How to overcome some of the challenges that African scholars are facing in conducting informetrics research

Abstract

This article provides evidence to show that the contributions of African researchers to the informetrics literature are minimal. The three main challenges identified as limiting the contributions of African scholars to the informetrics literature are lack of appropriate skills, inadequate data collection sources, and unaffordable analytical tools. To overcome these challenges, it is suggested that regular pre-conference workshops on informetrics should be organized, an African Citation Index should be developed, and the use of free analytical tools should be encouraged.

Keywords

• Africa
• informetrics
• scientometrics
• bibliometrics
• cybermetrics
• webometrics