How collaboration type, publication place, funding and author's role affect citations received by publications from Africa: A bibliometric study of LIS research from 1996 to 2015

This study investigated if collaboration type, publication place, funding and author's role affect citations received by publications from Africa. Library and Information Science (LIS) publication record of the 54 African countries was collected from the Web of Science. Five types of collaborations were analyzed; no, institutional, national, African and international collaborations. The result shows that only 4.43% of the research by LIS authors from Africa were funded while only 8.16% were published in Africa. The study further shows that the visibility of the articles was low as they attracted 0.67 citation per year. Single author papers declined by the year, while collaboration increased. Institutional collaboration was the most popular while intra-Africa collaboration was the least popular. Furthermore, articles that were funded, published outside Africa, and from intra-African and international collaborations were more cited. International collaborations where LIS authors from Africa were lead authors attracted less citations. The observable differences in citations received by different funding status, collaboration types, publication place and authors' role were statistically significant. Though higher visibility and funding through international collaboration as revealed in this study is a positive incentive for authors from Africa to participate in international collaboration, it is important to also improve intra-African collaboration. Through strong intra-African collaboration networks, innovative research could be driven to solve some of the problems facing Africa. It was also recommended that structures that will promote intra-African and international collaboration should be provided with funding opportunities.