Africa for Africa’s knowledge economy via open access publishing: Towards development of African citation indices

Abstract: 
Africa contributes dismally to global open access publishing, yet has fallen victim to external publishing. Most open access journals in Africa are classified as predatory, thus leading to querying the strength of papers published therein. In fact, many of the journals which publishers classify as potential, possible or predatory have been in existence for decades before the emergence of OA publishing system. The ‘pay, publish and yet perish’ syndrome may reflect on international reputation of academic standard in the continent. Journals that few years ago were used by authors to accelerate academic ladder to the peak are today termed predatory and rejected by some universities. The paper examined the new trend of increasing the requirement in the quality/reputation of academic journals required for promotion of academic staff; the results and implications and the ways forward to limit industrial actions and promote Africa’s knowledge economy via open access. The issues discussed include low international reputation, inter university migration, frustration and conflict, disparate academic standard, capacity building in human and resource base, appropriate funding, rewards and dividends of publications, African journals standardization and indigenization policy to develop African indexing system, regular check and monitoring, proper view and use of other publication outlets. The paper is of the view that by Africa embracing some worth of standardization and indigenization as used in certain continents and countries, she can standardize the educational systems on the continent and improve the international academic reputation of African Universities as well as counteract the ‘pay, publish and yet perish’ syndrome.
Date of publication: 
2018
Country: 
Region Focus: 
West Africa
Author/Editor(s): 
Volume: 
17
Number: 
2
Pagination: 
146-152
Collection: 
RUFORUM Working document series
Agris Subject Categories: 
Licence conditions: 
Open Access
Access restriction: 
Form: 
Web resource
ISSN: 
1607-9345
Extent: 
7