Scholarly writing and publishing among younger African researchers have been under considerable strain for some time now. The reasons for this state of affairs are multifaceted but are uniformly connected to the prolonged crises which the continent’s higher education system has been experiencing for the last two decades. Remedying the problem has become urgent in order to ensure that the presence of the African voice in the production of knowledge about the continent and other regions of the world is assured at the highest level of quality. As an institution with a long track record in scholarly publishing, and which has a mandate to project African voices through a variety of programmes, CODESRIA has increasingly been concerned with the deterioration of the quality of academic writing among the younger generation of scholars who have borne the brunt of the crises of the last two decades in African higher education. The Council has been particularly well-placed to track the magnitude of the problem through the regular assessment it carries out of contributions received from across Africa for consideration for publication in any one of the nine journals in its stable, the applications that are submitted for consideration for admission into its various training programmes, the regular feedback it solicits from sister institutions on the strengths and weaknesses of scholarly essays which they have occasion regularly to review, and the gaps in foundational training in the university system that currently affect capacities to muster a written argument, project an informed point of view, develop a presentational/analytic style, cite references correctly, and adequately prepare manuscripts for consideration for publication in scholarly outlets. It was with a view to remedying this situation that CODESRIA decided to launch its scholarly writing programme targeted at younger third and fourth generation African scholars.

The workshops feature presentations and practical demonstrations by seasoned scholars under whose mentorship, groups of advanced postgraduate students and younger scholars who are admitted to participate in the programme will be supported to upgrade the quality of their writing and publishing. Exercises will be offered to demonstrate different approaches to scholarly writing and publishing as follows:

 Scholarly Writing

• Presenting participants with the skills and requirements needed to write effectively taking full cognisance of the expectations of the scholarly community;

• Familiarising participants with how to critically appraise the theoretical assumptions that underpin the related research on which they draw to inform their own research and writing;

• Demonstrating familiarity with related scholarly literature and debates;

• Determining and critically relating to methodologies employed in scholarly research and writing:

• Determining and critically relating to the arguments of authors on whose work participants draw to make their own arguments; and

• Determining the contribution to knowledge of a piece of scholarly writing.

 Scholarly Publishing

• Building a proper understanding of the publishing process with a view to ensuring that manuscripts are prepared and presented in a manner that facilitates the publishing process and which, in so doing, improves their chances for selection in scholarly publishing outlets. Attention will be drawn to a variety of issues ranging from adherence to style guidelines to choosing which work is best fitted to a particular scholarly publishing format, as well as suggestions on how to revise theses and dissertations into publishable manuscripts;

• Presentations on how to document a manuscript for publication, including especially different methods of referencing, the use of quotations, and the presentation of source materials used; and

• Presentations on the interface between the style adopted for a written scholarly work and the audience that is targeted for its consumption. Here, attention will also be given to the best approaches to disseminating and promoting a scientific publication using both the author’s and publisher’s networks (review outlets, conferences, symposium and book dissemination forums, teaching curriculum, electronic and print forums etc.) in order to generate debate and promote sales.

Workshop Framework

The workshop will be organised over a period of five working and will involve a series of lectures and practical work interspersed with open discussions on the key issues in scholarly publishing. The programme will be coordinated by a designated director assisted by invited resource persons with a track record in scholarly publishing. A post-workshop monitoring exercise will provide participants an opportunity to have their work reviewed and assessed by identified resource persons for a predetermined length of time after the workshop.

Target Group

• Advanced postgraduates working on their dissertations or theses in an African university;

• Researchers who completed their postgraduate studies at any time during the last five years and are presently pursuing a teaching and/or research career in an African university or research centre; and

• Former laureates of CODESRIA institutes and methodological workshops interested in updating their skills.

The CODESRIA Secretariat will also actively identify potential participants from among the pool of promising younger scholars who have recently submitted papers for consideration in CODESRIA journals but whose articles were not accepted for publication after being peer-reviewed. Prospective participants are required to submit an application letter which should be accompanied by the bio-data of the applicant, their discipline, the research areas in which they are interested, and information on any experience they have had in scholarly writing and publishing, and an attestation by their departmental head, dean or director of their institutional affiliation. Once selected, participants will be invited to submit written samples of current unpublished work before the workshops begin in order to enable the workshop resources persons to better identify key areas of strength that should be reinforced and areas of weakness that need to be addressed.

 Forthcoming Workshops in 2007

• Eduardo Mondlane Unibversity, Maputo, Mozambique, 26-30 March 2007

• CEDRES, University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso18-22 June 2007,

• Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda 17-21 September 2007 (see Call for Applications, closing date 15 July 2007)

 Past workshops

• University of the Gambia, Banjul, The Gambia, 14-16 October 2005

• Fourah Bay College University, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 23-26 October 2006

• Université de Ouagadougou, Burkiina Faso, 30 October - 03 November 2006

• Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya 15-19 November 2006

• Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo 26-30 March 2007