Paper short abstract:

The connective ‘wiring’ of West African scholarly networks into the global science system is easily severed. This paper explores the circuit-breaking power of the Scopus and Web of Science citation indexes, and how African academic journals seek to rewire hegemonic circuits of academic knowledge .

Paper long abstract:

The connective ‘wiring’ of West African scholarly networks into the global science system is frayed and easily severed. As elsewhere in sub-saharan Africa, very few West African journals are indexed in Scopus or Web of Science (Harsh et al 2021, Boshoff and Akanmu 2020). Out of the 35,000 journals in Scopus, only twenty are published in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy. Ghana has only six, and Senegal two. At the same time, many West African universities make ‘international’ journal publications a requirement for appointment and promotion (Omobowale 2010, Omobowale et al 2013, Mills et al 2022). This expectation sustains distinct publishing geographies, citation circuits and credibility economies (Shapin 1995). The global indexes act as ‘circuit-breakers’, isolating African technoscience. The region’s scholars are forced to choose between relevance or recognition (Nymanjoh 2004), between decolonial principles or career pragmatism, and between regional knowledge ecosystems or the metricised recognition of ‘globally’ connected journals.

In this presentation I explore the technical challenges facing African academic publishing infrastructures, showing how journals and publishers negotiate the evaluative practices and metricised assessments of the global citation indexes. At the same time, new digital spaces and infrastructures create opportunities for publishing hybrids and more accountable models of Open Access (Meagher et al 2019). I assess their potential to rewire existing academic publishing infrastructures and knowledge circuits.