By Ayobami Okerinde

In a landmark development for academic publishing in Africa, Research Africa has announced that the first digitised academic journal from Lagos State University (LASU) has been officially indexed on Google Scholar.

The digitisation initiative, spearheaded by Research Africa is focused on converting high-quality academic content that previously existed only in print into a digital format.

According to its founder, Olasunkanmi Arowolo, described the development as a crucial step toward correcting the global imbalance in academic visibility.

“This is a significant step in addressing the imbalance in global academic. We are proud to have begun this journey with Lagos State University; an institution known for excellence and look forward to expanding this impact across the continent,” he said.

Building on this success, Research Africa is preparing to become a member of Crossref, the globally recognised body responsible for assigning Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to academic publications. The organisation plans to assign DOIs to every article on its platform, ensuring that future publications are citable, trackable, and permanently accessible online.

With this,, Research Africa is calling on journal editors, universities, and scholars across the Global South to collaborate on expanding the platform, stating that the goal is to ethically and sustainably digitise and preserve Africa’s rich academic output.