Open access in Africa, 2002–2021
2026-11-03
Explorer · Open access in Africa · 2002–2021
Almost half of indexed African research is free to read.
We matched articles with an African author address (Web of Science, 2002–2021) to their open access status in Unpaywall, measured in August 2022. Use the filters to explore by year, country, research area, collaboration and funding.
Preprint · posted 3 Nov 2026 · not peer reviewed01 · Over time
Open access more than tripled, from 16.7% in 2002 to 55.0% in 2021
Share of all African-affiliated articles published each year that were free to read in August 2022, split by type of open access. Pick a measure above to bring one type forward.
Source: Web of Science Core Collection and Unpaywall (August 2022); n = articles; table oa_by_year. All of Africa (no yearly data by region in this release). Older articles had more time to become open, which raises Green in early years.
02 · Countries and regions
Open access ranges from 28.5% in Tunisia to 78.4% in Gambia
Click a country on the map or in the list to see its numbers. Countries are counted in full: an article with authors in Kenya and Ghana counts once for each.
Source: Web of Science and Unpaywall (August 2022); 54 countries; table oa_by_country. Western Sahara is shown without data. Small island states are marked with dots.
The dark line marks the mean of the 54 countries. Small grey numbers are articles.
Table oa_by_region. Full counting, so regions add up to more than the total.
03 · Research areas
Health research is the most open; engineering, chemistry and materials science the least
Each dot is one Web of Science research area. An article in two areas counts in both. Areas with few articles move a lot, so the default hides those with fewer than 1,000.
Source: Web of Science research areas; table oa_by_research_area (152 areas). All of Africa; the region filter does not apply here.
04 · Collaboration and funding
Articles with partners abroad, and funded articles, are more often open
These are associations, not causes: funded and international articles also differ in field, journal and team size.
International: at least one author outside Africa. National: all authors in one African country, including single authors. Table oa_by_collaboration_type.
Funded: the Web of Science record names a funder. Funding is under-recorded before 2008. Table oa_by_funding.
Open access share by partner region outside Africa
Articles with at least one co-author in the region (World Bank regions). Overall share only. Table oa_by_partner_region.
05 · Citations
Open articles have higher mean citations in every period
Mean Web of Science citations at export (2022), not adjusted for field or journal. Open articles are more often funded, international and in health research, which can raise citations on their own.
Table citations_by_period. Recent articles have had little time to be cited.
How to read and reuse
What the data can and cannot say
What is counted
Articles in the Web of Science Core Collection with at least one African institutional address, a DOI and a publication year 2002–2021. Open access status is one snapshot from Unpaywall, taken in August 2022.
Types of open access
- Gold: in a fully open journal
- Hybrid: open, with a licence, in a subscription journal
- Bronze: free on the publisher's site, no licence
- Green: free only in a repository
Main limits
Web of Science covers journals published in Africa poorly, so these numbers describe the internationally visible part of African research. All comparisons are descriptive. Unpaywall changed its method in May 2025, so a new query would give slightly different values.
Tables behind this page
Copy or download a table as CSV, or get all tables and the code on GitHub. Data: CC BY 4.0. Code: MIT.