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Promoting Preprint Awareness and Adoption in Africa: A Need-Driven Perspective From the African Region
Full text linkIntroduction
Over the years, preprint has grown, especially since its impact contribution during the health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is gradually drawing the interest of funders. However, the embrace of preprint varies across different regions, with the rate of acceptability and use of preprint by researchers also leading to hesitance and resistance to submit research articles to the preprint server; hence, this is attributed to the concerns surrounding the integrity and validity of preprint articles. This study assesses the awareness, adoption, and promotion of preprints in Africa.
Method
This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional study design carried out among African researchers. The data were collected using an online-based, semi-structured questionnaire assessing the awareness of preprint, institutional uptake, and promotion in Africa. However, the study also assesses their opinion on the promotion of preprint and its credibility in the African research community. The qualitative data was analyzed for themes using Microsoft Excel Package, and the quantitative data were analyzed for descriptive and chi-square using SPSS version 26.0.
Results
Among participants, 64% were aware of preprints, 40% reported institutional promotion, and 62% recognized their relevance to institutional roles. However, 53% cited limited recognition of preprints within the scientific community. Desired benefits from preprint clubs included research funding support (83%), open peer review (82%), and access to shared opportunities (79%). No significant associations were found between participants' country, research domain, education level, or institutional role and preprint awareness, or promotion or perceived role of preprint in Africa. Participants recommended educational workshops, partnerships with academic institutions, targeted online campaigns, and localized resources to enhance preprint adoption and foster an open science ecosystem across Africa.
Conclusion
Preprint adoption in Africa requires addressing awareness gaps, institutional recognition, and community acceptance. Collaboration efforts, including educational initiatives, partnerships, and localized outreach, are crucial to fostering an ecosystem that supports preprints and advances open science practices.ASAPbi
Understanding Challenges in Contributing to Wikipedia in Amharic, Tigrinya, and Afan Oromo.
Full text linkThis a translation of the summary of the article: Hellina Hailu Nigatu, John Canny, Sarah Chasins. (2024). "Low-Resourced Languages and Online Knowledge Repositories: A Need-Finding Study" Proceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI). https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642605 | | | https://hhnigatu.github.io//publication/2024-wiki-chi (Author's website);
https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/1695 (Translation in Afan Oromo);
https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/1694 (Translation in Tigrinya);
https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/1689 (Translation in Amharic).Online Knowledge Repositories (OKRs) like Wikipedia offer communities a way to share and preserve information about themselves and their ways of living. However, for communities with low-resourced languages—including most African communities—the quality and volume of content available are often inadequate. One reason for this lack of adequate content could be that many OKRs embody Western ways of knowledge preservation and sharing, requiring many low-resourced language communities to adapt to new interactions. To understand the challenges faced by low-resourced language contributors on the popular OKR Wikipedia, we conducted (1) a thematic analysis of Wikipedia forum discussions and (2) a contextual inquiry study with 14 novice contributors. We focused on three Ethiopian languages: Afan Oromo, Amharic, and Tigrinya. Our analysis revealed several recurring themes; for example, contributors struggle to find resources to corroborate their articles in low-resourced languages, and language technology support, like translation systems and spellcheck, result in several errors that waste contributors’ time. We hope our study will support designers in making online knowledge repositories accessible to low-resourced language speakers
Guide to Web Based Digital Archive Management System: ArchivesSpace
Full text linkSupplemental materials: https://osf.io/4nyhu/The 2020 technical manual titled Guide to Web-Based Digital Archive Management System: ArchivesSpace was collaboratively developed by researchers from Mekelle University, Ethiopia, to meet the specific needs of Tigray memory institutions in enhancing their archive and manuscript management. This manual addresses the critical need for effective digital archive management, particularly tailored to the context of Tigray, Ethiopia, and aimed at institutional memory experts. It explores the significance of archives in preserving historical materials, encompassing a wide array of media and formats, and emphasizes the cultural necessity and management responsibility associated with professional archivists. The manual also explores the current trends in archive management technology, highlighting the role of computerization and the challenges and considerations involved in automation. Furthermore, it provides insights into the ArchivesSpace open-source application, designed to facilitate the management and web access of archives, manuscripts, and digital objects. The manual offers practical guidance on utilizing ArchivesSpace, including its public and staff-side interfaces, and provides a guide to access to a sandbox for testing purposes. By addressing the customization and configuration of web-based digital archival materials, the manual aims to empower archivists, librarians, museum managers, and information center users to effectively manage archival collections, identify and access rare documents, and adhere to relevant archival standards and best practices. This manual was prepared in 2020 to address the Tigray Memory institution's demands on effective archive and manuscript management.
Regrettably, the implementation of ArchivesSpace faced obstacles due to the disturbing events of the November 2, 2020, brutal war in Ethiopia. Despite these challenges, the publication of this guide aims to foster awareness and encourage the adoption of web-based digital archive management systems by memory institutions such as libraries, museums, and heritage custodians. Looking ahead, the researchers plan to extend their work by publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal. This forthcoming article will provide recommendations to policymakers, memory institution stakeholders, researchers, and the general public, drawing from the project's findings. In essence, this comprehensive manual stands as an invaluable resource for memory institutions in Tigray, Ethiopia, underscoring the significance of effective digital archive management in preserving cultural heritage
Stabilization of Historical Archives in Mekelle City Municipality. Project Proposal
No full textGerda Henkel Foundatio
Fair pay and Ride-hailing Drivers' Willingness to form and join Worker-Platform Co-operatives in Kenya
No full textKenya's increasing dependency on ride-hailing platforms (the 'uberization') has not translated into drivers’ improved quality of life. E-drivers in the country still face several challenges similar to those faced elsewhere in the world. Among these challenges is the unfair pay distribution. It is essential to understand how such challenges can be mitigated or addressed. Previous studies have recommended that e-drivers in the country should form worker-platform co-operatives. The study was undertaken to estimate the extent to which the fairwork principles, including fair pay, would trigger e-drivers’ willingness to form and join worker-platform co-operatives. We applied critical-realism research philosophy and the discrete choice experiment design. Data was primarily collected through a discrete choice questionnaire administered to participants in person and online. The study respondents of 497 out of the 600 questionnaires from the Nairobi Metropolitan Region –Nairobi City, Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado Counties – were used and analysed using the multinomial logistic regression on Jamovi version 2.5.6.0 statistical software. The study shows that pay rates have significant implications for the behaviour of e-drivers in the ride-hailing industry. We found that e-drivers’ willingness to form and join worker-platform co-operatives would be influenced by their dissatisfaction with the investor-owned firms’ compliance with the fairwork principle of pay. This suggests that e-drivers are more inclined towards co-operative (social representation and collective action) structures when they are dissatisfied with pay rates offered by the existing ride-hailing investor-owned firms. This indicates e-drivers' desire for the co-operative values of solidarity, equality, and equity and the third co-operative principle on members’ economic participation in the ride-hailing industry. These findings underscore the importance of the stakeholders in the Ministries of Transport, Labour, Internal Security, and Co-operative Development in advocating for and enforcing fairwork principles in the ride-hailing industry by promoting worker-platform co-operatives in the country
Design and implemention of an AI-enabled IoT-based smart aquaculture system for water quality management in Kalumbila Mine's surface plant areas (PhD continuous research)
No full textRwanda: How The Post-Independence Regimes From 1962 To 1994 Were Neo-Colonial, Racist And Genocidal
Full text linkSince the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, an opposition has formed among Rwanda specialists, with on one side intentionalists or instrumentalists who consider anti-Tutsi racism as the root cause of cyclical political violence and genocide, and functionalists on the other, who reject indoctrination and identity radicalization as the main cause of the genocide, affirming on the contrary that without the armed attack of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the genocide would not have taken place. Without making an exclusive choice between the two currents of interpretation, the article shows that there is a deep ideological unity and perfect continuity between the regimes of Kayibanda (1962-1973), Habyarimana (1973-1994) and Sindikubwabo (1994), with a triple characteristic: neo-colonial, racist and genocidal. Since these three regimes openly claimed to be the heirs of the ‘1959 revolution’ and anxious to defend and safeguard its achievements, the reflection focuses on the said revolution by showing in two sequences that it was based on a false postulate of ‘Tutsi oppression against the Bahutu’ on one hand, and that it gave rise to neo-colonial, racist and genocidal regimes on the other
