Boosting Scientific Publications in Africa: Which IPRs Protection Channels Matter?
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Boosting Scientific Publications in Africa: Which IPRs Protection Channels Matter? Simplice A. Asongu 1
Received: 6 February 2014 / Accepted: 23 June 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract This paper examines how Africa’s share in the contribution to global scientific knowledge can be boosted with existing intellectual property rights (IPRs) mechanisms. The findings which broadly indicate that tight IPRs are correlated with knowledge contribution can be summarized in two main points. First, the enshrinement of IPRs laws in a country’s constitution is a good condition for knowledge economy. Secondly, while main intellectual property (IP) laws, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties, and bilateral treaties are positively correlated with scientific publications, the IPRs law channels have a negative correlation. Whereas the study remains expositional, it does however offer interesting insights into the need for IPRs in the promotion of knowledge contribution within sampled countries of the continent. Other policy implications are discussed. Keywords Publications . Intellectual property rights . Governance . Africa JEL Classification A20 . F42 . O34 . O38 . O55
Introduction The 2013 Shanghai Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU, 2013)1 present a dominant picture of developed countries vis-à-vis their developing counterparts. It
1 The 2013 ARWU release by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University which began about 10 years ago has been annually reporting the top 500 world universities from reliable data and a transparent methodology. Moreover, the Shanghai ARWU is acknowledged as the most trustworthy and precursor in the rankings of world universities.
* Simplice A. Asongu [email protected] 1
African Governance and Development Institute, P.O. Box 1834, Yaoundé, Cameroon
J Knowl Econ
highlights the dominance of North America, Western Europe, Australia, Japan, and China and the catch-up struggle of Latin America and miserable representation of the Middle East, South East Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.2 As countries that have mastered knowledge economy (KE) continue to steer development in the global arena, the relevance of KE as a root axis of the twenty-first century development is no longer an issue of moderate consensus (Albuquerque 2000; Esler and Nelson 1998; Murray and Stern 2005; Mowery and Sampat 2005; World Bank 2007; Mazzoleni and Nelson 2007; Amavilah 2009; Mazzoleni 2008; Chandra and Yokoyama 2011; Weber 2011; Asongu 2013a; Nyarko 2013a; Andrés and Asongu 2014a). Against this background, the mission of universities and public research organizations in facilitating the transition from product-based economies to knowledge-based economies is crucial. As demonstrated in the early experiences of Germany in the nineteenth century and late experiences of Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and China), beside education, universities by undertaking basic and applied research contribut
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