1. Introduction

The LIBSENSE Community in BAOBAB is dedicated to fostering open science, scholarly communication, and knowledge-sharing across Africa. This curation policy ensures that all content within the community aligns with its objectives, adheres to quality standards, and remains accessible for long-term use.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all materials deposited in the LIBSENSE Community within BAOBAB, including but not limited to:

• Research articles and preprints
• Datasets and research outputs
• Reports and policy documents
• Training materials and presentations
• Multimedia and digital content relevant to open science and scholarly communication

3. Selection Criteria

To be included in the LIBSENSE Community, submissions must:

• Align with LIBSENSE’s mission to advance open science and scholarly communication in Africa
• Be relevant to the themes of open access, research data management, digital infrastructure, or scholarly publishing
• Originate from individuals or institutions actively engaged in LIBSENSE or affiliated initiatives
• Be in a format that supports long-term accessibility and usability

4. Quality and Metadata Standards

All curated content must:

• Meet basic scholarly and technical quality standards
• Include accurate metadata (title, author(s), abstract, keywords, licensing, and DOI, if applicable)
• Adhere to open licensing principles (preferably CC BY or equivalent) to promote reusability and sharing

5. Preservation and Accessibility

• Deposited materials will be maintained in BAOBAB with appropriate metadata to ensure discoverability.
• Content will be assigned Archival Resource Keys (ARKs) as persistent identifiers to enhance long-term accessibility and reliability
• Authors and contributors are encouraged to update or link to newer versions of their materials where relevant.

6. Content Moderation and Withdrawal

The LIBSENSE Community reserves the right to:

• Reject submissions that do not meet selection criteria or quality standards
• Request modifications to metadata or file formats before approval
• Withdraw content in cases of copyright infringement, ethical concerns, or upon request by the original contributor with valid justification

7. Review and Updates

This curation policy will be reviewed periodically to ensure alignment with evolving open science practices and BAOBAB platform guidelines.

For questions or submission inquiries, please contact LIBSENSE Support.