AuthorAID: A global network for early career researchers from low and middle-income countries

News

By Jennifer Chapin

Jennifer Chapin is Programme Manager, Research and Communications at INASP, an international development charity based in Oxford, UK. INASP works with a global network of partners in Africa, Latin America and Asia to support individuals and institutions to produce, share and use research and knowledge. Projects are running in 28 countries.

“…being an AuthorAID mentor goes beyond a conventional teacher-student relationship –­ it is a really stimulating and worthwhile learning process for both mentee and mentor”

Dan Korbel, UK

Researchers in the developing world have long been under-represented in published research. This is not a huge surprise. They face many of the same intense pressures to publish as academics in the UK, yet they lack access to the fundamental resources needed to communicate their research: information and training, writing support and mentorship. How can they manage the pressure of publishing rigorous scientific research and communicating findings in a way that meets publisher expectations?

In order to address some of these issues, the AuthorAID programme (www.authoraid.info) was launched in 2007 by the Oxford-based organisation INASP (www.inasp.info) to support researchers in low and middle-income countries to publish and communicate their work. It also serves as a wider global forum to discuss and disseminate research.

One of the cornerstones of AuthorAID is a popular online mentoring system (www.authoraid.info/en/mentoring) that allows volunteer mentors to use their crucial skills and experience to guide less experienced researchers through the challenges of publishing and communicating their research. Since the platform was set up in 2008, requests for mentoring assistance have intensified, and mentors are in demand. The platform is open to researchers from all subject areas and currently comprises almost 2,000 active mentors and mentees. Support is available in a number of languages, including English, French and Spanish.

The mentoring system helps pair together experienced mentors with researchers who need support at any stage of their writing project. It is easy to make contact with mentors or mentees: we have a ‘find a researcher’ search facility and our mentoring dashboard will automatically suggest suitable ‘matches’ based on subject and skills – rather like a dating website for researchers! 

Fifteen of the most common types of support needed by new mentees include:

• Writing
• Article planning
• Proofreading
• Grant proposal development
• Language editing or proofreading support
• Career mentoring
• Theses and dissertation writing
• Literature reviews
• Study design
• Statistics
• Presentation planning
• Responding to peer review
• Publication ethics
• Technical reports
• Dealing with the publishing process