Open Science in Kenya: Where are we?

Abstract

Open, collaborative, and reproducible research – Open Science – has great potential for advancing science. However, the training in our local universities does not equip students with the tools to practice open science. Additionally, to work in the open and collaborate, the collaborators should be trained to use shared tools. Therefore, the main barrier to working open is the lack of awareness of the collaboration tools and the skills required to utilize these tools. Thus, to fill the gap, through an open science community funded by a Mozilla Mini-grant, OpenScienceKE, we are promoting open science among bioinformatics students and researchers in the Nairobi area using this model: sensitize, train, hack and collaborate. This model first sensitizes on open science practices through seminars, trains on open science tools through workshops, facilitates the hands-on application of the tools through hackathons, and finally fosters a community of open science enthusiasts through meetups.OpenScienceKE sought to address the following problems: the lack of awareness of open science practices and tools within the Bioinformatics community in Kenya; the low adoption of open science practices in Bioinformatics; and the absence of research establishing the state of affairs in adopting open science in Kenya. Through the OpenScienceKE hackathon, we created an open resource that the students could use to figure out where they can cost-effectively publish open access. We observed a growing interest in open science practices in Kenya through literature search and data mining, but the lack of awareness and skills still hinders adoption. The use of preprints for research dissemination has not caught up in Kenya; out of the 20,069 papers downloaded from BioRXiv, only 18 have Kenyan authors, a majority of which are international (16) collaborations. We also observed a lack of incentives and policies in academic and research institutions to support open science. The fear of being scooped and the competitive spirit within the scientific community are also significant barriers to working in the open.The first iteration of the model, which focused on academic institutions, set the foundation for the next phase: promote open and reproducible science in research institutions. This model provides the framework for the adoption of open science practices within the institutions. As genomic research data generated in Africa grows, there is a need to adopt open science practices in data storage, reproducible pipelines, and collaborative research. We propose an approach, which develops the necessary infrastructure within research institutions, and builds human capacity through the model: sensitize, train, hack, and collaborate. The promotion of open science in Africa recognizes the future direction of research, and OpenScienceKE is growing the culture and practice in research.

Synergy Between the Credibility Revolution and Human Development in Africa

“…This synergy occurs because of the credibility revolution's emphasis on building freely accessible processes and tools. These processes and tools have the potential to accelerate the development of the human capital and infrastructure necessary to build stronger, more vibrant research communities throughout the continent (Draft Text of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, 2021; Mwangi et al, 2021;Onie, 2020). If the credibility revolution's newly-developed processes and tools are applied to concrete problems that accelerate human development, psychology could even reach a goal it has long aspired to, namely using its research to directly assist in solving big social problems.…”