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Paper short abstract

Eight years of data on the publishing careers of over 120 Africa-based scholars who participated in the University of Michigan’s African Presidential Scholars program are analyzed to track the program’s effect on the publication venues, author-constellations and working partnerships of its alumni

Paper long abstract

This paper takes up the question of potential interventions to address the low profile of African research by looking at a case study of a "collaboration with an institution in the North." The University of Michigan's African Presidential Scholars (UMAPS) program was established to provide early-career faculty working at African universities with dedicated time and space for writing and publishing, during a six-month sabbatical at the University of Michigan (U-M). Core aspects of the program are that each scholar is paired with a U-M faculty mentor and a dedicated librarian, participates in a tailored course on academic writing, and is provided with ongoing access to the U-M library, continuing after return to the home university. These specific program elements were put into place to address and counteract the various related problems that lead to a serious underrepresentation of Africa-based scholars in international scholarly journals. Since its inception in 2008, the UMAPS program has hosted over 120 Africa-based scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines--including "book disciplines" and those were articles are the norm (either single-authored or multi-author). The central analysis of this paper pertains to the publishing careers of alumni of the UMAPS program, both before and after their UMAPS residency. It relies on a wealth of data on the publication venues, author-constellations, and working partnerships that these scholars have engaged in prior to their time at U-M and how these may have changed afterwards.