Collaboration in education research from Africa

• Presents new and open bibliometric data on research collaboration in the field of education with a focus on researchers based in Africa. • In terms of collaboration, the research finds that single authorship (no collaboration) is most common, followed by institutional and international collaboration, with national collaboration being the least frequent. • The data show that all collaboration types have increased over time. • The data show that education researchers from Africa do not frequently occupy the most valued positions when they publish collaboratively. • The study concludes that, based on the data, African education researchers are likely making more marginal contributions to education research when collaborating with international peers. This paper investigates the dynamics of collaboration by education researchers from Africa to understand better how they navigate competing expectations and prevailing asymmetries in the production of new scientific knowledge. Using OpenAlex data, the study analyzes collaboration types and the author positions of African researchers in the field of education. The results show that single authorship is most common, followed by institutional and international collaboration, with national collaboration being the least frequent. All collaboration types have increased over time. The data show that education researchers from Africa do not frequently occupy the most valued positions when they publish collaboratively (they are increasingly occupying middle author positions) and that collaboration with researchers from peripheral countries in the global science system has become more common than collaboration with core country researchers. The study concludes that, based on the data, African education researchers are likely to making more marginal contributions to education research when collaborating with international peers.