Publishing trends on research data management in Sub-Saharan Africa: A bibliometrics analysis

Abstract

Abstract Research data management (RDM) is the all-encompassing term used to describe the processes and activities related to the creation, storage, security, preservation, retrieval, reuse and sharing of research data. As is often the case, researchers from Sub-Saharan Africa are lagging behind their counterparts in developed countries in embracing best practices in research data management. One of the factors to which this slow pace of adoption of research data management could be attributed, is inadequate research on the subject. This paper analyses the authorship, volume, visibility and quality of publications on research data management in Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis was done using bibliometrics. The units of analysis were publications on research data management from, and on, Sub-Saharan Africa which are currently indexed in Google Scholar. This index was chosen because it is free and is reputed for its liberal selection criteria which does not favour, or discriminate, any discipline or geographic region. Data from Google Scholar was retrieved using Harzing’s “Publish or Perish” software and analysed using Nees Jan van Eck’s VOSviewer software. The findings of the study revealed that authorship collaboration, visibility, quality, and quantity of scholarly publications on research data management in Sub-Saharan Africa is low when compared to developed countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.