Manylabs Africa
The ManyLabs Africa project aims at decolonising open science research by exploring the generalisability and reproducibility of effects theorised and identified in Africa by African researchers. Although various multi-lab multinational research initiatives have emerged (Ebersole, 2016, 2020; Forscher et al., 2022; Klein et al., 2014; 2018, 2022; Open Science Collaboration, 2015), the coordinators of the project highlight how these are potentially problematic in two ways. First, these studies often focus on North American and European claims and barely consider theories generated on the African continent. Second, in most of these initiatives, African populations are severely underrepresented (Adetula et al. 2022). By reversing the process, ManyLabs Africa uniquely forefronts efforts to counter these limits. African researchers were in charge of the selection of the effects we will explore. Based on rigorous pre-set study selection criteria (report at https://osf.io/v6j28), three survey-based studies on sexual behaviour. We will test the generalisability of the three effects in each site. The project includes so far 262 collaborators from 40 Countries in North America, Europe and Africa (Canada, USA, North, Centre and South Africa; North, Centre and South Europe).
Funding: EDI fund (University of Salford)
Team