ArticleGates open research2025
Discoverability of African Journals by Google Scholar and Inclusion in Scopus.
Article in Gates open research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Dental caries prevalence, preventive behaviour and related factors among adolescents in Nigeria: a 10-year systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC oral health · 2025Pooled it
- Editorial Practices of African Journals: A Qualitative Analysis from Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Mozambique.Gates open research · 2026Article
- Periodontal diseases among pregnant adolescents and young women in Nigeria: a scoping review.BMC oral health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: There has been steady progress and advancement of research in Africa. However, African researchers face numerous challenges among them, limited international recognition. This is due to the low discoverability and inclusion of their research outputs by indexers and databases. A lot of initiatives have attempted to address the challenge, however, there is a need for support to enhance the discoverability and inclusion of research outputs from Africa. Methods: We conducted a desk review of 1,116 journals hosted on the Sabinet journal repository and the African Journal Online (AJOL) platform. The factors that were considered to influence journals' discoverability and inclusion include (i) the journals' Open Access (OA) status, (ii) OA journals' listing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), (iii) the journals' presence on the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) portal, (iv) the membership of the journals' publishers on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), (v) the journals' hosting on International Network for Advancing Science and Policy (INASP) and (vi) geographic location of the journals' online publisher. Findings: A total of 1,116 journals were identified from the Sabinet and AJOL platforms. The highest proportion of journals was neither discovered by Google Scholar nor included in Scopus (63.2%). The study established one significant predictor of journal discoverability by Google Scholar and inclusion in Scopus. This was the journal listing on the ISSN portal which increased the odds of the journal being discoverable by Google Scholar and inclusion in Scopus by 2.033 and 5.451 respectively. Journals listed in the DOAJ but whose publishers were COPE members had significantly reduced odds of being discoverable by Google Scholar and being included in Scopus by 0.334 and 0.161 respectively. This suggests that the journal's discoverability and inclusion are more nuanced and not always straightforward hence quality markers need to be aligned.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.