Angela Okune: These two quotes from the discussion describe the pressure for African academics to be "seen to be competing internationally" (Oniang'o) and the resulting expectations for academic publishing to help scholars to perform that goal. Oniang'o recollects the challenge of becoming an internationally indexed journal and Mumo describes how the African researchers she serves as a librarian "need a lot of support to be out there and to reach those impact factors that are on the other side of the world."
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Ruth Oniang'o 23:14
"...it [the journal] serves a need, fills a gap of my African colleagues who want to publish and the universities that we serve still have the motto of either publish or perish. So the challenge then was getting these to be indexed. You know, internationally. We may be addressing African local issues, but we still have to be seen to be competing internationally. That was a challenge and it took us a while before we got into Scopus. And it took a while before even South Africa scholars could publish with us because they kept saying, "where are you indexed? Where are you indexed?" You know? But at least now they have put us in their system. ..."
Angela Mumo 46:08
"We are in a trap. There is no much support right now. And we feel like we are in a catch 22. And that kind of Plan S looks like it's going to be the solution, especially for us, Africa, who are...researchers are growing, and they need a lot of support to be out there and to reach those impact factors that are on the other side of the world."
