Abstract:
This study investigated strategies employed by universities in Kenya in managing scholarly
content
and
addressed the following research questions: What kinds of scholarly content are
generated and used in uni
versities in Kenya?
How is the scholarly content generated and/or
acquired in universities in Kenya preserved and archived for current and future use?
How do
Kenyan scholars communicate amongst themselves in the various stages of their research
work? To wh
at extent do Kenyan scholars participate in local and/or international
professional social networks? To what extent do existing institutional facilities in the
universities support scholars‘ research and communication needs?
The study was
underpinned by th
ree theoretical lenses namely: The Conversation Theory, the Social
Network Theory and the Knowledge Management Process Model.
The Knowledge
Management Process Model was the main theoretical lens used to underpin the research
problem in this study as it enc
ompassed most issues of the research problem on the subject
matter of scholarly content management in universities in Kenya.
The study was based on the post
-
positivist paradigm and
applied
quantitative and qualitative
approaches.
A survey
plan
was employe
d within a multiple case
study
design
. The population
of
the
study consist
ed of academic staff and postgraduate students drawn from six
purposively selected universities using the 2013 Webometric academic ranking of best
Universities in Kenya (based on the
qualitative and quantitative aspects of
research output).
Convenience sampling
was used to identify participants for the study from academic staff and
postgraduate students
. In this strategy, those respondents who were available and willing to
participat
e in the study when the questionnaires were being administered were included in the
study. Academic staff and postgraduate students were targeted for the study since they were
considered key actors in the scholarly communication process as creators and con
sumers of
scholarly content. P
urposive sampling was used to target
all the
s
ix
U
niversity
L
ibrarians and
all
six
representatives of
the universities‘ research units
respectively
.
Therefore a census of
the University Librarians and Representatives of the un
iversities‘ research units was
taken
.
These respondents were considered
key informants
since they were directly involved in
facilitating and managing research and scholarly communication at the universities
. Self
-
administered questionnaires were used to co
llect data from 350 academic staff and 370
postgraduate students while interviews were u
sed to collect data from the
key informants
from the
research
units and also from the university librarians.
Qualitative data were analysed
and presented using derived
themes while quantitative data were analysed using IBM SPSS
Statistics and Gephi Social Network Analysis software. Descriptive and inferential statistics
were generated by the statistical software while the social network analysis software
was
used to
depi
ct
the
social networks existing among scholars at the universities. Results of
quantitative data analysis were presented using tables, graphs and charts.
Cronbach‘s Alpha
was
generated
for individual questions in the
survey
questionnaire to
help
determine
internal
validity.
The study adhered to the ethical protocol of the University of KwaZulu
-
Natal.
Moreover, permission was obtained
from
the National Council of Science and Technology in
Kenya as well as from individual universities to allow the study to b
e undertaken in the
selected universities
.
iv
The
results
revealed th
at several
types of scholarly
content we
re generated through research
and publications in the universities surveyed, with the most common being theses, journal
articles and conference pape
rs. The
results
further
revealed that a majority of academic staff
in universities in Kenya were
not actively involved in knowledge generation through research
and publications
with only 42% of academic staff and 37% of postgraduate students
producing 1
-
3
journal articles in the period 2010
-
2014.
The
results
also
showed that there
was high level of awareness among academic staff and postgraduate students regarding
preservation of scholarly content
as most respondents documented their research procedures,
ba
cked up information, moved files to newer computers and used printouts to preserve
content. However, the respondents seemed to hardly use digital archives or university servers
for preservation of their scholarly content.
The
results
seemed to suggest
heav
y reliance
on
modern technology
-
enabled communication techniques
and face
-
to
-
face interactions for
communication amongst scholars. Institutional repositories were hardly used for scholarly
communication although they existed in all universities surveyed. S
ocial Network Analysis
revealed
limited participation by respondents in
local and international
scholarly
networks
with majority of collaborations taking place as independent dyads or triads.
Results also
revealed
inadequate institutional support for resea
rch and scholarly communication
including
funding, material and physical infrastructure, mentorship, and ICT facilities
.
From the results, it is
concluded that
strategies for managing scholarly content at universities
in Kenya are weak
,
impacting negativel
y on quality, quantity and visibility of scholarly
content. It is therefore concluded that a policy framework that would encompass the different
facets of managing scholarly content is necessary. Specifically,
research productivity in
universities in Kenya
was
low owing
to among other factors poor research culture, poor
mentorship, weak social ties between scholars, and inadequate support for research and
scholarly communication
in the universities.
Moreover, v
isibility of scholarly content
was
found to be
poor
owing to reliance by academic staff and postgraduate students on traditional
publishing
modes such as subject journals and conference proceedings compared to
institutional websites and repositories
.
The study recommended
among other things
development
of specific strategies to enhance management of scholarly content within the
universities. The study recommends development of an elaborate policy framework to guide
content generation, storage, dissemination, access and use of scholarly content in univer
sities
in Kenya. Additionally, the study recommended
institutionalization of mentorship programs
to entrench scholarship amongst academic staff and graduate students
; nurturing of scholarly
collaboration
to facilitate knowledge sharing and enhance the qual
ity, quantity and visibility
of research output from the universities
; provision of more
research funds
especially
by
government
to strengthen research capacity of the universities
; and strengthening of
university research niches
to improve quality of rese
arch
.
The study makes
an
original
contribution to the area of managing scholarly content from the perspective of universities in
Kenya. Unlike previous studies that focus
primarily
on management of
scholarly content
from
academic staff, the present study i
ncluded academic staff, postgraduate students and
librarians.
The
Social Network Analysis model was used to
depict the
departmental,
interdepartmental and international scholarly collaborations in the universities surveyed.