AfricArXiv is a community-owned digital archive for African research, serving various stakeholders including researchers, research institutions, journals, and funders.
Supporting the needs and goals of researchers, institutions, journals, and funders, AfricArXiv enhances the visibility, accessibility, and impact of African research. It further promotes open access, fosters collaboration, and contributes to the overall development of the African research landscape.
Here’s how AfricArXiv serves the interests of these groups:
African Researchers
- Visibility and Accessibility: AfricArXiv provides a platform for African researchers to share their work with a global audience, increasing the visibility and accessibility of their research.
- Open Access: It offers open access to research outputs, enabling researchers to share their findings freely without paywalls.
- Recognition and Impact: By providing a repository for preprints, postprints, and other research outputs, AfricArXiv helps researchers gain recognition and increase the impact of their work.
- Collaboration and Networking: The platform fosters collaboration by allowing researchers to connect with peers, engage in discussions, and form networks within the African research community and beyond.
- Language Diversity: AfricArXiv supports research dissemination in multiple African languages, promoting linguistic diversity and making research accessible to a broader audience.
Research Institutions
- Institutional Repository: AfricArXiv serves as an institutional repository for African research institutions, helping them preserve and showcase their research outputs.
- Data Management: It provides a structured platform for data management, ensuring that research data is stored safely and can be easily retrieved.
- Reporting and Evaluation: The platform aids in reporting and evaluating research performance by offering metrics and analytics on the usage and impact of the institution’s research.
- Resource Optimization: By using AfricArXiv, institutions can optimize their resources, reducing the need for developing and maintaining their own repositories.
Journals
- Preprint Server: AfricArXiv acts as a preprint server where researchers can share their findings before formal peer review, facilitating early dissemination and feedback.
- Increased Submissions: Journals can identify high-quality preprints and invite submissions, potentially increasing the number and quality of manuscripts they receive.
- Visibility and Citation: Hosting preprints on AfricArXiv can increase the visibility and citation of journal articles once they are formally published.
- Support for Peer Review: The platform can support the peer review process by allowing researchers to engage with and critique preprints, thus enhancing the quality of subsequent journal submissions.
Funders
- Research Impact: AfricArXiv helps funders ensure that the research they support is widely disseminated and accessible, thereby maximizing the impact of their funding.
- Transparency and Accountability: Funders can track the progress and outcomes of funded research through AfricArXiv, promoting transparency and accountability.
- Open Science: The platform supports the principles of open science by making research outputs freely available, aligning with many funders’ goals to promote open access.
- Capacity Building: By supporting AfricArXiv, funders contribute to the development of research capacity in Africa, fostering a more robust and self-sufficient research ecosystem.