A continent-wide initiative is empowering a new generation of African library and information studies researchers to advocate for open science within their institutions and beyond.
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In 2017, in West Africa, e-infrastructure—meaning large scale technical network and connectivity resources combined with standards, protocols, and human-based processes to provide digital platforms for collaboration and research—was generally lacking and sorely needed. Francophone African scholars complained of having to jump on a plane to go to Paris to use high performance computing resources to analyze their data and package it up on physical media to take back for their PhD students to work on.
At the time, two EU-sponsored e-infrastructure projects were advocating for national research and education networks (NRENs) to become the main Internet and network connectivity providers for research and higher education institutions in the region, part of a larger push to connect African and European institutions through undersea cables. NRENs were meant to supply what is referred to as “last mile” connectivity, i.e., to bring the network from African shores to the institutions and to interconnect them and provide digital services. And, of course, to do so at lower costs than conventional commercial providers.
LIBSENSE—which stands for Library Support for Embedding National Research and Education Network Services and e-Infrastructure—was an offshoot of these projects.
Launched in 2017, at the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) conference in Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire, LIBSENSE, brought together two communities of practice: academic librarians and NREN service providers. As LIBSENSE expanded to include other regional research and education networks—Ubuntunet Alliance, which served the eastern and southern regions of Africa, and the Arab States Research and Education Network, which served the northern part and some countries in the Middle East and North Africa—the network of librarians also grew.
LIBSENSE helped to create the critical mass needed for NRENs to provide digital services at scale and lower cost to their research and higher education customers. Initially, these services focused on support for open access institutional repositories. But in the years that followed, in response to the needs of the network, the spread of the open science movement, and growing evidence that open access could increase the visibility of African scholarship, LIBSENSE expanded its remit to advocate more widely for the adoption of a variety of open science services and infrastructures within the African research sector. In addition to librarians and NRENs, the initiative attracted researchers, platform providers, and open science advocates.
I—Pamela Abbott—am the senior research lead for LIBSENSE, tasked with developing and supporting the project’s research agendas, while my co-authors became involved in LISBSENSE as postdoctoral early career researchers, tasked with leading specific initiatives.
Today, LIBSENSE is empowering a new generation of African library and information studies (LIS) researchers to advocate for open science within their institutions and beyond.
LIBSENSE activities are now organized into three main pillars—capacity building, infrastructure, and policy development. In 2020, the initiative became strategically aligned with the objectives of the UNESCO recommendation on open science by issuing its own statement of principles for action, which called for an African approach to openness that also acknowledged indigenous and traditional knowledge and was based on values of equity and social justice.
This approach includes creating communities of practice. One such community, a collaboration between WACREN and Peoples-Praxis, supports diamond open access publishing; their work has included a train-the-trainers online course on conducting high quality peer reviews. A collaboration between LIBSENSE and Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) reflects a commitment to co-development partnerships. The project aims to develop an open agricultural data repository for the RUFORUM universities consortium supported by policy development and training programs.
LIBSENSE also collaborated with UNESCO partners to create a checklist for universities to implement the UNESCO recommendation based on these principles. The work with UNESCO led to a strategic collaboration with Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) partners to run a webinar and contribute to a workshop on research assessment reform. The latter workshop focused on helping senior higher education executives in West Africa, who are key policymakers in their institutions, move away from a “publish or perish” mindset and toward incentivizing open science practices.
A recent study of LIBSENSE’s impact between 2016 and 2024 highlighted the role of the project in empowering a new generation of early career researchers. As noted above, my three co-authors are among this group.
Early career researchers, who benefit from mentoring, education, and access to the LIBSENSE platform, are pursuing agendas for change at the institutional level through on-campus open science communities that seek to influence the way research is conducted. Their activities include advocacy and capacity-building around research data management (RDM) and ethics, open access publishing, and research assessment reform.
Early career researchers have done particularly crucial work through two RDM advocacy networks that focus on ethical research practices, which are increasingly a requirement of international, national, and regional research collaborations and are an essential element, beyond the data repository infrastructure, to enable open data sharing.
By focusing on early career researchers, LIBSENSE is investing in future research leadership, helping to avoid a “brain drain” of research capability emigrating abroad. From this community of action comes hope for the future of research leadership in LIS and the advancement of open science in Africa.
Here are my co-authors’ accounts of their own work through LIBSENSE.
Fatimah’s Story
I got involved with LIBSENSE through the WACREN/LIBSENSE Research Data Management (RDM) workshops in Nigeria and Ghana. I was part of a team that analyzed an online survey on RDM perception, research ethics, policy, and governance among researchers and research administrators in Nigeria and Ghana.
One of the key outcomes of these workshops was the establishment of the Research Data Management Advocacy Group in Nigeria, for which I am currently the team lead. The team comprises nine librarians from eight different academic institutions in Nigeria. Membership is, however, open to librarians passionate about open science from any Nigerian institution. We have been able to expand our community of practice beyond the eight institutions by organizing capacity-building programs and stakeholder engagement and leadership meetings, as well as periodic webinars on open science, RDM, academic publishing, and research assessment.
We champion discussions and initiatives around open science practices, RDM, research ethics, and policy, including research assessment reforms in Nigerian institutions. Our achievements include:
In collaboration with key national bodies, like the Association of University Librarians of Nigerian Universities (AULNU) and the Committee of Vice Chancellors in Nigerian Universities, the group has also orchestrated a series of workshops and leadership engagements. Outputs of these sessions include a new common repository metadata schema and a “call to action” on reforming assessment systems.
We hope that we will continue to create impact and broaden our reach beyond Nigeria.
Sadiat’s Story
I got involved in LIBSENSE when my mentor, Jibril Alhassan, suggested I work with Omo Oaiya, the chief strategic officer of WACREN, and Tom Olijhoek, of the LIBSENSE Network of Experts, to develop an advocacy report on Shaping Quality Assessment and Open Science Practices in African Research.
Afterward, I joined the LIBSENSE Open Science Nigeria Early Career Researcher group, where I lead initiatives on research assessment reform and the intersection of research assessment with open science. I also represent LIBSENSE at DORA virtual meetings, where participants around the globe discuss research assessment reforms.
Our work on research assessment reforms has underscored their significance to the Nigerian research community and exposed the unintended consequences of research assessment practices that hinder open research. At the institutional level, we are driving conversations on the need to incentivize open science practices, particularly no-fee publishing among researchers, by hosting events, making presentations, and offering policy recommendations.
On the campuses represented by our members, we are seeing a gradual shift toward more equitable and transparent research evaluation systems, where every research contribution is recognized, and the pursuit of knowledge is encouraged in all its forms.
Through these initiatives, we will help to create an ecosystem where research assessment reform not only enhances academic and scientific rigor, but also reinforces a culture of openness and collaboration in research.
Dominic’s Story
As a professional librarian and a passionate advocate for open science and research data management in Ghana, I have been involved with groups that seek to transform the scholarly communications ecosystem. Initially, I came to this work through workshops and training programs organized by stakeholders, including LIBSENSE. Through LIBSENSE, I have also participated in various regional and international forums. These experiences afforded me the opportunity to meet and share ideas with colleagues and to use the knowledge gained to transform my local research networks.
By increasing my confidence and expertise, my participation in these workshops and training programs has significantly enhanced my capacity to design and deliver effective instruction and support for library users within my institution. I’ve also been able to apply new knowledge to develop comprehensive training manuals and library guides tailored to meet the needs of our users. These resources have not only improved user engagement but also fostered a culture of information literacy and research excellence within our community.
Through LIBSENSE, I have also had the privilege of putting together a team of early career researchers in Ghana to advance open science practices. Currently, I serve as the country lead for this team. In this role, I have worked closely with stakeholders, including librarians, researchers, and policymakers, to raise awareness about open science and research data management.
Our advocacy efforts have focused on promoting the adoption of open access policies, supporting the development of institutional repositories, and building capacity for research data management. We have conducted numerous engagement sessions with diverse groups of researchers and librarians across the country—for example, at a training session hosted by the Ghana Library Association, where we discussed issues relating to research data management. Individual members of our team engage with researchers on their respective campuses on key issues in open science. Through this work, we are fostering a deeper understanding of key issues and initiatives among the research community in Ghana.
WACREN is in the process of negotiating its latest round of funding, which will include LIBSENSE activities. Among the proposed programs, a major initiative is to foster on-campus open science communities. These communities will be led by early career researchers and will function similarly to the established RDM advocacy groups, deploying LIBSENSE’s resources, expertise, communication platforms, mentorship, and community-based co-development capability. Their work will include:
In these projects, LIBSENSE aims to capitalize on its most successful outcome so far—building an inclusive community of practice around open science in African higher education and mobilizing action through advocacy groups. By leveraging the enthusiasm and ambition of early career researchers with the collective experience and foresight of the network, we will continue to advance an African approach to open science.
10.1146/katina-042925-1
