How can we make research more inclusive of the Global South?

Elsevier’s new report Pathways to Net Zero: Global South Research in the Transition to Clean Energy makes the case that for clean energy and carbon capture research to succeed, researchers in the Global South need to be fully included in the conversation. That goes for many other areas of research, whether it’s health, social sciences or economics: research benefits from increased support for South-South collaboration as well as South-North collaboration with improved levels of parity among researchers.

Picking up on the same point as Jyoti, he noted that academic publishing could go further still in ensuring geographical diversity:

I think the publisher could impose a quota so there is a minimum percentage of editors, associate editors, and board members from the Global South and for gender diversity too, especially with women from the Global South, with this quota being managed gradually with time.

Mohammad explained that while journal standards should always be maintained, it was still possible for journals to make an additional effort to promote research from the Global South to address inequalities with the Global North:

We give a special attention to submissions from countries that do not have significant number of submissions. Of course, the selected research should satisfy minimum requirements of a high Impact Factor journal, but from our point of view, being from Global South countries will be a plus.

The second challenge Helen highlighted was that citations were often lower for researchers in the Global South once research had been published. As an Associate Editor of Energy for Sustainable Development(opens in new tab/window), she indicated that publishers have a role to play here too:

Many organizations lack budgets to support Article Processing Charges (APCs) to allow for open access of the published articles. On the other hand, because of inadequate funding, these organizations are also not able to subscribe to several publishers to make the published article accessible to academia and research organizations.

Mohammad agreed, suggesting that publishers conduct more training in Global South countries:

I would like to see more training sessions for young researchers, as Elsevier normally provides. 

He suggested the training focus on “selecting good research ideas and suitable journals, writing good papers, conducting thorough comprehensive literature surveys, and publication ethics.”

Advice for early-career researchers

While there are challenges for researchers in the Global South, Mohammad, Helen and Joyti all had heartfelt words of encouragement to offer.

Mohammad encouraged researchers to be actively engaged in the research process and seek out opportunities:

I would encourage younger researchers to concentrate on working and linking, in an active and effective manner, with regional/international research groups, focus on high impact prestigious journals, and being active reviewers. Taking the initiative is something I would also strongly encourage, for example, in organizing special issues if there is an opportunity and in being a guest editor. The researcher can take the initiative by contacting the EIC.

Helen recommended steps to advance as a researcher and editor:

Developing a role either as a researcher or an editor requires curiosity, patience, open mindedness, integrity, being logical and analytical. These attributes don’t all come at once. It takes time.

As initial steps, start by developing and implementing the research, peer reviewing your colleague’s research and allowing your colleague to review your research — and learning from the whole process. The next steps are to volunteer to be discussants internally and gradually outside your organization and also taking volunteer roles later as a reviewer for journals.

Jyoti, meanwhile, homed in on the experience of rejection, which is something researchers all over the world will encounter at points in their career:

I read somewhere that during academic life, there will be many rejections: rejected papers, rejected grants, etc. In those times when you feel low, keep a list of letters and emails of your appreciations. Those will keep you going. This has helped me a lot, and I would give the same advice to aspiring academics that do not fear rejection. Keep an eye on the positive and you will sail through. And prioritize health. Everything else can wait — your promotion, your next paper — but health cannot.