Pct41

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Africa RISING PCT #41
5 May 2020
Skype call
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Present

  1. Siboniso Moyo (SM) - Chair
  2. Bernard Vanlauwe (BV)
  3. Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon (IHZ)
  4. Carol Jenkins (CJ)
  5. Carlo Azzari (CA)
  6. Peter Thorne (PT)
  7. Mateete Bekunda (MB)
  8. Fred Kizito (FK)
  9. Kindu Mekonnen (KM)
  10. Jonathan Odhong' (JO) – Secretary


Apologies

  1. Jerry Glover (JG)


Agenda

  • Rejection of a manuscript by a journal
  • PCT mini-workshop/follow up discussions on strategic actions for AR in light of ongoing restructure processes
  • Responses to the internally commissioned external review
  • AoB/ Closing the meeting

Rejection of a manuscript by a journal


Background: IHZ briefed the PCT that a publication by an AR researcher from the UDS Ghana had been declined by the Scientific African Journal because parts of it had been published in one of the technical reports on CG Space. This was the first time this is happening, but probably was a sign that the program needs to come up with a plan to address possible future recurrence.

PCT members made the following observations on the issue:
  • BV: I am personally not worried that more papers will be treated this way. But it is good for the Program to have a position about this.
  • PT: In general terms, not having seen the materials that were rejected from the report. I think if it’s just a table then this is an extreme case and maybe we should request for more clearer guidelines from the journal. If its larger amounts of text that was cut and paste. I suggest that the authors should probably just take stock of what they took from the technical reports and if they think that it was harsh, then ask for a review of the case. But overall it is quite an unusual case.
  • JO: I checked with the team which handles CG Space at ILRI to establish whether they have experience with this kind of issue. They informed me that this hasn’t happened before and it’s a unique case. Probably as a program we shouldn’t overreact by shutting down our uploads (of technical reports and other documents) to CG Space. I think this scenario could be handled through maybe a protocol/advisory for partners and also just encouraging more due diligence on the part of authors.
  • CA: It looks like (from the info. we have), that the author didn’t cite that piece. As long as that piece of information was cited then there shouldn’t have been a problem. The thing is is that, when you write, and you take something from what you wrote in the past then still you need to cite it. Self-plagiarism is also forbidden.
  • IHZ: I think the issue is that the author (partner in question) didn’t know what we had presented form their reports to us to the donor. And also, they may not be aware that we upload our reports to CG Space.
Action: Communicate that technical reports are usually published on CG Space after being sent to the donor. The effect of this is that they should always make an effort to cite these reports in their manuscript especially if some of the data they have submitted as part of their contractual obligations to IITA has been used in the reports. JO to draft this communication, share with PCT members for inputs before the Chair sends it out to all partners.

PCT mini-workshop/follow up discussions on strategic actions for AR in light of ongoing restructure processes


SM: We need to firm up an agreeable date for us to have a mini-workshop that will focus on the One CGIAR transition and how Africa RISING fits into. Also, during that mini-workshop, we will discuss a couple of the points Jerry had noted during our previous meeting. This is important because, as most of you are probably aware, the reforms are being driven through various transitional committees. One of those committees, TAC 2 (which is looking at the research agenda) has already held a couple of meetings which makes it necessary for us to develop our strategy (as Africa RISING) on how we will be involved in these changes. I am therefore proposing that the 2 PCT Co-Chairs, together with Jerry to have a discussion about fixing possible dates for this mini-workshop and also flesh out an agenda for the mini-workshop. Tentatively, this maybe somewhere around the last 2-weeks of May, but we will get back to you on this.


Responses to the internally commissioned external review