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Connecting Commonwealth librarians Issue 16 August 2012
Visibility, access and impact

2. Addressing the visibility of
African research: towards an
expansive view of open access
How can African universities find innovative ways to share their research to meet local papers, policy briefs and research reports
development needs, while still seeking global research recognition? Michelle (often generated in the course of consultancy
Willmers and Henry Trotter discuss the work of the Scholarly Communication in work) remains invisible in the bibliometrics
Africa Programme, which seeks to address this challenge. and formal studies on scientific output, even
though the ‘impact’ of these outputs may well
exceed that of journal articles. Most of this
he Scholarly Communication in Africa ultimate metric) and raises difficult questions research remains invisible to the global
T Programme (SCAP) engages the Univer-
sities of Botswana, Cape Town, Mauritius, and
in terms of which terrain the institutions are
authentically engaged in.
scholarly community, often not digitally-
captured, archived or curated in any sense. It is
Namibia in an action research process aimed at this wealth of research output – output which
increasing the visibility of African research. How significant is African scholarship ‘lurks beneath the surface’– that the SCAP
Jointly hosted by the Centre for Educational in the global research arena? programme seeks to make visible. It does so
Technology and the Research Office at the The Worldmapper image (Figure 1) shows the through working with partner institutions to
University of Cape Town, the programme is proportional output of research papers in the articulate content-management strategies that
funded by Canada’s International Development biosciences in 2001. The most striking aspect can service the need for exposing multiple
Research Centre. of it is that the large ‘landmass’ of Africa is forms of academic output which have never
SCAP research is focused on understanding represented, metaphorically, as quite a tiny been systematically curated, managed, or
the current research communication practices ‘knowledge mass’. This image can be interr- made cohesively available to users.
of academics from the participating univer- ogated from numerous perspectives in terms In order to interrogate the concept of
sities, and on exploring the concept of of global power dynamics and output regimes, impact, the programme has developed a
‘impact’ as it relates to scholarly visibility. This but it also begs two questions. First, does research strand focusing on alternative metrics,
means getting a sense not only of the Africa really make so marginal an impact on with the aim of speculating on methodologies
academics’ research processes, but also academic scholarship? And second, what can for evaluating research impact in African
interrogating the value systems that different we do to expand the profile of African scholar- universities. This is linked to a cost-benefit
stakeholders (university academics, managers, ship so that its impact is more commensurate analysis which aims to explicate costs around
librarians, etc.) attach to scholarly comm- with its demographic and territorial size? new, open forms of scholarly communication
unication, and the reward and incentive The Worldmapper image is by now ten and make an argument around the efficacy and
structures that drive it. years old, but more recent studies show the impact of the open access approach.
Within the SCAP study sites, the instit- proportion of African-published output in the The programme’s core research strands –
utional mission statements of participating sciences remains consistently low. A UNESCO research communication practices, scholarly
universities reflect the strong desire for (2005) report1 indicates that Africa’s world research values, impact metrics, and the
research to respond to socio-economic imper- share in publications has remained stable at costs/benefits of more open communication
atives. But, as of yet, these institutions have not around 1.4%, with 1% of that total generated processes – therefore exist in a dynamic
been able to align their values (for, say, dev- in sub-Saharan Africa. The bibliometrics need relationship with each other, drawing on and
elopment) with their rewards and incentives to be considered in relation to a number of informing the ‘implementation’ component of
structures (which promote publication in ISI- contextual factors – such as R&D expenditure SCAP activity. These strands mesh with the
rated overseas journals). and dynamics around the ‘consultancy programme’s implementation under SCAP’s
The issue of what we reward in the culture’2 in African research – but the question methodological framework – cultural histor-
academic enterprise is a subject of global remains as to whether counting journal ical activity theory (CHAT). Through a series
debate, but it presents an acute challenge for articles is an appropriate measure for the of site visits, focus groups, seminars and
African universities striving to navigate the knowledge imperatives of the continent. change laboratory workshops, the research
tension between prestige and relevance. That The SCAP programme perspective is that process is focused on person-to-person inter-
is: their quest, on the one hand, to produce the bibliometric count is not representative of actions in order to bring into focus the voices
scholarly outputs that earn the esteem of the broad range and large volume of import- and ambitions of academics in relation to
academics worldwide; and their desire, on the ant research work happening on the continent. institutional infrastructure, available technol-
other hand, to produce research that is locally A lot of valuable African research – which has ogies, policy environment, and available
useful. The notion of ‘impact’ in Africa has the potential to make a profound impact support structures.
different implications than in other regions locally – is not captured in this ‘fisheye’ In this ‘ecosystem’ approach, SCAP treats
(which often regard citation counts as the perspective. The vast number of conference every site as unique, with each having its own
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3. © Copyright SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)
Figure 1: Worldmapper image depicting the global spread of journal output in biosciences3
culture, histories and practices that must be infrastructure are central to this vision – as is our context by the impact of technology
understood before they can be stimulated open access. disrupting traditional research and teaching
productively. Our approach is that there is no If the ambition is to have a map or image silos) poses significant questions about the
single open access solution, no standardised which does justice to and reflects the wealth role/identity of content repositories and on
technological intervention that will improve a of African research output, we require the open access model at work.
system. The sheer complexity of a scholarly mechanisms that can make that content openly The current global open access ‘strategy
communication ecosystem calls for a judicious available; if not in full text, then at least in wars’ appear to focus largely on delivery of
engagement with academic research practices, metadata. Additionally, it requires that we look content via journals, with much of the
administrative processes and institutional at mechanisms for sharing research content – conversation revolving around the distinction
capacity constraints, for it is within these or rather ‘objects’ – other than just journal between Green and Gold route delivery
complicated – and often misaligned – struct- articles. This is in line with the rapidly evolving strategies. This poses a conundrum for the
ures that a technological intervention must be semantic publication models, as well as Africa’s SCAP approach, which advocates sharing a
embedded. development imperative which requires broad range of scholarly outputs for the
digestible, empirical research that is focused purpose of societal impact. What is the open
“
What does this mean for our vision on real-world solutions to real-world problems. access model for sharing scholarship in
of open access? This expansive approach of sharing mult- formats other than journal articles? How do
One of the ways in which SCAP is dealing with iple content types (influenced additionally in we facilitate and incentivise the production of
these visibility challenges is to promote a good quality development-impact research?
strategic, professionalised approach to content The open access strategy wars playing out
management and curation as core enterprises The issue of what we in the Global North appear to be precipitated
for African universities. This is crucial for to a large extent by speculation around all-
competitive reasons – and rankings – but also reward in the academic ocation of government or European Union
in terms of staying abreast of the evolving e- funding, which has spurred publishers, acad-
research innovations that can improve research
enterprise is a subject of emics and institutions to organise themselves
and administrative productivity. global debate, but it so that they are eligible for these revenue
Communication is at the heart of the Web streams. While numerous African countries
2.0-driven research environment. In approach- presents an acute have made progress in charting open access
ing pilot implementation activity, SCAP strategies, the policy space is nascent in
challenge for African
promotes the perspective in which the design
of e-infrastructure and processes for sharing
or profiling content (such as repository
development) falls squarely within the domain
of wider-scale research management. We
believe that the automation of processes and
the interoperability of platforms and e-
“
universities striving to
navigate the tension
between prestige and
relevance.
comparison. There is also a sense that the
prospects for open access in Africa will remain
limited until governments open the space for
dialogue on realistic business models for
covering the costs entailed.
As economies in the North set the agenda
around open access and articulate revenue
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4. streams based on relatively large coffers for
research expenditure, it raises the question of
what this means for the African content-
sharing agenda. Large amounts of research in
RSS mashups:
Africa takes place under the aegis of inter-
national research funding, so there is little
doubt that systems and protocols around open
a tool for automatic
access will filter into the local research
environment; but what does this mean for the
African scholarly communication agenda?
delivery of content
Without the funding incentives being used
in the North as ‘carrots’ for shifting practice, Shamprasad Pujar considers RSS ‘mashups’ as a potential tool for promoting library services.
will the development agenda come short
against the power of the journal article and the
might of the global publishing industry? How he internet has brought new avenues of library website or portal. It can make a
do we, as Africans, articulate our own model
of open access knowledge sharing – a model
T dissemination for the producers and
distributors of information. The so-called Web
valuable addition to a library website and
assists in promoting library services. An RSS
which allows our research to be globally 1.0 era enabled the delivery of content mashup may also present an opportunity to
competitive, while still being locally relevant through emails and websites, allowing indiv- expand a library’s web services with a lower
and stimulating the production of diverse iduals and organisations to get information demand on manpower and material resources.
outputs that meet our educational and through search engines, by Libraries who wish to
developmental needs? subscribing to services, or by incorporate such a service
These are the challenges before us – on this visiting websites. The Web 2.0 might include feeds from
big continent that looks so thin on the research era has opened up a plethora of newspapers, journal tables of
map. And while they coincide in many ways new services and tools which contents, event listings,
with the issues facing universities in the enable users to get the discussion forum posts, and
North, the developmental contexts in which information they desire on their blog posts. They might also
they operate demand a more innovative – or computers or mobile devices include feeds from their own
locally attuned – response in order to develop without even having to visit the websites, digital repositories,
sustainable, participatory scholarly commun- website or portal from which and catalogues. The selection of
ication networks and structures. L the information originates. RSS (‘Really Simple sources may be according to users’ interests in
Syndication’) enables the syndication of web a discipline or disciplines, and it may vary
1 UNESCO, ‘What do bibliometric content, and is one such tool used for the from one type of library to another. However,
indicators tell us about world scientific distribution of content on the internet. It is the methods followed to build the mashup
output?’, UIS Bulletin on Science and Technology now pervasive practice among website would remain the same.
Statistics, II, (2005). http://bit.ly/NC5f04 developers to make their content available in Let us take the example of ‘news’, which
2 Mahmood Mamdani, ‘Africa’s post- the form of RSS feeds to enable others to reuse many libraries opt to add to their website to
colonial scourge’, Mail & Guardian, 27 May this content and enrich their own websites. keep clientele better informed about the latest
2011. http://bit.ly/PQahIk Two or more sources can be mixed and developments in particular disciplines. This
3 Covers articles published in 2001. matched using a ‘mashup’, enabling providers might include RSS feeds from newspapers,
‘Scientific papers’ category covers physics, to create a tailored information service. magazines, websites, portals, etc. In the case of
biology, chemistry, mathematics, clinical business and economics libraries, incorporat-
medicine, biomedical research, What is an RSS mashup? ing news feeds related to economy, govern-
engineering, technology, and earth and An RSS mashup is a combination of two ment economic policies, industries, stock
space sciences. Data source: World Bank services, mixing and matching different RSS markets and companies can make a valuable
2005 World Development Indicators. feeds in order to create an integrated list of addition to the library website and can help
http://bit.ly/9znzcM feeds. The results are something similar to the bring more clients to the library.
‘content alert’ services traditionally offered by Another example which may be of interest
libraries. The exception here is that content is to libraries is the delivery of journal contents.
Michelle Willmers is Programme delivered and updated automatically to the end Owing to changes in the format of journals
Manager at the Scholarly user, as long as the feeds from each source are from print to electronic, most publishers
Communication in Africa available. A mashup feed may be restricted to a provide RSS feeds of their journal’s table of
Programme, University of Cape particular subject area, a group of subjects, or contents on their website as soon as the issues
Town, South Africa. a type of content – such as newspaper go online. By identifying the feed URLs of
headlines, blog posts, or journal tables of journals and combining feeds, libraries would
Henry Trotter is a Researcher at the contents. be able to deliver lists of articles of interest to
Scholarly Communication in Africa their clients. They might even group these
Programme, University of Cape RSS mashups and libraries based on a particular subject or topic. This
Town, South Africa. Libraries, as disseminators of information, helps to improve effective utilisation of library
www.scaprogramme.org.za may use an RSS mashup to provide service resources, as well as alerting end users to the
updates and awareness, integrating it with the latest developments in their field of research.
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