Examining West African Academic Libraries’ Participation in Transformative Agreements: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Ghanian and Nigerian University Libraries

Transformative Agreements (TAs) are contracts between publishers and libraries that could address open access publishing and collection development issues of academic libraries in resource-constrained settings. Despite the benefits of these read-and-publish models, data from the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges (ESAC) TA Registry, February 2026, reveals a low participation of African academic libraries and library consortia in TAs. This study examines the participation of West African academic libraries in TAs using a mixed-methods approach that includes an online survey and virtual interviews with participants from two countries -Ghana and Nigeria. Findings revealed that insufficient funding, low involvement in library consortia, limited staff expertise in licensing and negotiations and inadequate technology/infrastructure limit West African academic libraries’ participation in TAs. Although participants from these libraries were aware of TAs, they still require further enlightenment on these agreements and their potential benefits to their libraries. This study proposes four recommendations for improving African academic libraries’ participation in TAs.