AFRICA

WHAT WORKS TO FOSTER THE ADOPTION OF

OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY

PRACTICES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA:

LESSONS FROM CAMEROON AND SOUTH AFRICA

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Rewardexceptionalachievementsintheadvancementoftransparentsocialscience(SSMART),LMR

BuildStandardsofopenness,integrity,andtransparency

ADVOCATE,EDUCATE,CATALYZE

Exploresolutions,and

monitorprogresstowards

transparency

Identify,fund,develop tools andresources

TRANSPARENCY…. OPENNESS…….BITSS!

Understandtheproblem

Support reseachers inmaking their researchmoretransparentandopen

3

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CAMEROON (02 DAYS BITSS TRAINING) (1)

4

SOUTH AFRICA (YAS CONFERENCE) (01 DAY) (1)

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SOUTH AFRICA (YAS CONFERENCE) (01 DAY) (2)SUBSAHARANAFRICA

§ SOUTHERN,EASTANDWESTAFRICANHIGHERACADEMICINSITUTIONS§ DEPARTMENTOFSTATISTICSANDDEMOGRAPHY

UNDERGRADUATEANDGRADUATESTUDENTS

ORIGIN

§ SouthernAfrica(Lesotho,SouthAfrica,Zambia,Botswana,Zimbabwe)§ EasternAfrica(Uganda,Ethiopia)§ NorthernAfrica(Egypt)§ CentralAfrica(Cameroon)§WesternAfrica(Benin,BurkinaFaso,Nigeria)

39PARTICIPANTSfrom12Africancountries

outofthe54!!

--Different Typeofcommonacademicmisconductsinresearch andhowtoovercome eachofthem?--Howtobuild atransparentWorkflow fromthedataanalysis tothepublication?--Howtoshare their dataanddofilesthroughGithuborOSF

THEYREALIZEDTHEREAREEXISTINGNORMSANDRULESONRESEARCH

THEYREALIZEDTHEYWERENOTSOTRANSPARENT:)

FOREACHBARRIERS,SOLUTIONSWEREGIVEN

PREVIOUSKNOWLEDGE

AFewofthemhavepreviouslyheardabouttransparencyoropennessPractices inresearch(HigherinEastAfrica)

KNOWLEDGEACQUIRED

POTENTIALBARRIERSOF ADOPTION

-- ATTHEINDIVIDUALLEVEL

--ATTHEINSTITUTIONALLEVEL

LESSONSLESSONS LEARNED (1)

Institutionallevel

• Lack ofsuitableresources(repositories,Internetaccessoncampus)• Lack ofabodyawareofthebenefitofopendataandtransparencytocreateincentivesforresearchers

•

Individuallevel• Fear ofsomeoneelsestealinghisideaandpublishingbeforehim

• Unwillingness tosharetheircodeto other“lazy”researchers• Willing topublishinTopjournalsintheirfield tomakeanameastheyarealreadyBackwardbecauseofbeinginadevelopingcountrieswith lackofresources.TherebythereisanecessitytopublishinTopjournalswhicharenotsooftenopen

• Lackofsuitablesharingplatforms

IndividualLevel

• Lackofinstitutionalrewardandincentivesdirectedtoresearcherspublishinginopenaccessjournalorsharingtheirdata

BARRIERS

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SOLUTIONS

MAIN TAKE AWAY

Overall,there is aLack ofknowledgeonopenandtransparentresearchpracticesinSSA

Atopdownapproachis away tofoster andwidespreadtheadoptionwith specific programstargeting seniorresearchers attheuniversity level

TailorspecificincentivesfordevelopingcountriesresearchersWhoarealreadystrivingtobeopenandtransparentintheirwork

Doing an experiment (RCT) with a control andcomparisongroup couldbe useful to better understand the bestpractices to incentivize them to be open . (Looking forward toperform this research with the support of the catalyst grant fromBITSS)

TAKE AWAY AND WAY FORWARD

THANKYOUFORYOURKINDATTENTION