From 16-17 March, 2026, Shizuku Sunagawa and Susanne Koch contributed to a workshop entitled African Academia and Global Knowledge Production: Trends, Challenges, and Debates, hosted by Prof. Abdoulaye Gueye at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Iméra) of Aix Marseille University (Iméra). Their talk featured a study on social and epistemic differences in local and international forest governance research.

On behalf of the In-Forest team, Shizuku Sunagawa presented key findings from the paper, which combines a qualitative content analysis of Tanzanian-authored forest governance articles in local and international outlets with a quantitative analysis of their bibliometric metadata. The articles were coded for selected epistemic choices (choice of topics, methods, purpose, framing of forests) and then comparatively analysed for social aspects of authorship (gender, first authorship, institutional affiliation, single/co-authorship, collaboration, funding).

The findings show patterns of similarity and difference between the local and international datasets examined. They suggest that the field of forest governance is homogeneous in terms of the researchers’ choice of methods and their study purpose; also, men dominate as authors both in Tanzanian and international journals. However, they display differences in topics, geographical research focus, and framing of forests, which correspond to contrasting trends in funding opportunity and collaborations. The implication is that the current focus on ‘international’ research – as represented by international, digital science databases - reproduces a cycle of scientific and social capital accumulation for those who already have it, as well as a high barrier to entry for Tanzania-affiliated authors whose local journals are not as integrated and visible.

The preprint version of the paper can be found here: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/g2rsm_v1

The discussion round after the presentation provided highly lucrative feedback in sharpening the focus of our argument, adjusting language and structure to better speak to our intended audience, and continue reflecting on the implications of our research as we prepare the next version of this manuscript.

The workshop was held in preparation for a Special Issue organized by Prof. Gueye, where the authors gathered to share and receive constructive feedback on their respective research, as well as discuss how each of the different research topics could effectively speak to the shared theme. The topics covered were diverse but highly synergistic: a sociohistorical analysis of African publication practices; discourses of limitation in scientometric analyses of African academic literature; the position of Black female academics in francophone social sciences; editorial practices in the evaluation of African submissions in French academic journals. The workshop facilitated a fruitful exchange among participants who will collaborate to produce the Special Issue in the course of 2026.