Paper short abstract:

The primary objective of this paper is to discuss the concepts and justification for the African Citation Index, experiences in its construction and deployment as well as initial results.

Paper long abstract:

The primary objective of this paper is to discuss the concepts and justification for the African Citation Index, experiences in its construction and deployment as well as initial results. African scholarship is generally known to be not as visible as one would expect; yet African scholars do research in various fields and their results are published in various sources. One of the strategies the Council for the Development of Social Sciences Research in Africa (CODESRIA) has adopted in addressing this dilemma is the construction of an African Citation Index. Since 2006 CODESRIA has been investing in the construction of a citation index that is specifically focused on knowledge produced in Africa. This index was considered very essential in view of the notorious low representation of research carried out in Africa in world class databases, subsequent low level of access and use of publications from Africa, often on account of their low quality. However, these papers have contents and address issues specific to African developmental and other matters and therefore deserve to be organized for the purpose of assessing progress in knowledge production in the region. In collaboration with Indian Citation Index, CODESRIA achieved the construction of the African Citation Index in October 2016, using initial data obtained from five CODESRIA journals containing 450 articles spanning from 2012 to 2016. Data entry, with the goal of covering the entire region, is currently ongoing in the Council.