Desempeño de la compuerta lógica y comparación con predecesora

5.4 Building Skills Capacity for Research Communication

In addition to mechanisms to facilitate research communication, the findings pointed to the need for communication skills. A range of participants commented that researchers and scholars were poor communicators who lacked training:

… there could still be a problem here and there in terms of being able to communicate the research outputs … lack of adequate communication skills (L1_A)

… then I happen to be this officer that even … doesn’t know how to communicate (GO2_Mb)

In some cases some knowledgeable people are very poor communicators. Highly skilled and trained people are invariably very poor in teaching and communication…

(GO1_Ma)

… capacity for that researcher to communicate…Not everybody is made into communicator …. We tend to assume that anybody doing academic work, whether you are teaching or doing research, you are automatically able to communicate the message particularly to the uninitiated in terms of understanding science... That is not as strong within our national institutions (RS1_G)

… academics are not trained to talk to the community … in a language they understand … (LR1_A)

… African needs to be skilled … how you communicate if it is writing or if it is speaking… Are the African scientists skilled? … And how many scientists can say take that message, whatever message it is for their work? (RS3_F).

In addition to language challenges posed by the fact that scientific research is undertaken and communicated in English, a foreign language difficult to master, participants indicated that many African scientists lack writing skills:

One reason an African would fail to write is because we don’t write well and you send this to somebody who is fluent in English… he won’t get past the first sentence and then sometimes you say “oh because I was an African” but many times it is because we were not able to put the idea across well enough … colleges do not train us to write… (RS3_F)

Hence, there was a need to train scientists how to write, as an editor explained:

We are trying also to improve the technical quality by thinking of ways and means of carrying out scientific writing courses for our scientists … to improve scientist to scientist communication in the region (SE1_C).

The data also exposed the need for verbal/oral presentation skills to address accent problems and sharpen researchers’ ability to convey the message in the most efficient way possible:

Even the delivery skills like in the case of presentation skills including verbal communication. Most scientists are actually engrossed in their work in labs and some of them require verbal communication skills (L1_E)

… also presentation. You could go to a conference and still not be able to give your message… people couldn’t understand may be your accent… As a scientist how have you presented your work? You have only 15 minutes to give your message. Did you just talk about the methods in all those 15 minutes and did not give even results then you walked away as an African and said people didn’t like you? (RS3_F).

Participants said the government’s inability to allocate budgets for capacity building has exacerbated these problems.

The study also identified a need to train and expose researchers to intellectual property rights to make them aware of the value of their research outputs and how to handle them so that they did not lose out on their discoveries:

… training scientists… on intellectual property rights so that even as they communicate they know that what they are communicating is information that generates the technologies that are sold as products… they should communicate within the parameters provided for by the intellectual property agreements that are in place…(SE1_C).

A scientist reported that researchers’ capacity to communicate was also hampered by fear of criticism, especially in collaborative research with people from other cultures:

… Europeans might not be quick to criticise or to help; they will keep away. So one might fear the criticism but it might not be given to you openly… the people giving critique might not be open to give it in a way that you can use it or you might not be open (RS3_F).

The scientist continued that the situation was complicated by the rigid nature of African scientists, who might be unwilling to communicate and so would not benefit from peer-review:

As an African scientist you might think this is good but you might not be open to get a review from your peers (RS3_F).

The findings point to the need to nurture an atmosphere where open communication can flourish. This would allow evaluation and validation of research output in a bid to

enhance the quality. This underscores the need for good mentoring as well. In addition to building the communication capacity of the researchers, research librarians participating in the study expressed the need to be also trained on the technical subject matter as well the scientific content. They felt this would build their capacity to assist researchers well.

Participants also pointed to the need for specialised information management skills like information communication and repackaging. The language, format and design of research outputs in relation to target audiences were a big challenge to research communication. Participants reported that it was difficult for research outputs to have the desired impact because of these factors, as a librarian and a scientist explained:

… the gap I see between this sort of high-level kind of research and what the farmer at the grassroots needs to alleviate the poverty is that there is actually a communication gap to be able to communicate the outputs and repackage them such that they will have impact on these targets. … The kind of research that is also churned out of here should also reach the policy maker because these are the people who will make a difference in the rural area through the policy they make. Again I see a need in addressing the gap between these technical outputs and the impacts it has on the policy makers so that they can make the right policies … (L2_E).

I have seen many scientists stand there and totally disabled to communicate to a farmer if you told them you shouldn’t use any technical language. In my country, Tanzania, we had a case where one time the president, Nyerere, told us we had to go for a meeting where he was opening and since I am going to be here for a whole day and I don’t want to hear single scientific term nor terminology and I don’t want to hear anything in English. You are going to talk to me in Kiswahili and talk to me so that I understand even if you are talking very complicated terms. But I want to hear it in Kiswahili and without any hard terminology. It was painful (RS1_G).

Moreover, scientific research outputs are in text, yet, some of the users and intended audience are semi- or illiterate.

There was need, therefore, to synthesise scientific research outputs into simpler language that could easily more be understood by non-scientific audiences and further translate the simplified versions into the various vernaculars for the majority at the grassroots. However, such access would not be cheap:

… the fact that you can publish at the top notch journals is good and I would encourage it any time. But packaging this information in something else… in a language that would be beneficial to those farmers (RS4_E)

You have to translate the brochures and booklets into different vernaculars, which is also a cost (RS6_C)

… you find that most of the research output is quite technical and is targeted to other people who may not understand the technical language. So the aspect of repackaging information is important (L2_E).

Further, some participants expressed the need to repackage scientific research outputs into alternative formats, like pictures, photographs and diagrams, which could easily be discerned by non-scientific and even illiterate audiences, if there were to be leverage in using scientific communication to inform policy and decision-making and contribute to the development process as per ERS 2003-2007 and Vision 2030:

… form. I believe in what I call pictures or reality says more than a thousand words.

Most of the information available out there is in texts and there is very few diagrammatic pictorial forms which may make people whom we want to influence to understand quicker or better. Our end-users could be semi-illiterate or not as literate as we are. We need to communicate to them in forms that are easier to grasp- pictures, diagrams, photographs … (RS4_E)

... there are no versions which somebody shortens and makes them suitable for combinative dissemination. … unless people/journalists now come and fine tune this it is very difficult for us to communicate it to the community (LR1_A)

Even the booklets are for the advanced farmers, because most of them cannot read, e.g. those in Moyale, Marsabit, Samburu where 95% of farmers are illiterate (RS6_C).

Thus, repackaging research information was a need that must be met for effective dissemination. Participants recommended the establishment of an independent body to coordinate research information communication and repackaging:

How do we package information in a way that many multiple users can still get it in the form we want received? This requires a packaging component and the person packaging may not be the person doing the job- you cannot be a jack-of-all-trades. So synergies and coordination is heavily required (RS4_E).

They felt leaving research information dissemination and repackaging to the researchers and scholars would be an onerous job, for they do not have the skills and time to do that. Hence, setting up a specialised body would ensure fast access to information and spare researchers’ time to continue doing research to generate new ideas:

…packaging also includes information management skills…most of them don’t have skills in repackaging information as it relates to the various target audiences…

(L2_E)

... training, empowering us to be able to package our materials because it is one thing to say yes we want to make value use documents. But a value use document needs to be written in a certain way and may be not all scientists can write in such a way….

(RS3_F).

You also need management of this information because it is not right if you have a body of information and everyone wants to access them at will at their own time.

Then you will not have time to generate new information as a researcher; you will be busy communicating only what you knew last year. So there is need for management of this information. Who else? Where can we put x information? Who packages it? … Otherwise a lot of time will be spent communicating and less time will be spent generating [a] new body of information and in science that is the death of you (RS4_E)

… we have to evolve a system for managers [research information] in institutions … (RS5_D).

Such a body could repackage research information into languages and formats for a range of audiences, so that it could be applied appropriately.

The international research institutions, and a few national institutions like C, were already repackaging their research outputs into simpler formats, such as brochures, flyers and technical notes, and distributing them to other research institutions and farmers during field days and national agricultural shows. F was also in the process of doing so. However, for the majority of national institutions, repackaging was hampered by inadequate funding predicated on donor support:

… we ask these people to package the information in the form that is usable and we have been publishing a series of the same … …but you can’t rule out the fact that in some technical note series the communication is scientist to scientist. But largely the communication in [the] technical notes series is from the experts to the user (SE1_C)

… we regularly produce a number of brochures and flyers when funding allows…

(SE2_D).

The need for repackaging of scientific output affirms Borgman (2007) when she says, “Nevertheless, making content that was created for one audience useful to another is a complex problem. Each field has its own vocabulary, data and structures…Different descriptions, tools, and services may be required to share content between audiences,” (p.10).

The need to build the communication capacity of scientists has been supported by the literature and is not only a Kenyan/African problem, but global (Alo, 2003; Ventola, 2007; Adewuyi, 2008; Gewin, 2009). Hence, governments and research institutions need to pay attention to upskilling researchers, in order to leverage research communication, whether by traditional methods or ICT-enabled.