The impact of African science: a bibliometric analysis

The number of scientific papers published by researchers in Africa has been rising faster than the total world scientific output in recent years. This trend is relevant, as for a long period up until 1996, Africa’s share of the world scientific output remained below 1.5 %. The propensity to publish in the continent has risen particularly fast since 2004, suggesting that a possible take-off of African science is taking place. This paper highlights that, in parallel with this most recent growth in output, the apparent productivity of African science, as measured by publications to gross domestic product, has risen in recent years to a level above the world average, although, when one looks at the equivalent ratio after it has been normalized by population, there is still a huge gap to overcome. Further it is shown that publications from those few African countries whose scientific communities demonstrate higher levels of specialization and integration in international networks, have a higher impact than the world average. Additionally, the paper discusses the potential applications of the new knowledge that has been produced by African researchers, highlighting that so far, South Africa seems to be the only African country where a reasonable part of that new knowledge seems to be connecting with innovation.

[1]  Keld Laursen,et al.  Do export and technological specialisation patterns co-evolve in terms of convergence or divergence? Evidence from 19 OECD countries, 1971–1991 , 2000 .

[2]  Anastassios Pouris,et al.  A scientometric assessment of the Southern Africa Development Community: science in the tip of Africa , 2010, Scientometrics.

[3]  Yuh-Shan Ho,et al.  Research emphasis and collaboration in Africa , 2014, Scientometrics.

[4]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  International Collaboration in Science: The Global Map and the Network , 2013, ArXiv.

[5]  T. Roca,et al.  Human development Report 2013. The Rise of the South, Human Progress in a Diverse World , 2013 .

[6]  Bengt-Åke Lundvall,et al.  Innovation in Africa - toward a realistic vision , 2009 .

[7]  Jean-Jacques Fournié,et al.  Promoting the learning of immunology in developing countries , 2005, Nature Reviews Immunology.

[8]  Andrew D. Moran.  Sub-Saharan Africa , 2003, Global heart.

[9]  D. Hodgson.  Review of Human Development Report 2013: The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World, by UNDP. , 2013 .

[10]  Hannes Toivanen,et al.  African regional innovation systems: bibliometric analysis of research collaboration patterns 2005–2009 , 2011, Scientometrics.

[11]  魏屹东,et al.  Scientometrics , 2018, Encyclopedia of Big Data.

[12]  E. Garfield.  Mapping science in the Third World , 1983 .

[13]  Gayathri Vaidyanathan,et al.  Science in Africa: The view from the front line , 2011, Nature.

[14]  Eustache Mêgnigbêto,et al.  International collaboration in scientific publishing: the case of West Africa (2001–2010) , 2013, Scientometrics.

[15]  Carlos Gershenson,et al.  Collaborations: The fourth age of research , 2013, Complex..

[16]  Colm O'Mahony.  View from the frontline , 2004, International journal of STD & AIDS.

[17]  Jane M. Russell,et al.  Science in Africa: An overview of mainstream scientific output , 2002, Scientometrics.

[18]  Henk F. Moed,et al.  Handbook of Quantitative Science and Technology Research , 2005 .

[19]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  International collaboration clusters in Africa , 2013, Scientometrics.

[20]  T. Nchinda.  Research capacity strengthening in the South. , 2002, Social science & medicine.

[21]  Robert J. W. Tijssen,et al.  Africa’s contribution to the worldwide research literature: New analytical perspectives, trends, and performance indicators , 2007, Scientometrics.

[22]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  The new Excellence Indicator in the World Report of the SCImago Institutions Rankings 2011 , 2011, J. Informetrics.

[23]  Anastassios Pouris,et al.  The state of science and technology in Africa (2000–2004): A scientometric assessment , 2009, Scientometrics.

[24]  Ludo Waltman,et al.  Source normalized indicators of citation impact: an overview of different approaches and an empirical comparison , 2012, Scientometrics.

[25]  Eduardo da Motta.  SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES , 2004 .

[26]  Michael Gibbons,et al.  The roles of science in technological innovation , 1993 .

[27]  Calestous Juma,et al.  Agricultural innovation and economic growth in Africa: renewing international cooperation , 2008 .

[28]  Maurice Taonezvi Vambe,et al.  Knowledge production and publishing in Africa , 2006 .

[29]  Michael Kahn,et al.  A bibliometric analysis of South Africa's scientific outputs - some trends and implications , 2011 .

[30]  Subbiah Arunachalam,et al.  Science on the Periphery: Bridging the Information Divide , 2004 .

[31]  L. Bornmann,et al.  Macro-Indicators of Citation Impacts of Six Prolific Countries: InCites Data and the Statistical Significance of Trends , 2013, PloS one.

[32]  J. Church.  Human Development Report , 2001 .

[33]  Klaus Hüfner,et al.  UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization , 2010 .

[34]  B. Balassa.  Trade Liberalisation and “Revealed” Comparative Advantage , 1965 .

[35]  A. Parthasarathi,et al.  Brain Drain from Developing Countries , 1971, Nature.

[36]  J. Lynam,et al.  Agricultural science and technology policy in Africa , 2003 .

[37]  O. Uthman,et al.  Geography of Africa biomedical publications: An analysis of 1996–2005 PubMed papers , 2007, International journal of health geographics.