Can African journals publish rigorously peer-reviewed research without charging authors or readers, while relying on infrastructure managed by African institutions? WACREN and Episciences invite you to a webinar exploring practical ways to make this possible. The session will introduce the principles of diamond open access, the role of preprints in sharing knowledge, and the overlay journal model. Overlay journals build on the evaluation and curation of preprints (PRC) to provide peer review and editorial control at lower cost. As a case study, Dr Bitsha-Kitime Dieudonné KABKIA of the journal RASPA will explain how RASPA currently operates as an overlay journal on HAL and present its planned migration to the BAOBAB repository. A live demonstration will also show the technical connection between BAOBAB and Episciences, which harvests metadata, ORCID identifiers, affiliations, and full-text articles via OAI-PMH. The webinar will conclude with an introduction to LIBSENSE, WACREN’s Francophone community of practice, followed by an open Q&A. The event is intended for Francophone researchers, journal editors and editorial teams, library and institutional repository managers, research directors, research administrators and funders, and representatives of national research and education networks. Date: 21 October 2026, 13:00–14:00 UTC Location: Online via Zoom Click here to get more information and the registration link FacebookXLinkedInWhatsAppEmail
