Research Evaluation Panel, OpenCon 2016

1. AFRICA
WHAT WORKS TO FOSTER
THE ADOPTION OF
OPENNESS AND
TRANSPARENCY
PRACTICES IN SUB-
SAHARAN AFRICA:
LESSONS FROM CAMEROON
AND SOUTH AFRICA

2. 2
Reward
exceptional
achievements
in the
advancement of
transparent
social science
(SSMART), LMR
Build Standards
of openness,
integrity, and
transparency
ADVOCATE,EDUCATE, CATALYZE
Explore
solutions, and
monitor
progress
towards
transparency
Identify, fund,
developtools and
resources
TRANSPARENCY…. OPENNESS…….BITSS!
Understand
the problem
Support reseachers in
making their research
more transparent and
open

3. 3
CAMEROON (02 DAYS BITSS TRAINING) (1)

4. 4
SOUTH AFRICA (YAS CONFERENCE) (01 DAY) (1)

5. 5
SOUTH AFRICA (YAS CONFERENCE) (01 DAY) (2)
SUB SAHARAN AFRICA
§ SOUTHERN , EAST AND WEST AFRICAN
HIGHER ACADEMIC
INSITUTIONS
§ DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS
AND DEMOGRAPHY
UNDERGRADUATE AND
GRADUATE STUDENTS
ORIGIN
§ Southern Africa (Lesotho, South Africa,
Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe)
§ Eastern Africa (Uganda, Ethiopia)
§ Northern Africa (Egypt)
§ Central Africa (Cameroon)
§ Western Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso,
Nigeria)
39 PARTICIPANTS from
12 African countries
out of the 54!!

6. --Different Type of common
academic misconducts
in research and how
to overcome eachof them?
--How to builda transparent
Workflowfrom the data
analysis to the publication?
--How to share their data
and do files throughGithub
or OSF
THEY REALIZED THERE ARE EXISTING NORMS AND RULES ON RESEARCH
THEY REALIZED THEY WERE NOT SO TRANSPARENT :)
FOR EACH BARRIERS,
SOLUTIONS WERE GIVEN
PREVIOUS
KNOWLEDGE
A Fewof them
have previously
heard about
transparency
or openness
Practices in
research
(Higher in East
Africa)
KNOWLEDGE
ACQUIRED
POTENTIAL BARRIERS
OF ADOPTION
-- AT THE INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
--AT THE INSTITUTIONAL
LEVEL
LESSONS
LESSONS LEARNED (1)

7. Institutional level
• Lack of suitable
resources (repositories,
Internet access on campus)
• Lack of a body aware of the
benefit of open data and
transparency to create
incentives for researchers
•
Individual level
• Fear of someone else
stealing his idea and
publishing before him
• Unwillingness to share their
code to other “lazy” researchers
• Willing to publish in Top
journals in their field to make a
name as they are already
Backward because of being in a
developing countries with lack of
resources. Thereby there is a
necessity to publish in Top
journals which are not so often
open
• Lack of suitable sharing
platforms
Individual Level
• Lack of institutional
reward and incentives
directed to researchers
publishing in open
access journal or
sharing their data
BARRIERS

8. 21
4
35
8
SOLUTIONS

9. MAIN TAKE AWAY
Overall, there is a Lack of knowledgeon open and transparent research
practices in SSA
A top down approach is a way to foster and widespread
the adoption with specific programs targeting senior researchers at
the university level
Tailor specific incentives for developing countries researchers
Who are already striving to be open and transparent in their work
Doingan experiment (RCT) with a control and
comparisongroup couldbe useful to better understand the best
practices to incentivize them to be open . (Lookingforward to
perform this research with the support of the catalystgrant from
BITSS)
TAKE AWAY AND WAY FORWARD

10. THANK YOU FOR
YOUR KIND
ATTENTION