Introduction Academic publishing in Africa is at a fascinating and frightening crossroads. It’s caught between a genuine desire to grow and a deep-seated legacy of dependency. On one hand, African scholars are bursting with ideas, eager to share knowledge relevant to their own continent, and build a research scene that’s truly their own. This is … Read more
Introduction Predicting the future of cultural taste is a bit like predicting the weather in the tropics: you might get the big picture right, but the small details will surprise you. Still, publishing, film, music, and streaming platforms leave us with enough breadcrumbs to make educated guesses. Consumer behavior, global politics, and even technology shape … Read more
Introduction In the high-stakes world of academia, research papers have long been the ultimate flex. It’s the scholar’s magnum opus, a polished work that shows off their intellect, hard work, and novel findings. But what happens when the architect of this monument to human thought is no longer a person, but an algorithm? This isn’t … Read more
Introduction In the hushed, hallowed halls of academia, a new and decidedly unhushed guest has arrived: TikTok. For centuries, the dissemination of knowledge has been a deliberate and solemn process, codified in scholarly journals, monographs, and conference presentations. These forms of communication, while robust and peer-reviewed, are also notoriously slow, often insular, and almost entirely … Read more
Introduction The academic publishing landscape, for all its revered traditions and rigorous standards, has a darker, more opportunistic underbelly: predatory journals. These entities, masquerading as legitimate scholarly outlets, have evolved from a fringe nuisance into a sophisticated, multi-billion-dollar industry. Research indicates that more than $300 million has been spent on paying the predatory publishers, involving … Read more