laura czerniewicz open repositories conference 2016 dublin
TRANSCRIPT
KNOWLEDGE INEQUALITIES A marginal view of the digital landscape
Laura Czerniewicz14 June 2016
THIS TALK
o General inequalities of knowledge production & dissemination
o The emerging complexities of the digital o Two cases of discoverability & visibility
A view from the global south, a marginal perspective
Knowledge production and disseminationhave always been
fraught contested unequal
http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/udhr60/exhibit.shtm
l
http://jalperin.github.io/d3-cartogram/
World scaled by the number of documents in Web of Science by authors living there (2011)
(Florida, 2005)
The global south is partly geographical but it is also an imaginary
http://images.slideplayer.com
/24/7344819/slides/slide_30.jpg
“The global economy is a dynamic and often turbulent affair. It doesn’t produce
a simple dichotomy. It does produce massive structures of centrality and marginality, whose main axis is the
metropole-periphery, North-South relationship.“
(Connell 2007, 2014)
INEQUALITIES ACROSS AND WITHIN
Hout Bay and Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, South Africa in 2016
http://www.unequalscenes.com/hout-bay-im
izamo-yethu
What causes inequalities in knowledge production?
FUNDINGResearch and development intensity
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/
1.53 % of GDP
1.96 % of GDP2.76 % of GDP
0.73 % of GDP
FUNDINGGross domestic spending on R & D (2012)
figures https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm
IT’S MORE THAN THE MONEY
What counts?
Reward systemsLegitimacy Gatekeeping
http://jalperin.github.io/d3-cartogram/
Genres
• Journal article
• Books• Book chapters• Monographs• Technical
reports
• Scholarly blogs• Websites• Multimodal
outputs
• Consultancy reports
• Etc.
TYPES OF RESEARCHo Different types of research
• Different genres• Different audiences
o A typology of research types• Discovery – traditional empirical, generalizable explanations or theories • Interpretive - interpretation of phenomena not search for generalizable explanations
• Applied – applied enquiry, problem solving, may include consultancy
• Integrative – use-inspired basic research
• Teaching and Learning – scholarship of T&L
(Kell and Czerniewicz 2016; Czerniewicz and Kell 2014)
REWARD SYSTEMSo In South Africa the national department
of education (DHET) gives universities +/- $13000 for every article published in
• The Sciences Citation Index of the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI)
• The Social Sciences Citation Index of the ISI • The Arts and Humanities Citation Index of the ISI • The International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS) • A list of approved South African Journals
o The majority of SA universities give a % directly to the authors
CITATIONSo Valorisation of citation counts in
academia• Citations used for promotion• Measure of reputation
o Citations have their uneven geographies• Citing those from the global north• Keeping the networks closed
o Altmetrics’ slow acceptance
ACCESSIBILITY o Research is generally not easily
accessible to those in the South • works that are more easily found will
likely be more frequently cited • 54% of respondents in SARUA universities
said research output exists; of these 90% said that ready accessibility is hampered
• Budget cuts in library subscriptions
(Abrahams et al 2008)
CULTURE
(Adams et al, 2010)
Zimbabwe
Malawi
Tunisia
Who publishes?What about?
What does an “international” high impact journal look like?
WHO GETS PUBLISHEDo Of the articles published in international
peer-reviewed journals• USA academics 30%• Developing country academics 20%
• of which half from China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico
• Sub Saharan Africa 1% of total
(Hassan 2008)
A CASE IN POINT Authorship per country AMJ, AMR, ASQ and JIBS (2006-2010),
Four high impact social science journals
(Hamann, 2012)
Empirical focus AMJ, AMR, ASQ and JIBS (2006-2010)
(Hamann, 2012)
o At the same time Northern authors publish about the South• A study of 2 top African studies
journals 1993 - 2013 found• the percentage of articles by Africa-based
authors has declined• not lower submission rates from Africa but
low and declining acceptance rates• Africa-based scholars are systematically
cited less than others
(Briggs and Weathers, 2016)
WHO DECIDES?
“We editors seek a global status for our journals, but we shut out the experiences and practices of those living in poverty by our (unconscious) neglect. One group is advantaged while the other is marginalised.”
Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet
Chan,2012, /www.slideshare.net/lesliechan/remapping-the-local-and-the-global
In short, international = global north
WHY THIS MATTERSo Local knowledge
• Needs to be available to others in similar conditions
• Is a necessary and often missing contribution to global knowledge
o A plurality of knowledge/s is good for science • A knowledge production & dissemination
system that sidelines three quarters of the world is bad for everyone
“African scholars face a critical choice between sacrificing relevance for recognition,
or recognition for relevance”
(Nyamnjoh 2010)
A NETWORKED WORLDNew opportunities
The internet changed the nature of networks by making them more inclusive and easy to participate in
(Castells 1996)
(Lessig, 2003)
For the first time in a millennium, we have a technology to equalise the opportunity that people have to access and participate in the construction of knowledge and culture, regardless of their geographical placing.
www.soros,org/openaccess
Conceptualisation
Data collection
Data analysis
Findings
Engagement
Translation
ProtocolsLiterature reviews
BibliographiesProposals
Data sets
Conference papers
Audio recordsImages
Recorded interviews
Books
Reports
Journal articles Technical papers
Notes
PresentationsLectures
Interviews
Shared and shareablee.g. social bookmarking,
Dynamic multimodal versions
The rise of rich media
DataOpen
linked, curated, shareable Metadata
Multiple modes
The “enhanced publication”multimodal, hyperlinked
Open access mainstreamEmergence of the “megajournal”
New forms Modes- visual & audio
lecturesNew genres - ebooks,
open education resources
Changing, extending audiences
(e.g. life long learners, global reach)
Two way process (e.g. citizen science)
Access to all types of resources
New measures of impact Altmetrics- use,
downloads, bookmarking etc
Open processesIncreased visibility
Increased collaborationEarlier accessOpen science
Changing Scholarship
(Czerniewicz, 2013)
New opportunities tocollapse distance
enable easier cross-country collaborations create possibilities for knowledge production & sharing
Digital affords open
Digital = open
Digital affords closed
At each stage new layers of complexity
o Each stage can be analysed in terms of: • Social relations – power relations, networks
& relationships• Audiences – forms of scholar-to-scholar,
scholar-to- student and scholar-to-community communication
• Forms – genres, platforms and modes (eg linguistic, visual, aural and multimodal)
(Czerniewicz & Kell 2014; Kell and Czerniewicz 2016)
There is a danger that the information revolution could exacerbate sociospatial segregation
(Castells, 1998)
and create ‘dual cities’ of inhabitants that occupy vastly different spheres of knowledge.
The basics: infrastructure
http://en.actualitix.com/country/wld/access-to-electricity.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization#/m
edia/File:Global_Digital_Divide1.png
http://submarine-cable-m
ap-2013.telegeography.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/2016-internet-trends-report/10-KPCB_INTERNET_TRENDS_2016_PAGE
AFFORDABILITY: IT’S THE DATA, NOT THE DEVICE
o Affordability (5% monthly income)• Entry level -100MB; maturing – 500MB; connected -
2GB• In Sub-Saharan Africa, 53% could afford access of
only 20 MB, (enough for SMS & email)
https://fbnewsroomus.files.wordpress.com
/2015/02/state-of-connectivity_3.pdf
The new currency: discoverability
If it is not online, it does not exist
If it can’t be found, it does not exist
Visibility is a requirement for participation
Why this mattersWhat is found online shapes what comes to be known
“Visibility and invisibility in material space are increasingly being defined by prominence, ranking,
and presence on the Internet”
(Graham and Zook 2011)
SEARCH ENGINES
o The primary way that content is found• By academics in all disciplines • By NGOs• By students • BY professionals
(De Groote et al 2014, Catalano 2013, de Satgé, 2012, Waller 2011)
SEARCH ENGINESo Co-producers of knowledgeo Surrogate experts o Play a role as “switchers’ between
networkso Engine’s social relations invisible
• Seem naturalised and normalo Not neutral
• Reflect societal disparities• Shaped by algorithms
(Halavais 2013; Van Dijck 2010, Rogers, 2009)
Jerry King, ttps://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3451/3364886451_52915e5621.jpg
ALGORITHMSo Page ranking
• “collective intelligence”o Location
• Internet Protocol (IP) address provides country, region, city, postal code, latitude and longitude, time zone
o Social media• Includes social media, eg Facebook likes and
Google +o Personalization
• individual personalization, previously visited sites
• profile personalization, matches users with other users with similar browsing histories
ALGORITHMSo Shape what is found through
• prioritising, classifying, associating and filtering information
o Mediateo Create
filter bubbles
http://twiki.org/p/pub/Blog/BlogEntry201207x2/google-globe-search-3d.png
Browsers per country 2016
http://gs.statcounter.com/#all-browser-ww-m
onthly-201602-201602-map
OPEN ACCESShttp://roarm
ap.eprints.org/dataviz2.html at 11 June 2016
Leveraging the power of the Internet?
Danger of increasinglydrowning out scholarship from the global south
Thanks to Leslie Chan for image
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
TWO CASES
CC0 http://www.pdpics.com/photo/2320-research
CASE 1: POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Global Inequality: Poverty
http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=169#
Global Inequality: Income
http://www.irishtimes.com
/news/social-affairs/ireland-at-risk-of-reaching-us-levels-of-income-inequality-says-study-1.2105125
Global Inequality
THE INVESTIGATIONo Premises
• Poverty and inequality taken seriously in South Africa, & beyond
• A great deal of work including academic research being undertaken
• The outputs of this work important to many: government, academia, civil society
• Access to information (data/knowledge) critical to undertake work & address issues
(Czerniewicz & Wiens 2013)
THE INVESTIGATIONo How findable is the research & work on
poverty alleviation?o What is found?
• Where the results come from and the extent to which South African results appeared in the searches
• Which South African organisations / individuals appeared• The rankings of the results, and similarities and differences
between the rankings• The similarities and differences between Google and
Google Scholar results
THE SEARCHERS
TOTAL: = 20 : Academic sector -9; Development sector -8 ; IT -3
THE SEARCH QUERIES
FINDINGSo Google search “poverty alleviation”
• No South African results • The 3 South African participants' had no
localised SA based results. o Google Scholar “poverty alleviation”
• One searcher had one SA result
FINDINGS: RANKINGS
WIKIPEDIAo In academia
• Widely used by the general public, researchers and students
• Wikipedia’s citation rates in scholarly publications consistently increasing
• Papers & authors mentioned on Wikipedia have higher academic impact
o In developing countries• Wikipedia zero rating in 12+ developing
countries – better access
(Soules 2015; Shuai et al 2013; Casebourne et al 2012; Park, 2011; Okoli et al 2010; Eijkman, 2010 Lewandowski 2010; Giles 2005)
One result in bothGoogle “poverty alleviation South Africa” and Google Scholar
“poverty alleviation South Africa”
65% referrals to the repository link through search enginesAmong the top 10 search results was one which led to Wikipedia,
which then led to the article itself
Downloaded 2,356 times
Online access to single article for 24 hours at a cost of USD31.50
o Google Scholar Poverty Alleviation South Africa• High % published in South Africa• Many had “South Africa” in the title• Two of the top 5 results from repositories
o Of the South African results • Many from 7 universities, all of which were full text• 8 of the 9 journals which appeared in the results
were “green” journals allowing self- archiving
CASE 2: CLIMATE CHANGEA shared global problem
CC-BY https://www.flickr.com/photos/ojbyrne/2167696800
UNEQUAL IN CAUSE….http://createhtm
l5map.com
/interactive-map-blog/heat-m
ap-map-shows-countries-are-responsible-to-clim
ate-change/
…AND EFFECT
o Climate change• Consequences matter world wide• A new disciplinary field, scholarly
communication practices not yet entrenched
• Different strategies promoted by researchers from the North (mitigation) and the South (adaptation)
• The ability to set research agendas critical
• Do new ICT-practices help do this?
o Analysis climate change publications 1980 – 2013:• USA dominance of the field • Other countries from the Global North
consistently in top 7• Canada, Germany, England and France
• Major shift China’s rise to 2nd place in 2013 • South Africa fallen from 15th place to 24th
(Collyer, 2015)
An investigation into one climate change research group (CCRG)
From the outside in and the inside out
Has their involvement helped to redraw structurally embedded patterns of power,
voice and representation?
(Czerniewicz et al 2016)
THE INVESTIGATIONo Outside in
• Searching on Google Scholar • Climate change• Climate change South Africa
o Inside out• Mapping the climate change group’s
online presence• Interviews
SEARCHERS
o Searching for “climate change” (no South Africa)• Results largely uniform• 83% same findings and rankings• Authors found largely US and UK• No results from South Africa, Africa or any
other developing countries
o Item ranked Number 1• Cited 4337 x
• Google Scholar 1st results always highly cited, hence ongoing cycle
• Is a multi-author paper• Known to be linked to more citations
• Copies appear in 5 web locations, 3 being repositories
(Office of the Chief Scientist 2012; Smart & Bayer 1986)
o Genres• largely technical reports • only two (different) journals • technical reports are an acceptable form
of research output in the climate change field
• Google Scholar indexes “the sources that scholars believe to be scholarly”.
(Levy 2014)
SEARCHING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE SOUTH AFRICA
o Largely uniform results, 2 sequenceso Number 1 ranked result
• Nature • Cited 4000+ times• Appears online in 24 sites
“CLIMATE CHANGE SOUTH AFRICA”
o Number 1 ranked result• South African Journal of Science
o Searching techniques matter!
GATEKEEPINGEditorial oversight of publications for 10 ten results
Google Scholar searches “climate change’
Editorial oversight of publications for 10 ten results in Google Scholar searches
“climate change South Africa”
GATEKEEPING
GATEKEEPINGEditorial oversight : countries by HDI
(Human Development Index)
(Northern and Southern researchers favour different strategies, different research agendas)
INSIDE OUT: CCRG ONLINE PRESENCE
o CCRG researchers’ views• Online presence takes time, money and
expertise• Hard choices regarding how to use limited
resources• Tensions between what makes a
contribution, what is academically rewarded, what brings in funds
INSIDE OUT: CCRG ONLINE PRESENCE
o New opportunities and old reward systems
I want the visibility and impact of our work. I have slaved over the research and the research report
might just gather dust on a shelf, no-one will ever read it. I believe that the traditional metrics are limited …
I know that our research reports are not captured in those systems. There are other people who look at research
differently. I think things can still change.
o The consequences of online invisibilitySo many Southern voices get lost so we have no choice but to
listen to the North because there is no alternative
CONCLUSION
In knowledge creation and dissemination
The online adds major complexities to the abiding global inequalities of power and
resources
Open scholarship is only meaningful if everyone can both access and participate
On a positive note
Active Open Source software developers per thousand internet users
Study of 1.3million registered developers in SourceForge
(Van Engelhardt,S; et al 2010)
Image: Stacey Stent
THANK YOU
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