INDEXA Declaration

🌍 We are INDEXA Declaration Signatories

We proudly support the INDEXA Declaration for Advancing Scientific Research and Ethical Publishing in Africa and the Middle East.

By signing this declaration, we commit to fostering collaborative, rigorous, inclusive, and ethical scientific practices — fighting predatory publishing, promoting open science, empowering resource-limited regions, and upholding the highest standards of research integrity.

Read the Full INDEXA Declaration →

Join hundreds of researchers, institutions, editors, and publishers who have already signed.
Together, we are building a more ethical and equitable scientific future for Africa and the Middle East.

INDEXA: Africa and Middle East Declaration for Advancing Scientific Research

The INDEXA Declaration establishes a transformative framework to advance scientific research through collaborative, rigorous, inclusive, and ethical practices, tailored to the unique contexts of Africa and the Middle East. It calls on institutions, governments, and funders to actively support equitable access, local knowledge integration, sustainable innovation, and scientific integrity to empower researchers, publishers, and institutions, particularly in resource-limited countries. Our commitments are:

Core Principles (applicable to all signatories)

🔬 Research Integrity

Fostering collaborative research: Encouraging interdisciplinary partnerships and knowledge sharing to build a vibrant research community bridging local and global expertise in Africa and the Middle East.
Upholding scientific rigor: Advocating for high-quality, reproducible, and ethical research practices to produce credible, impactful, and trustworthy scientific outputs.
Preventing plagiarism and misconduct: Supporting tools and policies to detect and address plagiarism, data falsification, and unethical practices, ensuring trust in research outputs.
Fighting predatory practices: Raising awareness and implementing measures to protect researchers from predatory journals, conferences, and exploitative practices undermining scientific integrity.
Empowering resource-limited regions: Ensuring equitable access to funding, tools, and publishing opportunities for researchers and publishers in economically challenged countries.

📖 Open Science & Access

Integrating local knowledge: Valuing and incorporating indigenous and regional knowledge, such as traditional medicine and agricultural practices, to enrich global science while addressing local challenges.
Advancing open science: Promoting open-access publication models, data sharing, and collaborative platforms to tackle regional priorities like public health, education equity, and sustainable development.
Supporting young researchers: Providing mentorship, training, and resources to nurture the next generation of scientists.
Leveraging technological innovation: Encouraging the use of digital tools, AI, and innovative technologies to overcome barriers to research access and dissemination.
Supporting scientific research in Africa: Strengthening African research ecosystems through funding, infrastructure development, and international partnerships.

⚖️ Ethics, Diversity & Inclusion

Organizing and participating in scientific events: Actively organizing conferences, workshops, and seminars to promote the INDEXA Declaration principles.
Promoting diversity and inclusion: Encouraging equitable participation of diverse groups, including women, underrepresented communities, and interdisciplinary researchers.
Ensuring fair and inclusive evaluation: Implementing transparent, bias-free evaluation systems for researchers, institutions, and publishers.
Championing research reproducibility: Mandating deposition of data, code, and materials in trusted repositories, and encouraging registered reports.
Emphasising ethical authorship: Adhering to ICMJE criteria for authorship, disclosing contributions, and avoiding honorary or ghost authorship.

🤝 Collaboration & Capacity Building

Respecting copyright and licensing: Using Creative Commons licenses (CC BY, CC BY‑SA, CC0) for open access works, and respecting third‑party copyright.
Adopting open peer review: Promoting transparency by publishing reviewer comments and author responses where possible.
Encouraging preprint sharing: Allowing and supporting deposition of preprints before or during journal submission, without violating embargoes.
Fostering ethical use of AI: Disclosing use of generative AI in writing and figure creation, and ensuring human responsibility for all content.
Implementing data management plans: Requiring DMPs for funded projects and encouraging data citation with persistent identifiers (DOIs).

🌍 Regional & Global Impact

Supporting transformative agreements: Negotiating institutional agreements that shift subscription budgets to open access publishing.
Upholding copyright retention: Advocating for authors’ right to retain key rights (e.g., for thesis, teaching, future publications).
Ensuring accessibility: Making research outputs accessible to persons with disabilities, including alt text, captions, and readable formats.
Protecting research participants: Following strict ethical guidelines for human and animal subjects, including informed consent and privacy.
Promoting responsible metrics: Using balanced, contextual indicators for research evaluation, avoiding over‑reliance on journal impact factors.

By signing the INDEXA Declaration, you pledge to champion these principles to drive collaborative, rigorous, inclusive, ethical, and sustainable scientific progress across Africa and the Middle East. Join our growing community of supporters to advance research for a better future.

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Recent Signatories

Loucif Naouel (ALGERIA, researcher)
Mohamed Lamine Messikh (Algeria, researcher)
Abdelmadjid Recioui (Algeria, publisher)
urban art bio (Algeria, editor)
African journal of political sciences (Algeria, independent_publisher)
indexall data (Algeria, independent_publisher)
CHAIB BACHIR (Algeria, researcher)
Dr. Amina Diallo (Senegal, researcher)
Prof. Youssef Mansouri (Morocco, researcher)
Dr. Grace Mbeki (South Africa, researcher)