Metrics-based profiling of university research engagement with Africa: research management, gender, and internationalization perspective

Abstract

U.S. university engagement with Africa in various areas including global health, education, environment, and agriculture has grown in the last 15 years. However, there is limited literature that acknowledges the scholarly output and impact of U.S.-Africa university research collaboration in support of their respective institutions' comprehensive internationalization goals. Using Michigan State University (MSU)-a public, research-intensive, land grant university with long history of engagement with Africa, as a case study, this paper aims to measure the research output, describe the collaboration patterns and research trends, and assess the impact of MSU's research engagement on Africa for the last 10 years (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015). It also attempts to determine the gender dimension of MSU's research focus on Africa. Our scientometric and social network analysis provide strong quantitative evidence of scholarly success, research focus and diversification, collaboration, and impact on MSU's engagement on Africa, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathrelated disciplines. The co-authorship data provides evidence of greater collaboration of MSU with non-African countries on African-focused research but a growing number of partner institutions from African countries. This growing collaboration provides significant benefits on strategic research conducted and its impact, as well as increasing the recognition of African researchers as contributors to impactful international research collaborations and improving the ability of MSU and its global and African partners to co-generate knowledge and innovation that can help solve global problems more effectively. Finally, this study provides additional evidence of the increasing involvement of women in advancing knowledge and global innovation to address Africa's socio-economic development challenges. The paper, overall, contributes to the science, research management, and gender perspectives of university internationalization goals and initiatives.

Perspectives on Gender in Science, Technology, and Innovation: A Review of Sub-Saharan Africa's Science Granting Councils and Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

“…Bibliometrics has been used extensively to analyze research systems at the global, country and institutional levels and is based on bibliographic information on the enumeration and statistical analysis of scientific output in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles, publications, citations, patents, and other more complex indicators (Goffman and Harmon, 1971 ; Melin and Persson, 1996 ; Okubo, 1997 ; Wagner and Leydesdorff, 2005 ). Advanced bibliometric methods and visualization techniques (e.g., network maps based on keyword analysis) backed with various forms of analytics has further enhanced the value of bibliometric indicators to present and analyze research activities, emerging research areas, and new clusters of knowledge (Moya-Anegon et al, 2005 ; Small, 2006 ; Skupin, 2009 ; Upham and Small, 2010 ; Payumo and Sutton, 2015 ; Payumo et al, 2019 ). A number of studies have recognized the value of bibliometrics for understanding the link of gender and STI, for example the gender gap in various disciplines such as medicine, and in recognizing gender disparities in research output and collaboration patterns (Soderlund and Madison, 2015 ; Elsevier, 2017 ).…”

University Research Management: Trends in International Studies

“…Hal ini juga tidak menutup kemungkinan bahwa Wanita juga turut berperan dalam pengembangan program penelitian. Payumo et al (2019) menyatakan bahwa dalam hasil risetnya membuktikan keterlibatan perempuan dalam memajukan pengetahuan dan inovasi global dalam upaya menghadapi masalah sosial ekonomi. Tidak hanya dalam hal penelitian, beberapa peluang karir saat ini masih banyak yang belum diisi atau memberikan tempat kepada Wanita.…”

Emerging Decolonialized Research Collaboration: The Max Planck Society and the Leibniz Association in Latin America

“…In Africa, increasing coauthored papers in the Web of Science are used to justify the benefits of external research funds in Ghana to the point that 92% of research in public universities, 98% of research in government institutions, and 76% of collaborations of Ghana shown are written in international cooperation (Owusu-Nimo & Boshoff, 2017). Payumo et al (2019) add to the visualized benefits of cooperation with Africa for African countries gender parity externalities through the increasing participation of women in international research collaboration. Through comparing publication trends, international branch campuses in Asia (Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia) are also found to be "collectively (...) more international than their host countries and individually more international than their home campuses" (Pohl & Lane, 2018, p. 1731.…”

“…To what extent does current scientific collaboration act as a form of neocolonial control that is exerted through knowledge production? Most studies on research partnerships (Baud, 2002; Mazzoleni & Nelson, 2007) and contemporary bibliometric analysis of research partnerships (Aldieri et al, 2018; Belter et al, 2019; Eduan & Yuanqun, 2018; Owusu-Nimo & Boshoff, 2017; Payumo et al, 2019; Pohl & Lane, 2018) seem to take for granted the positive outcomes of research collaboration for all parties through identifying social and educational conditions that enable scientific networks. Reflections on potential power relationships inherited from colonial legacies, however, are usually absent in this literature.…”