Assessment of scholarly communication channels in selected university libraries in Kenya

This study assessed Scholarly Communication Channels (SCC) in selected university libraries in Kenya. SCC is the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design to assess SCC in selected university libraries in Kenya. The study population consisted of 431 students. The sample size was 376 respondents. The researcher adopted a census approach to involve all the 376 respondents in this study. Data were collected through closed-ended questionnaires and analysed using SPSS. The study established that the selected university libraries offered a range of SCC, such as peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, open access, and institutional repositories. The study concluded that several challenges, such as underutilization, high publishing fees, delays in publication, lack of recognition, and lack of librarian support, confronted SCC. The study also revealed that the most utilized SCC were institutional repositories and peer-reviewed journals, while the least utilized SCC were academic conferences. Most students lacked self-efficacy in publishing and selecting the best scholarly communication channels.