Scientific Communication in African Universities

External Assistance and National Needs

Damtew Teferra

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781135943479
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This is one of the few current books on African higher education, and focuses on scientific research and communication on the continent. Included are chapters on scientific journals, secondary avenues of scientific communication, and funding issues. There is also a focus on the challenges and opportunities of scientific communication in African universities. The author employs an innovative methodology for data collection.

Chapter One

Introduction

The main purpose of this book is to explore, analyze, and critically examine the state of scientific communication in African universities and the role played by external agencies in addressing the national needs in that arena. It assesses the means, ways, status, and prospects of scientific communication in African scientific institutions and the challenges it constantly faces.

It is pertinent to state that this book is an exploratory work that charts a new territory and a new perspective. It examines the issue thoroughly in areas no one has seriously attempted before. A book that specifically examines scientific communication in Africa within the context of external agencies is probably the first of its kind.

Why focus on scientific communication in Africa? What makes this book interesting and significant? Why assess the support of external agencies in the context of the development of African scientific communication? We live in a world driven by information and knowledge made predominantly possible by breakthroughs in science and technology. As a consequence, the crucial roles of science and technology in national socioeconomic development have, more than ever before, received increasing recognition and emphasis in those countries where most of these innovations have been conceived. The level and extent of scientific and technological discoveries and achievements have more than ever before become an index upon which the social, economic, and political viability and strength of a country is gauged.

Africa, on the other hand, has remained at the bottom end of this index both as a producer and as a consumer of these innovative products. As developments in and usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the developed world intensified—propelled by engines of science and technology—the scope and the culture of communicating scientific knowledge have evolved remarkably faster. Probably unlike any other in novations and discoveries before, these developments seem to pose serious challenges—as well as create opportunities—to scientists on the African continent and for all Third World scientists and scholars alike. This book explores the ramifications of recent breakthroughs, especially ICT, within the context of the culture of scientific communication in African scientific communities.

Scientific communication is the intellectual lifeline of scientists. It is a highway upon which knowledge, research paradigms, and ideas are formulated, transported, shared, and disseminated. Scientists use various avenues of scientific communication, formally and informally, directly and indirectly, physically and virtually to talk to each other in similar fields as well as with others beyond the borders of their disciplines.

A significant portion of this book centers on scientific communication in Africa and its universities. It explores how scientists in African institutions communicate; examines and projects the major avenues of communication; and discusses the challenges of each avenue of scientific communication and how scientists strive to overcome them. It investigates the opportunities that have been made possible by ICT and the challenges they pose on scientific communication in Africa.

The book also examines the magnitude of external assistance and its significance toward promoting scientific communication in Africa; discusses the major players in that sphere; and projects how reliant African scientists have become on such external resources. The views, attitudes, and recommendations of scientists on the direction and development of scientific communication and external support are also explored.

The Scope of Scientific Communication and Research in Africa

Owing to its weak scientific, research, and technological infrastructure, much of Africa has limited capacity to generate and consume knowledge and information. Proportionally, Africa has the lowest level of scientific, technological, and human resources of all the world’s regions. As compared to others, the continent allocates the lowest GNP to research in science and technology. The mediums of scientific communication are also precarious and underdeveloped. This is attributed to an array of historical, political, economical, social, infrastructural, and cultural reasons.

For African science and research to make significant contributions to national development, a sound understanding of scientific communication is imperative. Developing a research base on the scope, state, and manner of scientific communication is important to improve and promote undertakings in scientific research. Generally speaking, development of research fosters the development of scientific communication, and vice versa. As capacity to generate knowledge in Africa is limited, it is crucial that the underlying elements that either constrain or promote its development regionally be well understood for this knowledge to be beneficial and make a significant difference.

If nations manage to establish a sound scientific communication infrastructure, scientists will have regular and reliable access to current knowledge and information sources that are generated both internationally and locally. The presence of such reliable infrastructure facilitates scientific research and encourages scientists to advance their quest for knowledge, and in so doing keeping up with the frontiers of their disciplines.

It has been stated time and again that African scientists are often involved in research efforts that have been already addressed and/or are being addressed elsewhere. This has been largely because of the lack of an adequate, reliable, and regular flow of knowledge and information via journals, periodicals, databases, manuals, or some other media that can guide them to the frontiers of their disciplines and fields. As much as keeping scientists informed and supplying them with up-to-date information and knowledge costs institutions, its lack or serious irregularity costs them as well. It is important to stress that cost-, time-, and resource-saving characteristics of an effective scientific communication infrastructure remain to be fully understood. This entails, therefore, that the manner and the culture of scientific communication in African institutions and their communities be explored in depth to help rectify these shortcomings.

A viable, reliable, and unbiased tool for measuring scientific productivity and quality of African institutions and their academic and research communities therefore remains elusive. The commonly employed standard tool for measuring scientific productivity has been the Science Citation Index (SCI) produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia, USA. The SCI has been criticized for its inappropriateness, ineffectiveness, and bias as a measuring instrument for scientific output of developing countries as a whole and Africa in particular (Altbach, 1987; Eisemeon & Davis, 1989; Krishna, 1997; Teferra, 1995). The SCI relies heavily on quantitative measures and yet quantitative data on scientific activity in sub-Saharan Africa are rare, and this is particularly true of timeseries data (Davis, 1983). The distinction between “mainstream” science and presumably “non-mainstream” science, a distinction operationalized by the choice of scientific periodicals indexed by international scientific information services, would seem to marginalize a good deal of respectable science produced in developing areas (Davis, 1983). Questioning the significance and relevance of this tool, Frame (1985) inquired “Given the small size of scientific efforts in developing countries, how much of a contribution can indicators [like this] make to the improved management of the scientific enterprise?” (p. 117). In light of this, the persistence and universality of the SCI appears to be as much a failure to develop an alternative scheme that could accurately gauge scientific productivity as a lack of appreciation and recognition of Third World institutions, their scientists, and their scholarly outputs.

Before a particular product can be measured, it is imperative that the elements that can be gauged are clearly identified, the characteristics under which this product is manufactured are well understood, and the state in which it was formulated is fully established. Understanding the manner in which African scientists communicate, establishing the entity and value of the products they produce, and capturing the factors that prompt them to maintain scientific communication are therefore crucial to help clear the way for developing a better tool to assess African research productivity. It is hoped that this study contributes the knowledge base in this area as well.

The knowledge base in African scientific communication is limited, narrow, and lacks systematic survey (Alemna, Chifwepa, & Rosenberg, 1999). Much of what is available exists in a format that is unorganized and generally inaccessible. Even though a number of initiatives have been launched and implemented to address this problem, there still remains a lot of work to deal with the issue in a sustainable and satisfactory manner. This study will contribute to expanding this research base.

A whole range of non-conventional indicators of scientific communications needs to be purposefully explored, not only based on output that is reliant on research publications of major “mainstream” fora, but also on other means such as communication among scientists and scientific institutions as well as users that constitute both an input and output component in scientific performance (Stolte-Heiskanen, 1986). Such calls, however, have not yet been given the attention they deserve. This study is one effort to build groundwork for the incubation of such alternative approaches.

Most of the international journals do not focus on pressing African issues, hence they have at most, little relevance to local and regional needs, at worst they are inaccessible. And yet most African countries, ironically, have a very poor infrastructure that can sustain active and effective scientific communication to fill this gap. This book identifies the underlying challenges and dilemmas of scientific communication in Africa on the premise that appropriate and positive measures could only be taken only when a situation is well understood.

The avenues of scientific communication are rapidly expanding. The Internet, email, online databases, and online journals are some of the new developments that are changing the sphere of research development, research communication, knowledge production and dissemination. These developments will have remarkable impact on those countries of marginal scientific significance in which Africa finds itself. These call for a thorough examination of the scope, manner, and overall culture of scientific communication in Africa.

External Agencies in the African Scientific Domain

The next logical issue is to question the objective of blending this theme with external agencies. What is the significance of external agencies in sci entific communication in Africa? Why and how relevant is it to integrate external agencies with issues of scientific communication in Africa as it is envisaged here?

In this book “external agencies” refers to institutions that are controlled, managed, and funded by countries and organizations outside the continent. The varieties include major foundations, financial and lending institutions, and international development agencies.

Around the time of independence, external agencies had been reported as providing substantial financial and economic support to the emerging African nation states. Numerous bilateral, multilateral, and nongovernmental organizations based overseas, participated in building the newly decolonized continent. Africa had only six universities with a handful of students when the continent became decolonized. In order to achieve the current level of several hundred universities, colleges, and research institutions and more than three million students, a large sum of government and aid funds have been invested. The quality of African higher education has been drastically affected by massive expansion in number and volume of higher education institutions due to unrelenting demand against the backdrop of declining resources.

In the absence of adequate support by their constituencies, African universities have relied heavily on external assistance to develop and sustain research activities. Donor agencies have contributed substantially to the development of African universities over the past three decades (World Bank, 1997); as much as 70% of R&D expenses for African institutions originate from these resources in various forms of philanthropy (Gaillard & Waast, 1993). Most of the studies, the debates, and the literature dwell, however, on philanthropic activities of a humanitarian nature. Many studies examine other forms of external cooperation, i.e. development aid, with limited focus on higher education institutions. Analytical studies based on first hand accounts of scientists’ attitudes toward external support of scientific research communication in African universities are practically rare.

What makes this book distinct is its attempt to examine the donorrecipient relationship in the context of scientific communication and in the context of developments in the 21st century dominated by scientific information and knowledge. As information and knowledge become a universal currency and commodity, institutions that generate them may become more market oriented and commercial. As the culture of the free flow of information and knowledge tends to be regulated and constrained-as a consequence of its increasing commercialization-countries cannot continue to rely on their “free” availability indefinitely.

This impending shift in the status quo may have greater consequences for marginal countries that heavily rely on such “free” and imported scientific knowledge and information. Africa unfortunately harbors most of these marginal countries that have poor capacity for knowledge genera tion, dissemination, and consumption and the need to discern the state of knowledge commercialization is highly pertinent.

Universities are the major producers of mainstream science in Africa (Davis, 1983). By and large, they remain the knowledge capitals of the nations on the continent. They are at the center where a critical mass of highly trained and educated individuals pursue their intellectual duties; they are the hub for current scholarly, technical, and material resources; and they remain one of the major movers and shakers of the intellectual, academic, and scholarly direction and developmental agenda of a country.

In a report on his own university for the 1917–18 academic year, President Butler of Columbia University stated:

A university has three functions to perform. It is to conserve knowledge; to advance knowledge; and to disseminate knowledge. It falls short of the full realization of its aim unless, having provided for the conservation and advancement of knowledge, it makes provision for its dissemination as well. (quoted in Irele, 1993)

African universities and research centers remain the major institutions where challenges as well as opportunities play themselves out in the creation, advancement, consumption, and dissemination of knowledge. As a consequence, this book focuses on universities and their scientists to establish the state of scientific communication in the continent.

Research Problems, Rationales, and Questions

The body of literature on scientific communication in Africa is limited. Even where this small body of literature exists, it tends to be inaccessible, fragmented, or out-of-date. The exploration and understanding of the state of research and knowledge in scientific communication in Africa stands as one of the most important research goals of this book.

A litany of problems, challenges, and dilemmas face the precarious scientific communication infrastructure in Africa. Virtually all literature on measurement of research and scientific productivity in African ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter One: Introduction
• Chapter Two: Research Methodology
• Chapter Three: African Higher Education and Scientific Development: An Analysis of Trends and Literature
• Chapter Four: Scientific Journals in African Universities: Role, Significance, and Prospects
• Chapter Five: The Significance and Prospects of Alternative Scientific Communication Avenues in African Universities
• Chapter Six: Scientific Communication in African Universities: Challenges and Opportunities
• Chapter Seven: Funding, External Agencies, and African Scientific Communication
• Chapter Eight: Conclusion and Recommendations
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index