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The Department of Information Studies at the University of Zululand invites you to participate in the 24th Information Studies (IS) conference at the University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, between 4th – 6th September 2024.


This year’s conference theme is Open Science: Information, Knowledge, Technology, LIS Education (LISE).


Open Science is increasingly becoming essential in many disciplines as it changes the landscape of multidisciplinary research, education and scholarly communication. The concept Open Science is quite broad. The International Science Council (2020) in “the global voice of science” defines Open Science as the trend towards universal access to scientific research, data, and conclusions typically without charge or usage limitations. It enables openness, collaboration, and the global and interdisciplinary exchange of scientific knowledge, products and services. Thus, it enables access and success of utilising research resources. Greater reproducibility, creativity, and inclusivity in research are fostered by this approach, which promotes open access to publications, open data, open-source software, and open peer review procedures. For example, it focuses on open data, open access, open educational resources, open evaluation and open science infrastructures. It is revolutionary, dismantling obstacles and quickening the rate of scientific advancement. Thus, researchers, institutions, funding agencies, and publishers play crucial roles in adopting and promoting open science principles to advance scientific knowledge in an inclusive and transparent manner. While open science is broad and multidisciplinary in nature, this conference considers it within information, knowledge, technology and library and information science education (includes research) perspective.

We invite researchers worldwide, and especially from Africa, to submit their contributions to the 24th IS Annual Conference in the form of original full research papers (FRP), research-in-progress (RIP) papers, or posters that have not previously been presented elsewhere and make new contributions to the theme’s theory and practice.


Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

1. Open access (OA)- ‘Free and full access to scientific outputs including resources and data’.

2. Open data- ‘Free digital research data’

3. Open-source software- ‘Free available, accessible and transparent software, model and data sets’

4. Open evaluation- ‘Transparent and external participation in research assessment’

5. Open hardware- ‘Free hardware/design for collaborative and external use and distribution’

6. Open engagement of social actors- ‘Creating spaces for communication, collaboration, and cooperation to address common goals’.

7. Open science infrastructures- ‘Free access to scholarly communication resources and services e.g., repositories’

8. Open educational resources- ‘Free access to teaching, learning and research materials’.

9. Openness to diversity of knowledge- ‘Continuous learning, interdisciplinary approach’

10. Openness to indigenous knowledge systems- ‘Insights in ecology, sustainable living, medicine, spirituality’

11. Openness to all scholarly knowledge and inquiry-Interdisciplinary Collaboration, diverse methodologies, information sharing’

12. Any other related domain


Submissions are invited on any topic within the main theme and subthemes listed above, in any one of the following formats:

· Poster Papers (PP): To enable conference participants to interact one-to-one with presenters in workshops.

· Research-in-Progress (RIP): Ideas for future research or not fully completed research to generate discussion and feedback.

· Full Research Paper (FRP): Completed research for possible publication in the Conference Proceedings or Journal.

Kindly note:

· All presentations should not exceed 15 minutes.

· At least one of the authors of qualifying papers must be present at the conference.

· Qualifying papers in FRP format will be published in double blind peer- refereed and the subsidy-attracting South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) conference proceedings.

Important dates:

· Submission of Abstracts by 30th March 2024

· Notice of acceptance by 30th April 2024

· Submission of full research papers (FRP)- 30th May 2024

· Notice of acceptance - 30th June 2024

· Submission of poster papers: 15th May and 15th June 2024.

· Notice of acceptance-30th July 2024


Requirements for submission of Abstracts:

· Title of paper

· Name(s) of author(s)

· Institutional Affiliation

· E-mail address

· Maximum of 300 words and to include: purpose of the paper; methodology, Findings, conclusions and recommendations, study limitations and implications and include 3-5 keywords.

· Final submissions should be in Arial, font size 12, 1.5 spacing on A4 portrait.

· FRP papers to include separate title page with names of authors and a separate manuscript.

Length:

· Final Full Research Papers: - 4000 – 6000 words

· Final Poster Papers: - Maximum 2000 words

Contact:

· All written submissions for research papers to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

· All written submissions for poster papers to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

· All inquiries to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

· Visit http://www.lis.uzulu.ac.za/conference