Inequalities in the production and dissemination of biodiversity conservation knowledge on Tanzania: A 50-year bibliometric analysis
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Date
2023-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Abstract
Tanzania is a popular keyword in biodiversity conservation publications, but, trends in research collaborations, scientific knowledge production and authors’ productivity remain underexplored. Using the Web of Science database and bibliometric analysis techniques, we fill this gap by examining the trends between 1972 and 2021. The database search produced 1517 records. We filtered the data using document types and subject categories as criteria. We used bibliometrix package in R software to analyse 1354 peer-reviewed publications. Through performance analysis, science mapping and network analysis, journal publications, author and institutional productivity, disciplinary focus, funding agencies and network of authorship and institutional collaborations are identified. Whereas African Journal of Ecology, PLoS One and Biological Conservation top the scientific production list, Biological Conservation, Conservation Biology and Oryx top the citation list. Major research inequalities are revealed where, European and North American centricity dominates in author productivity (number of papers, total citations and h-index), author collaborations networks and research funding agencies. Out of the top 20 highly cited papers, eleven had no Tanzanian author. The list had only two papers with Tanzanians as first authors. We observed a proliferation of international researchers and decreased productivity of local researchers in the last 30 years. Organisations from Europe and North America provided much of the research funding in Tanzania. This is possibly one of the first attempts to illustrate empirically how production and dissemination of conservation knowledge are entrenched in unequal structures at a country level. We thus contribute to the burgeoning literature on decolonisation of conservation research, by proposing five practical areas to dismantle the unequal system of knowledge production.
Description
Abstract. Full text available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109910
Keywords
Bibliometric analysis, Biodiversity conservation, Research trends, Decolonising conservation, Conservation, Tanzania
Citation
Mabele, M. B., Nnko, H., Mwanyoka, I., Kiwango, W. A., & Makupa, E. (2023). Inequalities in the production and dissemination of biodiversity conservation knowledge on Tanzania: A 50-year bibliometric analysis. Biological Conservation, 279(2023), 109910.