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What Is African Research?
African research refers to research that is produced in Africa, conducted by African researchers and institutions, or focused on African countries, communities, environments, cultures, economies, and issues. It spans a wide range of academic and research disciplines, from public health and climate science to education, technology, agriculture, social sciences, and the humanities.
African research contributes to understanding the continent while also adding African evidence, perspectives, and ideas to wider global research and scholarly discussions.
How Does African Research Work?
African research follows research methods and scholarly practices appropriate to the question, discipline, and context being studied. It can be conducted by individual researchers, universities, research centres, government institutions, independent organisations, and collaborative research networks.
The research process may involve:
Identifying a research question
Researchers define a question, problem, or area of inquiry that requires systematic investigation.
Reviewing existing knowledge
Researchers examine previous studies, publications, data, and other sources to understand what is already known and identify areas requiring further investigation.
Choosing a research approach
Researchers select appropriate methods for collecting and analysing evidence. These may include qualitative, quantitative, experimental, observational, historical, computational, or mixed-method approaches.
Conducting the research
Evidence is collected and analysed according to the chosen research methodology.
Interpreting findings
Researchers examine their findings in relation to the research question, existing scholarship, and the context in which the research was conducted.
Communicating results
Research findings can be shared through academic journals, research papers, books, conferences, institutional publications, repositories, and other scholarly channels.
What Does African Research Cover?
African research covers a broad range of subjects and disciplines. Research priorities can differ between countries, regions, institutions, and communities.
Some areas include:
Public Health and Medicine
Research can examine healthcare systems, disease prevention, epidemiology, community health, health policy, and access to healthcare.
Climate and Environmental Research
Studies may investigate climate change, biodiversity, conservation, environmental management, water resources, coastal environments, and climate adaptation.
Education
Educational research can explore teaching and learning, education policy, access to education, language, higher education, and educational outcomes.
Agriculture and Food Systems
Research can examine agricultural production, food security, farming systems, rural development, food supply chains, and sustainable agriculture.
Technology and Innovation
Research in technology can cover artificial intelligence, digital systems, engineering, information technology, innovation, and technology adoption.
Social Sciences and Humanities
Research across these fields can address history, culture, economics, politics, sociology, languages, communication, philosophy, and African intellectual traditions.
African research extends beyond these areas and includes research across many other disciplines and specialised fields.
Why Is African Research Important?
African research provides evidence and knowledge about the continent while contributing to broader academic and research communities.
Addresses African contexts
Research can examine questions that are specific to African countries, communities, environments, institutions, and economies.
Contributes African perspectives
Research conducted in or focused on Africa can contribute perspectives and evidence that may not be adequately represented when research questions are examined only from other geographic contexts.
Supports evidence-based decisions
Research findings can inform decisions in areas such as healthcare, education, environmental management, agriculture, technology, economic development, and public policy.
Builds research capacity
Research activity contributes to the development of researchers, institutions, academic communities, and research networks across the continent.
Contributes to global scholarship
African research is part of the wider global research landscape. Findings and ideas developed through African research can contribute to international academic discussions and comparative studies.
African Research and Research Discoverability
The value of research extends beyond its publication. Other researchers need to be able to find, understand, reference, and build upon existing work.
African research can be discovered through different pathways, including:
- Academic journals
- Research publications
- Researchers
- Universities and research institutions
- Research databases
- Institutional repositories
- Academic indexes
- Research topics and disciplines
For example, someone researching coastal adaptation in West Africa may want to identify relevant research papers, researchers working on the subject, institutions conducting related studies, and journals publishing relevant work.
Connecting these different types of information can make it easier to move from one piece of research to the wider body of scholarship surrounding it.
African Research Across the Continent
African research is produced across a geographically and academically diverse continent.
The major regions include:
- North Africa
- West Africa
- Central Africa
- East Africa
- Southern Africa
Each region contains different universities, research institutions, journals, researchers, disciplines, and areas of research activity.
Research can also cross regional and national boundaries. Collaborative projects may involve researchers and institutions from multiple African countries or partnerships between African and international research communities.
African Research at Afropus
Afropus is building an index focused on making African research discoverable.
Its framework is organised around four core areas:
- Journals
- Researchers
- Institutions
- Ideas
Afropus also provides a framework for exploring topics and disciplines across African scholarship.
The index describes its geographic scope in terms of five regions and 55 jurisdictions, with regional balance as a goal. Its evaluation framework includes published criteria, integrity gates, transparency, and appeals.
By connecting research with the journals, researchers, institutions, topics, disciplines, and ideas associated with it, Afropus aims to provide a clearer pathway for discovering and exploring African research.
Related Terms
- African Academic Research
- African Scholarship
- African Academic Publishing
- African Academic Index
- African Research Ecosystem
- African Research Visibility
- Research Discoverability
- Research Publication
- Research Institution
- Scholarly Discovery
FAQs
What is African research?
African research refers to research produced in Africa, conducted by African researchers and institutions, or focused on African countries, communities, environments, cultures, economies, and issues.
What subjects does African research cover?
African research spans many disciplines, including public health, climate science, education, agriculture, technology, economics, social sciences, humanities, engineering, and environmental science.
Why is African research important?
African research provides evidence and perspectives on the continent while contributing to broader academic knowledge and international research discussions.
Where is African research produced?
African research is produced across universities, research centres, academic institutions, government organisations, and other research communities throughout North, West, Central, East, and Southern Africa.
How can African research be discovered?
African research can be discovered through academic journals, research databases, institutional repositories, academic indexes, search systems, and other scholarly resources. Afropus is being developed as an index focused on making African research discoverable.
What is the relationship between African research and Afropus?
Afropus is building an index that connects African research with journals, researchers, institutions, ideas, topics, and disciplines to create a structured pathway for discovering African scholarship.
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