Africa Doubles Research Output Over Past Decade, Moves Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy | 3BL Media

abernard102@gmail.com 2013-12-05

Summary:

There is no doubt that economic growth across sub-Saharan Africa has been stellar in recent years, illustrated by GDP growth expected to be 5.3 per cent in 2014 (1). Coverage of Africa has increasingly focused on this growth, seeing the encouraging future prospects for many countries and the improved life chances for the younger generation as a result. However, to date, there has been little focus on the flourishing academic and scientific success on the continent as countries move beyond agriculture-dominated economies towards a research and knowledge-based future. One of the most positive signs for Africa has been the recent increase in scientific research being conducted by local African scientists. From 1996 to 2012, the number of research papers published in scientific journals with at least one African author more than quadrupled (from about 12,500 to over 52,000). During the same time the share of the world’s articles with African authors almost doubled from 1.2% to around 2.3%. Looking at Africa’s outputs overall and as a share of total articles globally, we see clearly that the continent is starting to emerge scientifically onto the world stage. Admittedly starting from a relatively low base, this still reflects more than 52,000 research outputs in 2012 featuring at least one African author. Clearly, this also has important implications for the entire developing world, given the potential for 'South-South' information transfer. Through published research, what is learned in one region/country can be the basis for improvements in other developing-world regions and countries. So what are the factors contributing to this promising trend? They are many: increased funding, significant policy changes within countries, improved research infrastructure, both human and physical, ICT resources, open, free and low cost access to peer reviewed literature, and research capacity building training have all contributed to the positive, upward trend in African research output.  One key contributor to increased research access is Research4Life, a public-private, UN-publisher partnership that provides scientists in developing countries with free or low-cost access to articles from leading scientific journals. Altogether, more than 35,000 peer-reviewed resources are available to researchers in the developing world and 6,000 institutions from more than 100 developing countries have signed up to use Research4Life programs. A 2010 Research4life user experience review revealed that more respondents (24%) cite HINARI as a source for life-science and medical research than cite any other source, while more respondents (32%) cite HINARI as the source they use most frequently. For agricultural research, AGORA similarly tops the list of resources used, with equivalent figures of 27% and 54% respectively (3).  However, as Richard Gedye, Director of Outreach Programs for the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM), who serves as Research4Life’s key publisher representative, recently pointed out, demonstrating real research output impact is not a straightforward undertaking (4) ... The rapid growth of open access also represents a significant contributor to African research output. David Tempest, Director of Access Relations at Elsevier, hosted an 'Open Access in Africa' workshop in Kenya in April 2013 in cooperation with the African Academy of Sciences to explore the African access experience and how publishers can assist in the process of enhancing access to African research ..."

Link:

http://3blmedia.com/News/CSR/Africa-Doubles-Research-Output-Over-Past-Decade-Moves-Towards-Knowledge-Based-Economy

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.gold oa.business_models oa.publishers oa.comment oa.green oa.africa oa.benefits oa.hinari oa.agora oa.repositories oa.research4life oa.journals oa.south

Date tagged:

12/05/2013, 11:03

Date published:

12/05/2013, 06:02