Developing open science in Africa : barriers, solutions and opportunities

African science systems largely operate independently of each other, creating siloes of incompatible policies, practices and data sets that are not mutually consistent or inter-operable. The paper argues for the development of open science in Africa as a means of energizing national science systems. It focuses on the complexity of social and economic challenges created by climate change, the demographic explosion, and the difficulty of confronting these conditions in the absence of an adequate digital infrastructure. The paper draws on questionnaire data from 15 African Science Granting Councils and the state-of-the-art report “Open Science in Research and Innovation for Development in Africa.”Swedish International Development Cooperation AgencyDepartment for International Development (UK)National Research Foundation (South Africa

A Survey on Privacy and Security of Internet of Things

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Internet of Things (IoT) has fundamentally changed the way information technology and communication environments work, with significant advantages derived from wireless sensors and nanotechnology, among others. While IoT is still a growing and expanding platform, the current research in privacy and security shows there is little integration and unification of security and privacy that may affect user adoption of the technology because of fear of personal data exposure. The surveys conducted so far focus on vulnerabilities based on information exchange technologies applicable to the Internet. None of the surveys has brought out the integrated privacy and security perspective centred on the user. The aim of this paper is to provide the reader with a comprehensive discussion on the current state of the art of IoT, with particular focus on what have been done in the areas of privacy and security threats, attack surface, vulnerabilities and countermeasures and to propose a threat taxonomy. IoT user requirements and challenges were identified and discussed to highlight the baseline security and privacy needs and concerns of the user. The paper also proposed threat taxonomy to address the security requirements in broader perspective. This survey of IoT Privacy and Security has been undertaken through a systematic literature review using online databases and other resources to search for all articles that meet certain criteria, entering information about each study into a personal database, and then drawing up tables summarizing the current state of literature. As a result, the paper distills the latest development

Digital revolution, open science and innovation for development in Sub-Saharan Africa

This policy brief recommends that Science Granting Councils (SGC) through the SGC Initiative (SGCI) intensify the level, scope and ambition of collective action by developing an African open science area, and by seeking support and acquiescence of respective country governments in doing so. It provides background to an open science movement, which includes a digitized ‘commons’ or platform, through collective action by member states in sub-Sharan Africa. The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) provides platforms for regional and international research and knowledge sharing in order to build Africa’s capabilities in STI policy research, policymaking and implementation for sustainable development.United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID)South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF)Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida

Open science in research and innovation for development in Africa

The paper argues that Science Granting Councils (SGC) in their intermediary role between governments and the science community, can act as a collective to achieve efficiencies of scale, stimulating virtual critical masses and intra-African collaboration while creating an African space for open science. It details some tools and processes necessary for supporting open science, as well as the rationale for sharing scientific data, which permits re-use by others as open data. It describes open science platforms or “commons” to provide support to the research process, from information technology infrastructure to high-level analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) procedures.United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID)South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF)Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida

The Extent of Adoption of e-Publishing by University Presses in Kenya

International audienceKnowledge creating and dissemination is synonymous with institutions of higher learning. However, many institutions, especially in Africa spurn electronic publishing (e-publishing), failing to join most parts of the world that have embraced it with very positive results. Though connected to internet and the World Wide Web, only a number of universities practice electronic publishing. This paper aims to study the electronic publishing trends in institutions of higher learning and identify the opportunities and challenges faced by academic publishers in Kenya. The objectives of the study are to: identify institutions that practice academic publishing in Kenya; examine the relationship between authors’ knowledge on e-publishing platforms and publishers’ choice of e-platforms; analyze whether an existing work relationship between the publisher and an author influences the format of a publication; examine whether or not there is an association between levels of staff experiences within publishing and e-publishing. This is a research survey that employed a mixed method approach. The sample frame of 49 universities was used. Judgmental sampling was used in selecting key participants under the study. Data were collected by questionnaires and document analysis where simple descriptive statistical analysis was done based on objectives of the study to gauge the relationships between variables. Findings of the survey show that 12.2% of the Kenyan academic publishers are engaged in e-publishing and established presses. 87.8% of universities indirectly engaged in e-publishing with the option of owning a press/DTP unit. Significantly, they had e-repositories on their websites and are likely to start e-publishing in future. Most of them feel that e-publishing has a bright future. Experiences challenge with online reading cultures, online marketing, Digital Rights Management (DRM) and poor internet access; lack of policy framework by publishers and/with authors on e-publishing. These reasons have hampered the introduction of e-publishing in universities’ desktop publishing units (DTP) or presses. The study concludes that there is need to: create more e-publishing awareness among academic institutions; engage staff in training opportunities on e-publishing; create writing workshops and exhibitions to expose authors, staff and other stakeholders to e-publishing technologies to attract electronic adoption