2026 ALISE Annual Conference

This study examines who reads African scholarship by analyzing usage patterns in March 2026 on African Journals Online (AJOL) through the lens of world-systems theory. Data from 225 reader countries reveal a sharply uneven geography of engagement: core nations, led by the United States and China, dominate downloads, while Africa, despite being home to AJOL’s top journal producers, exhibits far lower download intensity. Nigeria and South Africa, the platform’s largest contributors, rank only mid-tier in global readership. Findings show that AJOL’s open-access model does not disrupt core–periphery hierarchies, highlighting persistent structural barriers to the equitable global circulation of African knowledge.