(African Academy of Sciences, 2013-06) Raju, R.; Smith, Ina
In the current knowledge economy, Africa is relegated to the
periphery of knowledge production as it is considered to be
more of a ‘consumer’ of the world’s knowledge as opposed to a
‘producer’. There is sufficient evidence to show that a significant
factor contributing to this low research output is limited access to
scholarly content to support research. An influential element to this
limited access is the exorbitant cost of information. Exacerbating this
status is that research conducted by Africans is not easily accessible
to the international audience, as the dissemination of African research
content is severely prejudiced by the propensity of international
publishers to focus on output from the north which generates larger
profit margins. This prejudice relegates Africa further into the status of
being a silent and invisible contributor to research production.