ABSTRACT
This research was carried out to examine the Adoption of Open Access in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Among the objectives were: to identify the level of familiarity of Open Access Initiative among lecturers in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; to know how frequent lecturers in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria deposit their research works in any Institutional Repository. However, what are the challenges encountered in the use and adoption of Open Access Initiative for research and Development in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria? And what are the strategies put in place to encourage the adoption of Open Access Initiatives?; Survey method was adopted for the study while structured questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection targeting one hundred and eighty nine (189) lecturers which was used as sampling size for the study from a population of one thousand nine hundred and five (1095). Data collected were analyzed descriptively. The finding revealed that the level of lecturer's familiarity with Open Access institutional Repository and open access journal is very high, but their level of usage is low compared to the level of their familiarity with open access initiative. The findings also revealed that the benefit factors (intrinsic, contextual) will motivate lecturers to adopt open than the cost factor (copyright, plagiarism, additional effort expectancy), or extrinsic factors and facilitating conditions. The study concluded that open access initiatives to scholarly communication has not been fully accepted and used by lecturers in A.B.U Zaria. One of the main recommendations made by the study is that the University management should harness the awareness of open access by enlightening the lecturers of its benefit of its adoption through bulleting, conference , workshops and seminars.