Abstract
Nigeria has a very large research system, with nearly 200 universities that employed more than 60,000 academic staff at the end of 2019. The country is also one of Africa’s largest producers of scientific research across all disciplines, surpassed only by South Africa and Egypt. In the social sciences, in particular, Nigeria is Africa’s second-largest producer of published research, after South Africa. However, the country’s social science research (SSR) production does not match the size of its SSR system. Using mixed methods, we come up with two important reasons for this: (i) research inputs are low, mainly because research is poorly funded and researchers devote too little time to research as a result of poor organisational climate, and (ii) the research support system is weak. No single institution currently has a clear mandate to centrally coordinate SSR in Nigeria. Consequently, research efforts are often duplicated and the limited research resources are spread too thin. Moreover, logistical support for research is missing or inefficient in most organisations. Therefore, improving research productivity in the country would require much stronger research coordination and wide-ranging improvements in the research climate.
Highlights
Social science started to be recognised as a distinct subject area in the nineteenth century (Thompson, 1824)
We show that the volume of social science research production in Nigeria is quite high and has strong potentials for good quality
We made estimates based on the available data, and asked key informants who have extensive knowledge of the system—for instance, an estimate of the total number of academics in Nigerian universities was obtained from a member of the management staff at the National Universities Commission (NUC)
Summary
Social science started to be recognised as a distinct subject area in the nineteenth century (Thompson, 1824). The expression ‘social science’ or ‘social sciences’ is applied to the branch of science concerned with society and human behaviours. It includes disciplines such as psychology, cognitive sciences, economics, business, education, sociology, law, political science, social and economic geography, media and communications, and interdisciplinary social sciences (OECD, 2015). Social science research (SSR) helps in understanding and developing solutions to complex developmental challenges including climate change, pandemics, poverty, unemployment and others. SSR provides knowledge that is fundamental to the formulation and realisation of development agendas and policies, without which other branches of science are of limited use. “[s]cientific and technological innovations are necessary, but enabling them to make an impact requires an understanding of how people adapt and change their behaviour. Poverty and inequality call even more obviously for expertise beyond science and maths” (Shah, 2020)
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