From Periphery to Presence: Authorship, Venues, and Education in African HCI

Paper Title

From Periphery to Presence: Authorship, Venues, and Education in African HCI

Publication Info

• Topic area: Mapping and analyzing African contributions to HCI research, education, and publication.
• Keywords: African HCI, authorship, venues, bibliometric analysis, education, visibility, capacity building, collaboration, epistemic justice.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: African HCI research is underrepresented globally, with visibility shaped by venue stratification and systemic biases in authorship and citation practices. Local HCI education faces faculty shortages, resource constraints, and curriculum bottlenecks.
• Significance: Addressing these disparities is crucial for fostering equitable global collaboration, recognizing African leadership, and advancing locally relevant HCI practices.
• Motivation and related work: Prior efforts have critiqued the dominance of Western-centric models in HCI and explored African epistemologies, teaching practices, and publication inequities. However, systematic mappings of African HCI research and education remain sparse, limiting actionable insights.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A two-decade bibliometric analysis (2002–2024) of African HCI research, complemented by an institutional survey of HCI education in African universities.
• Novelty:
  1. A continent-scale mapping of authorship, venues, and citation flows in African HCI research.
  2. Insights into venue ecologies and their impact on visibility and leadership.
  3. Actionable recommendations for global and African HCI communities to foster equitable collaboration and capacity building.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Systematic searches across five academic databases using HCI-specific keywords and African country names.
  • Categorization of papers by relevance and authorship roles (first/last author).
  • Institutional survey targeting 50 leading African universities to assess HCI course offerings, barriers, and faculty expertise.
  • Analysis of geographic distribution, venue stratification, and collaboration patterns.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • 65.6% of papers included at least one Africa-based author, with 31% African-only collaborations and 34.6% mixed collaborations.
  • Post-2020 surge in Africa-only collaborations, indicating strengthening regional capacity.
  • Venue stratification: African-led papers dominate regional venues (e.g., IST-Africa, AfriCHI), while mainstream venues (e.g., CHI, INTERACT) feature mixed teams with fewer African leadership roles.
  • Faculty shortages and resource constraints limit HCI education, with 62.1% of surveyed departments offering at least one HCI course.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • First systematic mapping of African HCI research across multiple databases and venues.
  • Integration of bibliometric analysis with institutional survey data to contextualize findings.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Analysis of 509 unique papers from 294 venues, involving 2,139 author contributions.
  • Survey responses from 41 participants across 29 universities in 11 African countries.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Exclusion of non-indexed HCI research and indigenous language outputs.
  • Focus on authorship affiliations rather than nationality or ethnicity.
  • Future work should connect bibliometrics to funding flows, editorial pipelines, and longitudinal citation networks.

Summary

This paper provides a comprehensive map of African HCI research and education from 2002–2024, revealing patterns of venue stratification, authorship roles, and regional capacity growth. African-led papers cluster in regional venues, while mainstream venues feature mixed teams with fewer African leadership roles. Post-2020, Africa-only collaborations have surged, reflecting strengthening local capacity. Recommendations emphasize relational and reciprocal support, including bridging global and regional venues, fostering local mentorship, and embedding HCI into interdisciplinary pathways. By addressing systemic barriers and promoting African leadership, the paper aims to move African HCI from periphery to presence.