Getting by in a bibliometric economy: scholarly publishing and academic credibility in the Nigerian academy

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Periodical article

Title:	Getting by in a bibliometric economy: scholarly publishing and academic credibility in the Nigerian academy
Authors:	Mills, David Branford, Abigail
Year:	2022
Periodical:	Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (ISSN 0001-9720)
Volume:	92
Issue:	5
Pages:	839-859
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	universities periodicals publishing
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972022000481
Abstract:	Why are Nigeria's universities launching a growing number of open access journals while simultaneously expecting their academic staff to publish 'internationally'? And what impact do these expectations have on Nigerian journals? Drawing on interviews with editors and publishers, we describe the emergence of a hyperlocal 'credibility economy' within the Nigerian academy. The great majority of Nigerian scholarly journals are excluded from Scopus and Web of Science, the two main global citation indexes. Stigmatized by geography, Nigerian journals are ignored, rendered invisible, classed as poor quality or condemned as 'predatory'. Historicizing these trends, this argument is illustrated with four case studies.