Scholarly communication among agriculture researchers in Mozambique

Abstract

The article reports on a study of scholarly communication among researchers at IIAM, the leading agriculture research institute in  Mozambique. It had two components: a bibliometric survey of Mozambican agricultural research publication and a questionnaire survey.  The bibliometric survey found research output in terms of formal publication to be rather low. Of the 37 peer-reviewed journal articles  related to agriculture in Mozambique in the years 2004 to 2010, only 11 had Mozambican authors. The second phase highlighted the  dominance of reporting at conferences and in technical reports. Both phases reveal the importance of collaboration with partners  outside Mozambique. The questionnaire survey suggests a number of possible reasons: the dominance of English in international reporting of research; the lack of journals in Mozambique; the more easy availability of funding from outside partners; and the lack of  incentives.