Progression of a serialized Working Document Series: From Project progress reports to scholarly outputs

The Working Document Series is a serialized (ISSN: 1607-9345 Hard copy; and ISSN: 1993- 8462 e-copy) collection of peer-reviewed scholarly articles that was launched in 2000. It was initially intended to capture proceedings of sub-regional cohort learning events at which University-based research teams supported under the auspices of the Forum for Agricultural Resource Husbandry (FORUM) which was a competitive grants programme initiated in 1992 that necessitated university based research teams to demonstrate through their proposed research a better understanding and improvements of smallholder cropping systems; and, in particular, how postgraduate students at Masters level play a central role in research as they engage with communities to obtain quality data for their respective theses. As part of cohort-learning, all the grantees and students attached to specific projects met to share research results and receive a peer-review of respective research. For this, a regional meeting was conducted once every two years. Since 1992 (initiation of the FORUM), and 2000 (Launch of the Working Document Series) several changes have manifested including institutionalization in 2004 of the FORUM into the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and expanding to a membership of 85 member universities in 36 countries up from 10 universities in 5 countries of East and Southern Africa. This evolution and expansion has had a significant impact on the Working Document Series which transformed from the FORUM Working Document Series to the RUFORUM Working Document Series. In terms of content, it is no longer a collection of progress reports that are focused on particular disciplines supported projects but a multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed publication that serves as a repository for quality articles presented during RUFORUM Convening Events as well as articles on topical and contemporary issues in higher education and its impacts on socio-economic development. Over 2,000 articles have been published in 15 Issues. The manuscripts submitted are subjected to the rigor of quality analysis to ensure novelty and contribution to knowledge. To the benefit of the contributors, the published articles should be consigned to represent the respective content which could either be opinion, mini-review, application summary, conference proceedings, review article, original research/ journal article, etc. This will contribute to enhanced scholarship in Africa.