laura czerniewicz open repositories conference 2016 dublin

KNOWLEDGE INEQUALITIES A marginal view of the digital landscape

Laura Czerniewicz14 June 2016

THIS TALK

o General inequalities of knowledge production & dissemination

o The emerging complexities of the digital o Two cases of discoverability & visibility

A view from the global south, a marginal perspective

Knowledge production and disseminationhave always been

fraught contested unequal

http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/udhr60/exhibit.shtm

l

http://jalperin.github.io/d3-cartogram/

World scaled by the number of documents in Web of Science by authors living there (2011)

(Florida, 2005)

The global south is partly geographical but it is also an imaginary

http://images.slideplayer.com

/24/7344819/slides/slide_30.jpg

“The global economy is a dynamic and often turbulent affair. It doesn’t produce

a simple dichotomy. It does produce massive structures of centrality and marginality, whose main axis is the

metropole-periphery, North-South relationship.“

(Connell 2007, 2014)

INEQUALITIES ACROSS AND WITHIN

Hout Bay and Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, South Africa in 2016

http://www.unequalscenes.com/hout-bay-im

izamo-yethu

What causes inequalities in knowledge production?

FUNDINGResearch and development intensity

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/

1.53 % of GDP

1.96 % of GDP2.76 % of GDP

0.73 % of GDP

FUNDINGGross domestic spending on R & D (2012)

figures https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm

IT’S MORE THAN THE MONEY

What counts?

Reward systemsLegitimacy Gatekeeping

http://jalperin.github.io/d3-cartogram/

Genres

• Journal article

• Books• Book chapters• Monographs• Technical

reports

• Scholarly blogs• Websites• Multimodal

outputs

• Consultancy reports

• Etc.

TYPES OF RESEARCHo Different types of research

• Different genres• Different audiences

o A typology of research types• Discovery – traditional empirical, generalizable explanations or theories • Interpretive - interpretation of phenomena not search for generalizable explanations

• Applied – applied enquiry, problem solving, may include consultancy

• Integrative – use-inspired basic research

• Teaching and Learning – scholarship of T&L

(Kell and Czerniewicz 2016; Czerniewicz and Kell 2014)

REWARD SYSTEMSo In South Africa the national department

of education (DHET) gives universities +/- $13000 for every article published in

• The Sciences Citation Index of the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI)

• The Social Sciences Citation Index of the ISI • The Arts and Humanities Citation Index of the ISI • The International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS) • A list of approved South African Journals

o The majority of SA universities give a % directly to the authors

CITATIONSo Valorisation of citation counts in

academia• Citations used for promotion• Measure of reputation

o Citations have their uneven geographies• Citing those from the global north• Keeping the networks closed

o Altmetrics’ slow acceptance

ACCESSIBILITY o Research is generally not easily

accessible to those in the South • works that are more easily found will

likely be more frequently cited • 54% of respondents in SARUA universities

said research output exists; of these 90% said that ready accessibility is hampered

• Budget cuts in library subscriptions

(Abrahams et al 2008)

CULTURE

(Adams et al, 2010)

Zimbabwe

Malawi

Tunisia

Who publishes?What about?

What does an “international” high impact journal look like?

WHO GETS PUBLISHEDo Of the articles published in international

peer-reviewed journals• USA academics 30%• Developing country academics 20%

• of which half from China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico

• Sub Saharan Africa 1% of total

(Hassan 2008)

A CASE IN POINT Authorship per country AMJ, AMR, ASQ and JIBS (2006-2010),

Four high impact social science journals

(Hamann, 2012)

Empirical focus AMJ, AMR, ASQ and JIBS (2006-2010)

(Hamann, 2012)

o At the same time Northern authors publish about the South• A study of 2 top African studies

journals 1993 - 2013 found• the percentage of articles by Africa-based

authors has declined• not lower submission rates from Africa but

low and declining acceptance rates• Africa-based scholars are systematically

cited less than others

(Briggs and Weathers, 2016)

WHO DECIDES?

“We editors seek a global status for our journals, but we shut out the experiences and practices of those living in poverty by our (unconscious) neglect. One group is advantaged while the other is marginalised.”

Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet

Chan,2012, /www.slideshare.net/lesliechan/remapping-the-local-and-the-global

In short, international = global north

WHY THIS MATTERSo Local knowledge

• Needs to be available to others in similar conditions

• Is a necessary and often missing contribution to global knowledge

o A plurality of knowledge/s is good for science • A knowledge production & dissemination

system that sidelines three quarters of the world is bad for everyone

“African scholars face a critical choice between sacrificing relevance for recognition,

or recognition for relevance”

(Nyamnjoh 2010)

A NETWORKED WORLDNew opportunities

The internet changed the nature of networks by making them more inclusive and easy to participate in

(Castells 1996)

(Lessig, 2003)

For the first time in a millennium, we have a technology to equalise the opportunity that people have to access and participate in the construction of knowledge and culture, regardless of their geographical placing.

www.soros,org/openaccess

Conceptualisation

Data collection

Data analysis

Findings

Engagement

Translation

ProtocolsLiterature reviews

BibliographiesProposals

Data sets

Conference papers

Audio recordsImages

Recorded interviews

Books

Reports

Journal articles Technical papers

Notes

PresentationsLectures

Interviews

Shared and shareablee.g. social bookmarking,

Dynamic multimodal versions

The rise of rich media

DataOpen

linked, curated, shareable Metadata

Multiple modes

The “enhanced publication”multimodal, hyperlinked

Open access mainstreamEmergence of the “megajournal”

New forms Modes- visual & audio

lecturesNew genres - ebooks,

open education resources

Changing, extending audiences

(e.g. life long learners, global reach)

Two way process (e.g. citizen science)

Access to all types of resources

New measures of impact Altmetrics- use,

downloads, bookmarking etc

Open processesIncreased visibility

Increased collaborationEarlier accessOpen science

Changing Scholarship

(Czerniewicz, 2013)

New opportunities tocollapse distance

enable easier cross-country collaborations create possibilities for knowledge production & sharing

Digital affords open

Digital = open

Digital affords closed

At each stage new layers of complexity

o Each stage can be analysed in terms of: • Social relations – power relations, networks

& relationships• Audiences – forms of scholar-to-scholar,

scholar-to- student and scholar-to-community communication

• Forms – genres, platforms and modes (eg linguistic, visual, aural and multimodal)

(Czerniewicz & Kell 2014; Kell and Czerniewicz 2016)

There is a danger that the information revolution could exacerbate sociospatial segregation

(Castells, 1998)

and create ‘dual cities’ of inhabitants that occupy vastly different spheres of knowledge.

The basics: infrastructure

http://en.actualitix.com/country/wld/access-to-electricity.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization#/m

edia/File:Global_Digital_Divide1.png

http://submarine-cable-m

ap-2013.telegeography.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/2016-internet-trends-report/10-KPCB_INTERNET_TRENDS_2016_PAGE

AFFORDABILITY: IT’S THE DATA, NOT THE DEVICE

o Affordability (5% monthly income)• Entry level -100MB; maturing – 500MB; connected -

2GB• In Sub-Saharan Africa, 53% could afford access of

only 20 MB, (enough for SMS & email)

https://fbnewsroomus.files.wordpress.com

/2015/02/state-of-connectivity_3.pdf

The new currency: discoverability

If it is not online, it does not exist

If it can’t be found, it does not exist

Visibility is a requirement for participation

Why this mattersWhat is found online shapes what comes to be known

“Visibility and invisibility in material space are increasingly being defined by prominence, ranking,

and presence on the Internet”

(Graham and Zook 2011)

SEARCH ENGINES

o The primary way that content is found• By academics in all disciplines • By NGOs• By students • BY professionals

(De Groote et al 2014, Catalano 2013, de Satgé, 2012, Waller 2011)

SEARCH ENGINESo Co-producers of knowledgeo Surrogate experts o Play a role as “switchers’ between

networkso Engine’s social relations invisible

• Seem naturalised and normalo Not neutral

• Reflect societal disparities• Shaped by algorithms

(Halavais 2013; Van Dijck 2010, Rogers, 2009)

Jerry King, ttps://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3451/3364886451_52915e5621.jpg

ALGORITHMSo Page ranking

• “collective intelligence”o Location

• Internet Protocol (IP) address provides country, region, city, postal code, latitude and longitude, time zone

o Social media• Includes social media, eg Facebook likes and

Google +o Personalization

• individual personalization, previously visited sites

• profile personalization, matches users with other users with similar browsing histories

ALGORITHMSo Shape what is found through

• prioritising, classifying, associating and filtering information

o Mediateo Create

filter bubbles

http://twiki.org/p/pub/Blog/BlogEntry201207x2/google-globe-search-3d.png

Browsers per country 2016

http://gs.statcounter.com/#all-browser-ww-m

onthly-201602-201602-map

OPEN ACCESShttp://roarm

ap.eprints.org/dataviz2.html at 11 June 2016

Leveraging the power of the Internet?

Danger of increasinglydrowning out scholarship from the global south

Thanks to Leslie Chan for image

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

TWO CASES

CC0 http://www.pdpics.com/photo/2320-research

CASE 1: POVERTY ALLEVIATION

Global Inequality: Poverty

http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=169#

Global Inequality: Income

http://www.irishtimes.com

/news/social-affairs/ireland-at-risk-of-reaching-us-levels-of-income-inequality-says-study-1.2105125

Global Inequality

THE INVESTIGATIONo Premises

• Poverty and inequality taken seriously in South Africa, & beyond

• A great deal of work including academic research being undertaken

• The outputs of this work important to many: government, academia, civil society

• Access to information (data/knowledge) critical to undertake work & address issues

(Czerniewicz & Wiens 2013)

THE INVESTIGATIONo How findable is the research & work on

poverty alleviation?o What is found?

• Where the results come from and the extent to which South African results appeared in the searches

• Which South African organisations / individuals appeared• The rankings of the results, and similarities and differences

between the rankings• The similarities and differences between Google and

Google Scholar results

THE SEARCHERS

TOTAL: = 20 : Academic sector -9; Development sector -8 ; IT -3

THE SEARCH QUERIES

FINDINGSo Google search “poverty alleviation”

• No South African results • The 3 South African participants' had no

localised SA based results. o Google Scholar “poverty alleviation”

• One searcher had one SA result

FINDINGS: RANKINGS

WIKIPEDIAo In academia

• Widely used by the general public, researchers and students

• Wikipedia’s citation rates in scholarly publications consistently increasing

• Papers & authors mentioned on Wikipedia have higher academic impact

o In developing countries• Wikipedia zero rating in 12+ developing

countries – better access

(Soules 2015; Shuai et al 2013; Casebourne et al 2012; Park, 2011; Okoli et al 2010; Eijkman, 2010 Lewandowski 2010; Giles 2005)

One result in bothGoogle “poverty alleviation South Africa” and Google Scholar

“poverty alleviation South Africa”

65% referrals to the repository link through search enginesAmong the top 10 search results was one which led to Wikipedia,

which then led to the article itself

Downloaded 2,356 times

Online access to single article for 24 hours at a cost of USD31.50

o Google Scholar Poverty Alleviation South Africa• High % published in South Africa• Many had “South Africa” in the title• Two of the top 5 results from repositories

o Of the South African results • Many from 7 universities, all of which were full text• 8 of the 9 journals which appeared in the results

were “green” journals allowing self- archiving 

CASE 2: CLIMATE CHANGEA shared global problem

CC-BY https://www.flickr.com/photos/ojbyrne/2167696800

UNEQUAL IN CAUSE….http://createhtm

l5map.com

/interactive-map-blog/heat-m

ap-map-shows-countries-are-responsible-to-clim

ate-change/

…AND EFFECT

o Climate change• Consequences matter world wide• A new disciplinary field, scholarly

communication practices not yet entrenched

• Different strategies promoted by researchers from the North (mitigation) and the South (adaptation)

• The ability to set research agendas critical

• Do new ICT-practices help do this?

o Analysis climate change publications 1980 – 2013:• USA dominance of the field • Other countries from the Global North

consistently in top 7• Canada, Germany, England and France

• Major shift China’s rise to 2nd place in 2013 • South Africa fallen from 15th place to 24th

(Collyer, 2015)

An investigation into one climate change research group (CCRG)

From the outside in and the inside out

Has their involvement helped to redraw structurally embedded patterns of power,

voice and representation?

(Czerniewicz et al 2016)

THE INVESTIGATIONo Outside in

• Searching on Google Scholar • Climate change• Climate change South Africa

o Inside out• Mapping the climate change group’s

online presence• Interviews

SEARCHERS

o Searching for “climate change” (no South Africa)• Results largely uniform• 83% same findings and rankings• Authors found largely US and UK• No results from South Africa, Africa or any

other developing countries

o Item ranked Number 1• Cited 4337 x

• Google Scholar 1st results always highly cited, hence ongoing cycle

• Is a multi-author paper• Known to be linked to more citations

• Copies appear in 5 web locations, 3 being repositories

(Office of the Chief Scientist 2012; Smart & Bayer 1986)

o Genres• largely technical reports • only two (different) journals • technical reports are an acceptable form

of research output in the climate change field

• Google Scholar indexes “the sources that scholars believe to be scholarly”.

(Levy 2014)

SEARCHING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE SOUTH AFRICA

o Largely uniform results, 2 sequenceso Number 1 ranked result

• Nature • Cited 4000+ times• Appears online in 24 sites

“CLIMATE CHANGE SOUTH AFRICA”

o Number 1 ranked result• South African Journal of Science

o Searching techniques matter!

GATEKEEPINGEditorial oversight of publications for 10 ten results

Google Scholar searches “climate change’

Editorial oversight of publications for 10 ten results in Google Scholar searches

“climate change South Africa”

GATEKEEPING

GATEKEEPINGEditorial oversight : countries by HDI

(Human Development Index)

(Northern and Southern researchers favour different strategies, different research agendas)

INSIDE OUT: CCRG ONLINE PRESENCE

o CCRG researchers’ views• Online presence takes time, money and

expertise• Hard choices regarding how to use limited

resources• Tensions between what makes a

contribution, what is academically rewarded, what brings in funds

INSIDE OUT: CCRG ONLINE PRESENCE

o New opportunities and old reward systems

I want the visibility and impact of our work. I have slaved over the research and the research report

might just gather dust on a shelf, no-one will ever read it. I believe that the traditional metrics are limited …

I know that our research reports are not captured in those systems. There are other people who look at research

differently. I think things can still change.

o The consequences of online invisibilitySo many Southern voices get lost so we have no choice but to

listen to the North because there is no alternative

CONCLUSION

In knowledge creation and dissemination

The online adds major complexities to the abiding global inequalities of power and

resources

Open scholarship is only meaningful if everyone can both access and participate

On a positive note

Active Open Source software developers per thousand internet users

Study of 1.3million registered developers in SourceForge

(Van Engelhardt,S; et al 2010)

Image: Stacey Stent

THANK YOU

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