Workshops Educate African Researchers On How to Publish With IEEE

Many researchers and students in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda struggle to access and publish scientific and technical articles because of financial barriers including publishing fees and subscriptions to research libraries. To help, IEEE has made its Xplore Digital Library more accessible by offering discounts on subscriptions and lowering fees to publish articles. But the number of papers published by technologists in the three nations still lags behind those from other developing countries. It might be that many researchers haven’t received training in methodology, been instructed on how to write academic articles, or fully understand the process for publishing in scientific journals. Staff from the IEEE Publication and Information Products group and IEEE volunteers held educational workshops this year in the three countries. The sessions covered the publishing process, IEEE publication outlets, ways to ensure the integrity of research papers, and tips for making better use of IEEE Xplore. “We want to make sure those in this region are on par with other research communities and ensure they have the support and knowledge they need to make informed publishing decisions,” says Kristopher Zakrzewski, the IEEE area manager for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Central Asia. “Our goal is to give them the tools they need to increase visibility and allow them to participate in global conversations in the technology space.” Workshops on the publishing process More than 120 participants attended the workshops, which were held in February at the Novotel Nairobi Westlands hotel, the University of Rwanda, and Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda. IEEE volunteers who are also authors showed attendees how to prepare, submit, and publish papers. They covered the peer-review process and the benefits of working with IEEE, which publishes about 30 percent of the world’s technical literature on electrical engineering and computer science. IEEE Senior Member Nelson Ijumba presented at the session in Rwanda. Member Kennedy Ronoh led the Nairobi workshop. Sheila N. Mugala spoke to attendees in Kampala. “The great thing about these sessions,” Zakrzewski says, “is that each had a local author who presented tips and best practices to ensure that new and returning authors have the information they need to prepare their paper for submission, determine where best to publish their article, and find the right journal or conference that would be the best fit for their research.” One of the facilitators at the Uganda session was IEEE Senior Member Mayur Kumar Chhipa, head of engineering at the International Business, Science, and Technology University in Kampala and vice chair of the IEEE Uganda Section. The university has about 200 engineering students and about 50 researchers. More than 100 people attended Chhipa’s session, where he shared practical guidance on conducting literature reviews and identifying high-impact research. “Researchers in Uganda typically present their paper at an IEEE conference, and that’s it,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is encourage them to take the next step and get their paper published in an IEEE journal.” He encourages his students to submit a summary of their thesis to an IEEE conference, he says. “Otherwise,” he says, “their thesis sits in the university’s library or collects dust on a bookshelf. “When you publish your research, the world knows you are a scholar who has done good work. Having a paper published at a conference or in a journal can help you get into a master’s program globally.” IEEE Xplore access Attendees were given an overview of the features of their IEEE Xplore subscription. The digital library contains more than 7 million technical documents from industry-leading journals, conferences, ebooks, and eLearning courses, as well as partner content. IEEE provides access to the library to more than 50 universities in Kenya through a subscription agreement with the country’s Library and Information Services Consortium, which includes university and public libraries and research institutions. Sixteen universities in Uganda and one institution in Rwanda receive discounted subscriptions. “It was really important to establish the direct correlation between having access to the technical literature and the publishing output from their university and the region as a whole,” Zakrzewski says. Many publishing options The workshops covered publishing options offered by IEEE. That includes both traditional and open access journals, with more than 200 periodicals in total. There are approximately 180 hybrid journals, which contain a mix of subscription-based and open-access articles, and 30 gold open access journals. Open access is a publishing model that makes scholarly research and literature freely available online to everyone. Instead of institutions paying for subscriptions, authors or funders typically pay an article processing charge (APC) of between US $2,160 and $2,800 to have

Excerpt shown under the publisher's RSS terms · 125 words · full text and figures are on the publisher's site