Explainer
One issue, twelve countries: reading the first research network
AJCR's inaugural issue links twelve institutions in twelve countries. What the Observatory shows, and what it does not.
In this story: 5 institutions · 1 country
Institutions
- Université Cheikh Anta Diop Senegal · 2 AJCR papers
- University of Cape Town South Africa · 2 AJCR papers
- University of Ghana Ghana · 2 AJCR papers
- Makerere University Uganda · 2 AJCR papers
- University of Nairobi Kenya · 2 AJCR papers
Countries
- Senegal 2 AJCR papers
Every research article in AJCR feeds the Research Observatory, which maps where authors are based and which institutions publish together. The inaugural issue gives it a first, small network to draw.
What the map shows
The issue's twelve research articles come from authors at twelve institutions in twelve countries, from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal to the University of Cape Town. Each institution appears on two papers, and the twelve collaboration links form a single loop through West, East and Southern Africa.
Follow it from the University of Ghana to Makerere University and on to the University of Nairobi, and the loop eventually returns to where it began.
What it does not show
The network is synthetic. The institutions are real, but the authors, papers and collaborations were created to test the journal and do not describe real partnerships. Even with real data, a map of co-authorship shows who published together, not who works together, and a first issue is too small to say anything about the field.
That is the reason to start now: as real papers arrive, the same map will begin to describe actual collaboration across the continent, and Briefing will report on what it shows.
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