With AfricArxiv we want to provide a platform for African scientists to publish their research output immediately and free of cost. That way they can receive feedback on their work, improve it further and also identify collaboration partners for future projects. Preprints are evolving to be an integral part of Open Science. To have a repository specific to the African research community can also trigger interdisciplinary research specifically addressing African issues.
We hope that it will give African scientists more visibility internationally and also engage more in intra-Africa research collaborations. Science is comprised of many different disciplines with research groups scattered across the globe. Building communities for these disciplines and also specific to certain regions allows scientists and other stakeholders (policy makers, entrepreneurs, medical staff, farmers, journalists) to find research outputs of their interest more strategically.