Weekly highlights – 17 September 2015

1. Quote

“There has been a significant improvement in accessing and using research evidence in the department as a result of the exposure to a broad range of reference sources and the skills to sift through these to obtain high-quality research.”

Participant on recent VakaYiko evidence-informed policy making course in Zimbabwe

2. Updates

• Our September Photo of the Month was taken in July when members of the VakaYiko consortium from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana and the UK met in Accra, Ghana for the second annual consortium meeting.
• A VakaYiko-funded course in Ethiopia this week is training health policy makers in using evidence in policy.

3. Upcoming events

• From 29^th September to 2^nd October AuthorAID director Julie Walker will be in Madrid for a Latindex technical meeting.
• From 5^th to 7^th October, Emma Farrow and Anne Powell will be in Oslo for ICOLC (International Coalition of Library Consortia).
• Sioux Cumming, Andy Nobes and Julie Walker will be accompanied by five winners of JOL grants to the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE) including Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Seminar on 12^th and 13^th October in London.
• Communications coordinator Siân Harris will participate in a panel discussion on open access at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 15^th October.

4. Recent publications

• VakaYiko-funded course improves use of evidence in Ethiopia’s health policies – INASP News, 15 September 2015
  A grant from the INASP-led VakaYiko project is supporting the “Training for building research evidence utilization capacity of health planners and policy makers” course taking place at Ethiopia’s Jimma University this week.
• Tip of the Week #251 – AuthorAID, 15 September, 2015
  Remember to include basic background information in the introduction section, says Bernard Appiah
• Beyond the library in Malawi: taking the MALICO consortium to uncharted waters – Practising Development, 14 September, 2015
  Guest blog by Patrick Mapulanga of Malawi’s MALICO library consortium who spent five days travelling the country in March 2015 with INASP staff.
• New video highlights the need for building scientific publishing in Tanzania – INASP News, 14 September 2015
  A new video from the Strengthening Tanzanian Publishing (TZAP) project discusses the need to improve academic publishing in Tanzania.
• Online Course Grants Awarded by AuthorAID – AuthorAID, 13 September, 2015
  Congratulations, recipients!
• Local facilitators lead monitoring workshop for librarians in Zambia – INASP News, 11 September 2015
  In partnership with the Zambian Library Consortium (ZALICO), INASP is supporting a three-day Monitoring and Evaluation of E-Resources Usage workshop for librarians.

5. External coverage

• 1st Science Writing and Communication School is underway in Malawi – 12 September 2015