Via Sarah Rios.

Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh

“A new journal to showcase Africa’s often-overlooked scientific research has been launched to give the continent’s scientists better global recognition.

Scientific African will be the first “mega-journal” in Africa. It was unveiled in Kigali last week at Africa’s biggest science conference, the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) conference, and the first issue is scheduled to be published at the end of the summer.

Its editor, Dr Benjamin Gyampoh, said the journal would address the problem of African scientists going unrecognised for pioneering work because they lacked access to quality publications.

[…]

Scientific African will be an open-access journal, with no subscription required.

“A lot of the science is publicly funded but then many of the journals charge quite a lot for access to it,” said Rose Mutiso, co-founder of the Mawazo institute in Kenya. She said many African institutions lack the budget for staff to access research from the most notable journals. “There is a big funding gap for science research in Africa. This creates a vicious cycle for African scientists who have issues accessing research and also publishing their work in places that will give them recognition.””