Scholarly publishing in sub-Saharan Africa in the twenty-first century: challenges and opportunities

Presented at

PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference

11-13 July, 2007

Vancouver, BC

Canada

By:

Ezra M. Ondari-Okemwa

Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of scholarly publishing in sub-Saharan Africa in the twenty-first century.

Purpose of the study:

The purpose of the study is to examine scholarly publications produced by scholars in sub-Saharan Africa (48 nations) between 1997 and 2007, which was the most productive decade of scholarly publishing in that region.

Methodology:

The researcher used content analysis to analyze data extracted from the Science Citation Index (SCI), the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI).

Results:

In general, scholarly publishing in sub-Saharan Africa face many challenges. For example, scholarly publication produced in the entire sub-Saharan Africa in ten years is less than scholarly publication produced in the USA in year 2006. That is due to four challenges:

- Economic (e.g. lack of funding).

- Technical (e.g. lack of technical infrastructure).

- Environmental (e.g. censorship).

- Invisibility (e.g. a few scholars are interested in publications produced in sub-Saharan Africa).

However, with all these challenges there are some opportunities such as:

- Rapid advancements in information technology can make scholars from sub-Saharan Africa access publication produced around the world.

- Scholars in sub-Saharan Africa can and should collaborate with scholars from outside the region to publish.

For further information:

Abstract and full text available at: http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/viewabstract.php?id=84