AfricArXiv Reports
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Reports, articles, presentations, and datasets that the team created for the AfricArXiv community.
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Item Open Science in Africa – Challenges, Opportunities and Perspectives(2018-11-24) Ahinon, Justin, Sègbédji; Havemann, JohannaOpen Science is becoming increasingly popular globally and provides unprecedented opportunities for scientists in Africa, South East Asia, and Latin America. African scientists face several difficulties when attempting to get their work published in peer reviewed journals -there is a small number of publication platforms, a lack of knowledge and access difficulties related to existing journals, whose visibility on the web is not very good (Piron et al., 2017). There are also obstacles related to the functioning of the journals themselves (notably the duration of the revision process and the cost of publications) and the result is that science and scholarly publishing are often perceived as a prerogative of the Northern countries. The methods and techniques (including the peer review process) that are being developed for its dissemination are not necessarily adapted to the contexts of other regions of the world, including Africa. Indeed, many African-based peer-reviewed scholarly journals are unable to host their content online due to resource limitations and the digital divide (Agaba et al., 2004). In this article, we provide an overview of the most important initiatives and actors in the Open Science movement in Africa. We further identify three major challenges for Open Science on the African continent and offer perspectives for African researchers to actively contribute to the global scientific community and share knowledge to meet the challenges we all face.Item A Case for Open Science Hardware(2019-02-13) Havemann, JohannaPresentation about Open Science Hardware held at the Berlin Open Science - Reproducible Research - Meetup on Feb 06, 2019.Item What Role Can Open Science Play in Enabling South-North Dialogues?(2019-10-27) Havemann, Johanna; Ahinon, Justin, SègbédjiThis presentation was held at the 14th eLearning Africa Conference in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. HEI10 Thursday, 24 October 2019 14:30 – 15:30 Room: Daloa Description: Participants of this Knowledge Exchange Session will learn how an open repository specific for the African research community can trigger interdisciplinary research within the continent as well as globally, with research institutions overseas. The aim of this platform is to provide more visibility and more opportunities to African scientists.Item What Role Can Open Science Play In Enabling Global Knowledge Exchange?(2019-12-18) Havemann, Johanna; Ahinon, Justin SègbédjiGlobal threats and challenges resulting from climate change and political crises call for a new agenda to find solutions that work for not just a few but the global community. To provide more visibility and more opportunities to world-wide scientific discussions to African scientists the region-specific preprint repository AfricArXiv.org is meant to trigger interdisciplinary research within the continent as well as globally with research institutions overseas. The repository is a platform for African scientists to publish their research output immediately and free of cost. This makes it possible for them to receive feedback on their work, improve the manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal and identify potential collaboration partners for future projects. Researchers in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia now have the opportunity to find up to date research results through online publishing systems, databases and scientific service providers, make their own research output more visible and build transcontinental collaborations more effectively. We propose that practiced Open Science allows for more diversity in research output and the convergence of the global scientific community. In this discussion, we will address, based on the different experiences with the initiatives mentioned above, how open science can help to facilitate collaboration and the dissemination of knowledge between North and South.Item Multilingual COVID-19 Information Videos(2020-03-26) Bezuidenhout, Louise; McNaughton, Anna; Havemann, JohannaWe propose to address a lack of CODIV-19 information in local languages with short, consistent messages provided in as many regional/local languages as possible. For that, we need help of researchers and other communicators. This is a proposal to create 2-minute videos in as many languages as possible that present a consistent message about COVID-19, containment strategies and practical health information.Item Harnessing The Open Science Infrastructure For An Efficient African Response To Covid-19 [Preprint](2020-03-30) Havemann, Jo; Bezuidenhout, Louise; Achampong, Joyce; Akligoh, Harry; Ayodele, Obasegun; Hussein, Shaukatali; Ksibi, Nabil; Mboa Nkoudou, Thomas Hervé; Obanda, Johanssen; Owango, Joy; Sanga, Valerian Linus1; Stirling, Julian; Wenzelmann, VictoriaWe are seeking feedback and further input on this preprint manuscript. Go to outbreaksci.prereview.org/10.5281/zenodo.3733767 to leave a review. Please note: This document in its current preprint version (v1.0) is open for comments. Please make direct suggestions to the text at tinyurl.com/Open-Science-Africa-COVID-19, or email the corresponding authors. To contribute in the collaborative response in some of the work steps and/or financially, please visit https://info.africarxiv.org/contribute/.Item Higher Education & Research in Africa – The Stakeholders(2020-04-07) Havemann, Jo; Ksibi, Nabil; Maina, Mahmoud Bukar; Obanda, Johanssen; Okelo, Luke; Owango, JoyList of stakeholders and research-related institutions in Africa and abroad. The list is continuously being updated and displayed at https://info.africarxiv.org/stakeholders/.Item The Varying Openness of Digital Open Science Tools(2020-09-03) Bezuidenhout, Louise; Havemann, JohannaDigital tools that support Open Science practices play a key role in the seamless accumulation, archiving and dissemination of scholarly data, outcomes and conclusions. Despite their integration into Open Science practices, the providence and design of these digital tools are rarely explicitly scrutinized. This means that influential factors, such as the funding models of the parent organizations, their geographic location, and the dependency on digital infrastructures are rarely considered. Suggestions from literature and anecdotal evidence already draw attention to the impact of these factors, and raise the question of whether the Open Science ecosystem can realise the aspiration to become a truly “unlimited digital commons” in its current structure. In an online research approach, we compiled and analysed the geolocation, terms and conditions as well as funding models of 242 digital tools increasingly being used by researchers in various disciplines. Our findings indicate that design decisions and restrictions are biased towards researchers in North American and European scholarly communities. In order to make the future Open Science ecosystem inclusive and operable for researchers in all world regions including Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania, those should be actively included in design decision processes. Digital Open Science Tools carry the promise of enabling collaboration across disciplines, world regions and language groups through responsive design. We therefore encourage long term funding mechanisms and ethnically as well as culturally inclusive approaches serving local prerequisites and conditions to tool design and construction allowing a globally connected digital research infrastructure to evolve in a regionally balanced manner.Item The Varying Openness of Digital Open Science Tools(2020-09-03) Bezuidenhout, Louise; Havemann, JohannaDigital tools that support Open Science practices play a key role in the seamless accumulation, archiving and dissemination of scholarly data, outcomes and conclusions. Despite their integration into Open Science practices, the providence and design of these digital tools are rarely explicitly scrutinized. This means that influential factors, such as the funding models of the parent organizations, their geographic location, and the dependency on digital infrastructures are rarely considered. Suggestions from literature and anecdotal evidence already draw attention to the impact of these factors, and raise the question of whether the Open Science ecosystem can realise the aspiration to become a truly “unlimited digital commons” in its current structure. In an online research approach, we compiled and analysed the geolocation, terms and conditions as well as funding models of 242 digital tools increasingly being used by researchers in various disciplines. Our findings indicate that design decisions and restrictions are biased towards researchers in North American and European scholarly communities. In order to make the future Open Science ecosystem inclusive and operable for researchers in all world regions including Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania, those should be actively included in design decision processes. Digital Open Science Tools carry the promise of enabling collaboration across disciplines, world regions and language groups through responsive design. We therefore encourage long term funding mechanisms and ethnically as well as culturally inclusive approaches serving local prerequisites and conditions to tool design and construction allowing a globally connected digital research infrastructure to evolve in a regionally balanced manner.Item AfricArXiv – the pan-African Open Scholarly Repository (Overview and Roadmap)(2020-09-25) Ahinon, Justin, Sègbédji; Arafat, Hisham; Ahmad, Umar; Achampong, Joyce; Aldirdiri, Osman; Ayodele, Obasegun, Tekena; Bezuidenhout, Louise; Okelo, Luke; Cary, Michael; Fath, Nada; Ksibi, Nabil, Aziz; Zimmer, Niklas, Carl; Nasr, Fayza; Nguemeni, Carine; Maina, Mahmoud, Bukar; Mensah, Priscilla; Obanda, Johanssen; Owango, Joy; Ogunlaja, Ahmed; Simpson, Gregory; Havemann, JohannaAfricArXiv is a community-led digital archive for African research working towards building an Africa-owned open scholarly repository; a knowledge commons of African scholarly works. We are partnering with established scholarly repository services to provide a platform for African scientists of any discipline to present their research findings and connect with other researchers – on the African continent and globally. It is our aim to promote discoverability of African research output according to sfDORA : https://sfdora.org/read/ FAIR principles: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism: https://www.helsinki-initiative.org/en To contextualize the above to the African scholarly community we have postulated 10 African Principles for Open Access in Scholarly Communication: https://info.africarxiv.org/african-oa-principles/Item Infographic: African Principles for Open Access in Scholarly Communication(2020-11-24) Mensah, Priscilla; Havemann, JoInfographic representing the 10 African Principles for Open Access in Scholarly Communication. We, the undersigned, declare to adhere to the following Principles for Open Access in Scholarly Communication in and about Africa: 1) Academic Research and knowledge from and about Africa should be freely available to all who wish to access, use or reuse it while at the same time being protected from misuse and misappropriation. 2) African scientists and scientists working on African topics and/or territory will make their research achievements including underlying datasets available in a digital Open Access repository or journal and an explicit Open Access license is applied. 3) African research output should be made available in the principle common language of the global science community as well as in one or more local African languages. 4) It is important to take into consideration in the discussions indigenous and traditional knowledge in its various forms. 5) It is necessary to respect the diverse dynamics of knowledge generation and circulation by discipline and geographical area. 6) It is necessary to recognise, respect and acknowledge the regional diversity of African scientific journals, institutional repositories and academic systems. 7) African Open Access policies and initiatives promote Open Scholarship, Open Source and Open Standards for interoperability purposes. 8) Multi-stakeholder mechanisms for collaboration and cooperation should be established to ensure equal participation across the African continent. 9) Economic investment in Open Access is consistent with its benefit to societies on the African continent – therefore institutions and governments in Africa provide the enabling environment, infrastructure and capacity building required to support Open Access 10) African Open Access stakeholders and actors keep up close dialogues with representatives from all world regions, namely Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.Item Building Capacity For Preprint-Based Peer Review And Curation In Africa(2020-12-04) Owango, Joy; Havemann, JoIn Africa, only few stakeholders exist that have both the capacity and the pan-African scope to educate and build capacity about the opportunities and regionally applicable research publishing workflows that are available today. African researchers are often struggling with low salaries and high teaching demands, which is why it is difficult for them to serve as reviewers in assessing other researchers’ works. We therefore need to establish a culture and transparent and easy to follow workflow which is mutually beneficial not only for the recipient of a peer review, but also for the reviewer.Item Open Science Pie(2021-03-07) Havemann, JoThe Open Science Pie visualizes eight (8) important pieces of Open Science that can easily be implemented by any researcher to foster transparent, reproducible, and efficient research practices.Item How PIDs & Preprints Are Facilitating The Ownership Of African Scholarly Content(2021-05-16) Owango, Joy; Havemann, JoAs part of the NISO.plus conference 2021 in the session "Quality and reliability of preprints, Ms Joy Owango presented the work AfricArXiv and TCC Africa are doing in facilitating ownership of African scholarly content using persistent identifiers.Item Language Diversity & Knowledge Equity in Research(2021-05-18) Havemann, JoPresentation and discussion held at the Wikimedia Germany event "Principles and barriers of knowledge equity in science" as part of the Open Science Fellows Program https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Open_Science_Fellows_ProgramThis input highlights different facets of linguistic diversity in science: English as a lingua franca and applied languages in different disciplines, linguistic diversity in everyday scientific life as well as via translation software and technical options to publish multilingually. With a subsequent reflection: what are the possibilities for inclusion arising from applied language diversity in everyday scientific life?Item How To Use AfricArXiv To Increase Discoverability Of Your Research Output(2021-09-10) Obanda, Johanssen; Havemann, JoA presentation about AfricArXiv hosted by Eider Africa, presented on September 10, 2021.Item Open Reviewers Africa(2021-12-06) Munene, Aurelia; Ngugi, Wangari Joyce; Owango, Joy; Obanda, Johanssen; Havemann, Johanna; Saderi, Daniela; Korzec, KorneliaEider Africa, TCC Africa, AfricArXiv, PREreview, and eLife are partnering to develop resources and a dissemination strategy for the delivery of an open peer review workshop to African research communities in the life sciences. Our goal is to build capacity and enthusiasm for scholarly open review of preprints among African researchers, and to provide opportunities to actively participate in peer review and gain recognition through community engagement. We will showcase our approach to co-creating resources and a replicable framework tailored to the needs and objectives of a growing community of African reviewers in the context of the changing global landscape of scientific research assessment and dissemination.Item Establishing Fair Publishing Modes For The African Scholarly Community(2023-01-19) Havemann, JoLightening Talk held at the JISC Online Workshop: Exploring the potential of alternative publishing models on Jan 19, 2023. Slides also available online at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15LmNK_GZE624sbVrdVOqjn8_XpjliPlMlBVhCQ5P-Zc/edit?usp=sharingItem AfricArXiv - the pan-African Open Access Portal(2023-06-14) Havemann, JoThis presentation was delivered at Open Repositories 2023 Conference as part of Panel 5: Supporting Trusted OA Usage Data Reporting and Analytics through Shared Infrastructure.Item Supporting Open Peer Review And Preprint Adoption in Africa(2023-10-18) Munene, Aurelia; Havemann, JoPresentation held at the OASPA 2023 Conference during the panel Preprints: Supporting Open Peer Review and Global Preprint Adoption Trends.