They look at the “data engagement activities” of scientists in (bio)chemistry laboratories in Kenya and South Africa but it is unclear what exactly they mean when they say “data” (or “data engagement” for that matter”).The analysis looks very broadly at use of professonal networking sites (as places where researchers build social networks to ask for data or research outputs?).
Specifically, they “selected sites in countries with a robust history of scientific research and that represent major contributors to Africa’s scientific output. We also chose to focus on university laboratories, which, while having engaged in foreign collaborations and received foreign grants, were not part of large research networks. This selection allowed us to come to grips with how the ideals of OS are taken up within the context of a specifically African public institution, illuminating perspectives and practices that might otherwise be obscured by the cultures of a transnational research.” (40)
