New journal to boost dissemination of African research

A new African journal is to boost access to research output, particularly for African university academics, through a new peer-reviewed and open access publication that aims to increase intra-African research collaborations across scientific disciplines.

The quarterly journal Scientific African is owned and operated by a community of Next Einstein Forum scientists and is published by Elsevier. It was launched last year during the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Global Gathering in Kigali, Rwanda.

The editor-in-chief of the journal, Benjamin Gyampoh, said that the pan-African content of the publication would provide learning materials for teaching and research in African universities.

“As the journal produces many issues, African universities will find a one-stop resource for excellent scientific content in basically all disciplines,” he said, adding that this will facilitate teaching and research using examples and scenarios that students can relate to and appreciate within their context.

Speaking to University World News in an exclusive interview, Gyampoh said the publication also aims at creating opportunities for collaboration for Africa’s academics and researchers.

Gyampoh, who is the immediate former executive director of the African Academy of Sciences, said: “With our open access platform and low author processing fees, we are making it possible for Africa’s researchers to publish their work in a highly visible journal and allow them to identify collaborators.”

Building research capacity

The journal, whose first edition was published in December 2018, and the second of which is expected in the first quarter of this year, allows African academics to publish their research findings and build academic research capacity.

The scientific disciplines currently accepted by the journal include chemistry, information technology and engineering, economics and business, environmental sciences and geosciences, life and health sciences, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences and policy, conservation and sustainability studies, and agriculture and food security.

In the first issue, research findings on a range of issues, from environmental inhalants from tobacco burning in Kenya to factors influencing women’s access to maternal healthcare in Ghana, and the distribution of pollutants from illegal oil refining sites in the Nigerian Niger Delta, were published.

The NEF scientists and researchers that run the journal say that African universities should not miss out in the global higher education rankings when the continent’s academics and researchers produce some of the world’s top research knowledge.

While research production has been growing in Africa in recent years, the NEF estimates that the continent generates less than 2% of the world’s research output, with only 10% of African countries producing the research.

Multidisciplinary collaboration

Publishing high-quality research from Africa is not the last stop but increasing intra-regional scientific collaboration and funding for multidisciplinary collaborative research is the broader goal of the Scientific African initiative, according to the NEF.

As stated in the journal’s first editorial, Scientific African sets out to respond to the important development concerns of Africa that involve the building of competitive research capacity.

The building of this capacity, which is enshrined in the proposed Pan-African Framework for a Knowledge-led Economy published at the NEF global gathering last year, must be led by African universities, the editorial said.

The editorial team further states that inadequate publication of research findings, especially from African universities, has led to the inadequate use of research and evidence-based policy-making, which is a basis for sustainable innovation.

“We want the papers published in Scientific African to influence the lives of Africans,” said Gyampoh.

He said the demand for publication in Scientific African is high, with the journal receiving about 20 manuscripts daily, which shows a very high interest in publishing in the journal.