By Elizabeth Osayande

A former student, and protégé of the late Prof. Lai Oso, Olasunkanmi Arowolo, is set to launch an African journal aggregator portal, aimed to improve the international visibility of African journals through robust databases and indexing.

Arowolo, a Nigerian scholar, and founder of Research Africa Publications, a pan-African journal database committed to making African research accessible globally, added that the absence of access to African works during his studies abroad was a motivation to set up the website.

His words: “By hosting African journals on our platform and applying rigorous peer-review standards, we aim to help transition these journals from local to international status and impact.

“The platform has a user-friendly interface and cutting-edge technology that allows users to search for journals by categories, disciplines, and year of release. It also features modern journal management systems, allowing editors, authors, and publishers to track submissions, manage reviewer boards and handle their collections efficiently in the cloud.

“The launch of the website is coming at a time when we lost a legend in the Nigeria academic community in the person of Prof. Lai Oso, who was part of the conception of this platform and had been penciled down to be a co-director and member of the editorial board. Unfortunately, he passed away. As part of honouring him, the launch, which is scheduled to hold in mid-August 2023, will be in his memory.” Arowolo explained.

The Nigerian scholar noted that the goal of the African journal aggregator platform was to be the continent’s equivalent of major international journal publishers like SAGE, Taylor & Francis, and Routledge, tailored services for the African market.

The late Prof. Oso’s mentee noted that activities for the pre-launch were underway, callee that contributors invited from all fields must adhere to Research Africa’s standard and ethical guidelines enforced by the publication’s editorial board of renowned African academics from around the world.

He added that while paid subscriptions are available, the website aimed to make the content predominantly open-access to relieve the financial burden on African researchers.