Vital knowledge from the Global South

Wednesday, 07 July 2010 17:38

Peer-reviewed science from the developing world will help the IPCC make stronger assessments. SEI’s new journal is filling gaps in knowledge.

The academic journal Climate and Development was born in 2007 while SEI staff were working on the IPCC’s fourth assessment report.

They noticed that more peer-reviewed research from the developing world was needed to underpin solid conclusions about the impacts of climate change and how these impacts might affect people and communities.

Research of the highest standard
The only option was to turn to so-called ‘grey literature’ (non peer-reviewed research) to support assessments. This backfired during the controversy that erupted around IPCC in 2009 and 2010 when the use of grey literature provided ammunition for critics to attack the panel’s scientific credibility.

In 2009, SEI and Earthscan published Climate and Development as a move to meet the need for peer-reviewed research from developing countries.

The journal communicates research of the highest standard on the links between climate and development, with a focus on the Global South. Now in its second volume, it has published 22 peer-reviewed articles on the developing world, twelve of which are by developingworld authors.

This data will be available to the IPCC in its future work. The journal is also reaching a wide audience: some 80 universities and institutions subscribed to the journal in its first year.

Writeshops to transfer skills
SEI not only publishes research from the South, it also builds capacity to ensure that more of it will be available in the future. SEI has launched an initiative called Writeshops, where up-and-coming researchers from the developing world attend workshops with experienced academics.

Writeshops aim to transfer the skills required to write science articles that can stand up to the peer-review process. In 2008 SEI ran a successful pilot writeshop in Bangkok, and three more are planned for 2010 in South America, the Middle East and the Pacific.