Trends and Challenges of Academic Publishing in Ethiopian Public Universities

Abstract

Though it is said that research and publication have been given attention in Ethiopian academic institutions, disseminating research outputs using scholarly publications has become challenging. From experience, by virtue of the researcher’s position as an editor, he has heard challenges of academic publishing from authors, reviewers and academics. This study assessed the trends and challenges of academic publishing in Ethiopian public universities. The study was delimited to five geographically scattered public universities and to arrive at the intended purpose, questionnaire, researcher’s diary (reflective journal), interview and documents (research manuals, publication guidelines and publication offices action plans) were employed. The study revealed that academic publishing has almost been taken as subsidiary activity in the sample public universities. The universities engaged their academics more in the teaching-learning than in research and publication. Many of the academics involved in academic publishing did so to get promoted. The editorial practices of the sampled universities were also found to be too lengthy. Moreover, proper feedback communications were not held among editors, authors and assessors. The study, further, identified that the reputability of journals was determined by the universities where the journals were housed; no external body accredited them. Finally, based on the results, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were suggested