, and total enumeration was used rather than sampling because the population was small and fully enumerable. Data were collected using a questionnaire validated by three Library and Information Science experts and pilot tested among five librarians outside the study sites, yielding a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .79. All 46 instruments were returned and usable. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression at the .05 significance level. Findings showed high open access awareness (grand mean 3.65), high knowledge dissemination practice (3.61), moderate scholarly communication practice (3.40) and emerging research data management practice (3.07). All three predictors were positively and significantly related to knowledge dissemination: open access awareness (r = .682, p < .001), scholarly communication (r = .641, p < .001) and research data management (r = .598, p = .001). The regression model was significant, F(3, 42) = 21.90, p < .001, with R = .781 and R2 = .610, the three predictors jointly accounting for 61.0 percent of the variance in knowledge dissemination. Open access awareness emerged as the strongest predictor (β = .421), followed by scholarly communication (β = .337) and research data management (β = .294). The ordering is informative: the domain most firmly established in professional practice contributes most, while the domain still emerging contributes least, which suggests that the contribution of each competency is conditioned by how far institutional support for it has developed. Inadequate ICT infrastructure and poor funding were rated the most severe constraints. The study recommends targeted investment in research data management capability, which currently represents the largest gap between professional expectation and institutional provision.