Beyond Publication: Why Many Brilliant Nigerian Scholars Remain Invisible
By Adekunle Saheed Akinola
A familiar saying in academia is “publish or perish.” For decades, it has shaped the careers of university lecturers and researchers. Promotion, tenure and professional recognition have largely depended on the number of scholarly articles a researcher publishes. But the academic world has changed. Today, publication alone is no longer enough. If a piece of research cannot be found, read and cited, its impact is severely diminished, no matter how brilliant it may be.
This is the quiet crisis confronting many Nigerian academics.
Across the country, there are professors, senior lecturers and early-career researchers whose publications rival those of their counterparts in Europe, North America and Asia. Some have spent decades producing thoughtful, original and policy-relevant research. Yet, beyond their institutions, very few people know who they are. Their names rarely appear in international discussions, not because their work lacks quality, but because much of it remains hidden from the world.
The tragedy is that many of these scholars have done everything academia asked of them. They conducted research, survived the rigours of peer review and published in reputable journals. They fulfilled the requirements for promotion. Still, they remain largely invisible.
One reason is historical. Before the digital revolution, many Nigerian journals were available only in print. University libraries across the country still hold shelves of valuable journals containing research that cannot be located through Google or any academic search engine. Those articles are effectively locked away. Unless someone physically visits the library, they may never know such research exists.
Even today, the problem has not disappeared.
Many local journals now have websites, but some are poorly maintained or not indexed by major academic databases. Others lack the digital infrastructure that allows search engines to identify and retrieve their contents. As a result, an excellent article may remain buried online where almost nobody will ever find it.
In academic research, visibility matters.
A study that cannot be discovered is unlikely to be read. If it is not read, it will probably not be cited. And if it is not cited, its contribution to knowledge becomes difficult to measure.
This partly explains why some researchers with fewer publications enjoy greater international recognition than colleagues who have published far more. Their work is simply easier to discover.
The modern academic ecosystem rewards visibility. Universities now pay close attention to citation counts, research impact, international collaborations and online engagement. Funding bodies increasingly ask applicants to demonstrate the influence of their previous work. Editors invite scholars whose research they can easily locate. Conference organisers often search online before selecting keynote speakers.
Visibility has become academic capital.
Fortunately, improving visibility does not always require enormous financial resources. It often begins with simple but deliberate steps.
Every researcher should have an ORCID iD, a permanent digital identifier that distinguishes one scholar from another, especially where names are common or appear in different formats. An ORCID profile should contain an up-to-date list of publications and be linked to the researcher’s university profile.
Academics should also create and maintain a Google Scholar profile. Google Scholar automatically tracks citations, calculates research metrics such as the h-index and makes publications easier for other scholars to discover. Surprisingly, many experienced academics still do not have an active Google Scholar profile.
Another important platform is ResearchGate. It allows researchers to share eligible versions of their publications, connect with scholars in similar fields and receive notifications when their work is read or cited. Academia.edu offers similar opportunities for increasing readership and building professional networks across disciplines.
Researchers should also consider depositing their work in recognised institutional or subject repositories. Most universities around the world now maintain institutional repositories where staff can upload accepted manuscripts, conference papers, working papers, theses and dissertations. These repositories are indexed by search engines, making research more visible.
Where copyright permits, scholars should deposit their work in repositories such as Zenodo, developed by CERN and supported by the European Commission, Figshare, Open Science Framework (OSF), SSRN for the social sciences and law, arXiv for mathematics, computer science and physics, bioRxiv for biological sciences and medRxiv for health sciences. Many publishers permit authors to upload preprints or accepted manuscripts under specific conditions. Understanding these permissions can significantly expand the audience for a publication.
For Nigerian researchers, institutional repositories deserve far greater attention. Universities should ensure that every thesis, dissertation and journal article produced within their institutions is preserved digitally and made discoverable where copyright allows. Research funded with public resources should not remain hidden on office shelves or forgotten inside departmental libraries.
Academic visibility also requires researchers to communicate beyond journals.
Many outstanding studies never influence public policy simply because policymakers never encounter them. Writing newspaper opinion articles, publishing policy briefs, participating in webinars, delivering public lectures and discussing research on professional platforms such as LinkedIn can introduce academic findings to audiences far beyond the university community.
There is nothing improper about promoting one’s research. Sharing knowledge is part of scholarship. A scientist who announces a new discovery is not seeking personal fame; he or she is ensuring that the discovery reaches those who can use it. The same principle applies to every discipline.
Universities also have responsibilities.
Promotion criteria should place greater emphasis not only on publication numbers but also on measurable research impact. Library services should train academics on digital scholarship, research visibility and copyright compliance. Journal editors should improve publication standards by adopting Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), proper metadata and internationally recognised indexing practices. These are no longer luxuries. They are essential features of modern scholarly publishing.
Government agencies and research funding organisations should invest in the digitisation of older Nigerian journals and archival publications. Decades of valuable scholarship remain inaccessible simply because they have never been converted into searchable digital formats. Preserving this intellectual heritage should be a national priority.
The truth is simple.
Research achieves its purpose only when it reaches people.
An article sitting unread in a filing cabinet cannot influence public policy. A brilliant legal analysis hidden in a forgotten journal cannot shape judicial reasoning. A groundbreaking medical study that nobody discovers cannot improve healthcare.
Knowledge creates value only when it is shared.
Nigeria has no shortage of brilliant researchers. What we lack is a culture that places equal importance on producing knowledge and ensuring that knowledge is visible to the world.
The next generation of Nigerian scholars should not be remembered only by the number of papers listed on their curriculum vitae. They should be known because their ideas are being read, discussed, cited and applied across continents.
Publishing remains important.
But in the digital age, visibility is what transforms research into influence.
About the Author
Adekunle Saheed Akinola is an academic research consultant and legal researcher with expertise in academic research writing, comparative international human rights law, international environmental law, and sustainable development law. His research focuses on producing high-quality scholarly publications that contribute to legal scholarship and policy development. He is open to academic consultations, research collaborations, manuscript development, journal publication support, and interdisciplinary research partnerships.
For consultation or collaboration, he can be contacted via:
Email: choicelndsolicitors9@gmail.com
Phone/WhatsApp: +234 803 249 3960
ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5346-8773
About Author
