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ISSUE NO 48 USEFUL WEBSITES AND DISCUSSION LISTS

ONE PERSON’S CHOICE: HENRIK BETTERMAN ON AFRICAN SCIENCE SITES

It is very difficult to find original material published by scientists working on the African continent. Meanwhile, for example, over 4000 scientific journals are listed in Medline, the worlds largest medical database. But only approximately 12-24 of them are published regularly on the African continent. Is this ratio representative of the status of science in Africa? I think one should be careful of jumping to conclusions, but there is no doubt about that we (Western and African scientists) have to intensify our efforts into bringing African scientists closer to the international scientific community. In this respect, I would like to point first to the fruitful discussion in ŒThe Lancet¹ which was initiated by Richard Horton (Lancet 355: 2231-2236, 2000).

The following is a small list of links directing to African-originated scientific material:

http://www.hanszell.co.uk/indexlink.htm (The Electronic African Bookworm: A Web Navigator)

http://www.hanszell.co.uk/ajlink.htm (AFRICAN & AFRICANIST JOURNALS, including table of contents services for African/African studies journals; also includes a small number of journals devoted to development issues in general)

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za (Africa’s first online science magazine)

http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~janzb/afphilpage.htm (African Philosophy Resources)

http://whqmomiji.who.ch/RIS/RISWEB.ISA (African Index Medicus)

http://allafrica.com (AllAfrica.com is updated throughout the day with hundreds of stories from more than 70 African news organizations.)

To my own surprise, when looking through my bookmarks, there are only very few sites or online-journals contributing original scientific articles (free of charge) which can be used for own scientific work. Many Africans publish their research results overseas, but then it is not easy to trace back to their country of origin. Sometimes African scientists even don¹t want their place of residence to be identified. In some cases subtle search strings may help to avoid this problem. See for example the Medline search string which leads to medical publications from Ghana during the last two years:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=search&db=pubmed
&term=Ghana%5BAffiliation%5D&dispmax=5000&relentrezdate=2+Years
(copy this link into one line if necessary).

Finally the question remains unanswered: Where can we find original publications from Africa, written by scientists resident in Africa, and created from an African point of view while using indigenous but evidence-providing research methods? And, in case, where can we find this material free of charge? The latter is essential not only when working without any noteworthy financial support. Whom helps a mail-order library charging US$ 20 per article?
(see for example http://www.inasp.org.uk/ajol/index.html)

I would be very grateful to get more links regarding this topic!

To send links of this type, mail them to Henrik Betterman:
hbetter@scientific-african.de

See also the developing site: 
www.scientific-african.de

SOUTH AFRICA’S WINE OF THE MONTH SITE GOES ONLINE

The Wine-of-the-Month Club, leading direct wine marketer, has joined the e-business wave by announcing that its website has gone live, thereby allowing its 25 000 regular clients to order wine online.
(source: http://www.boot.co.za/News/feb01/wine16.htm )

MEDIA SUPPORT ORGANIZATION LAUNCHED IN DENMARK

African content creators (online or otherwise) will be interested to know that a new organisation has been established in Denmark to provide emergency support and assistance for media around the world.The new organisation, International Media Support (IMS), is being established by several Danish groups, including the Danish Centre for Human Rights, the Danish Union of Journalists, and the Danish School of Journalism.

The organisation’s main goal will be to quickly provide short-term emergency support for media ventures when freedom of expression is seriously threatened. The group’s organisers believe there is often a gap between the time when an emergency occurs, such as the need to rebuild a media outlet if it has been damaged or to provide bullet proof vests, and when other organisations can begin to provide support.The Peace and Stability Secretariat of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide initial funding. IMS hopes to begin its activities by October 2001.

Source: http://www.ifex.org - IFEX Communique

(source: TAD Newsletter)

ICT AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN SENEGAL

Information and Communications Technologies and Social Development in Senegal: An Overview is a paper by Olivier Sagna that explores the development of information and communications technologies in the country from the introduction of the telegraph in the mid-nineteenth century through the explosive growth of telephone access during the 1990s. The paper includes a review of academic, NGO, government and donor-sponsored studies on IT and development, and it highlights some of the most significant gaps in understanding how IT is being used by different social groups.

(source: Kabissa-Fahamu Newsletter 7 http://www.kabissa.org/lists/newsletter-submissions-l/0547.html

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