Founder of Adonis and Abbey publishers, Prof. Jideofor Adibe, has advised emerging scholars and researchers in Africa to avoid shortcuts in publishing their works.
Adibe spoke in Abuja yesterday during a webinar with the theme; Scholarly Publishing in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.”
The webinar was organised in commemoration of Adonis and Abbey Publishers’ 22nd anniversary.
Adibe, who was the host of the event, emphasised the need for scholars to follow global best practices and put in the necessary effort for success.
“You don’t cut corners, there are no easy victories anywhere, you just have to look at what is happening abroad and go for the best practices,” he said.
He explained that the webinar addressed scholarly publishing in Africa, problems African scholars face in publishing in high-impact journals and the challenges involved.
“We also looked at the opportunities available, doing it in the context that we’re also an academic publisher,” he added.
On the challenges facing publishers in Africa, he said, “The challenge is if you say your name is Jideofor, for example, or you’re publishing from Adonis and others, which is not as known as Sage or Taylor and Francis, just the name alone gives them a mileage. It doesn’t give us.”
He also spoke about how governments can support African publishers, citing the South African example: “In South Africa, what the government does is that every year they bring out a list of accredited journals.
“And if you publish in each of those journals, the universities get funding from that. So, they then go for it. When the universities want to recruit, they are looking for people with the capacity to publish in those accredited indexed journals. And that is why they dominate the ranking in Africa.”
The webinar featured Professor David Mills of the University of Oxford, Dr. Savon Helena, a researcher on the decolonisation of knowledge, among others.
