Machine Learning Research Trends in Africa: A 30 Years Overview with Bibliometric Analysis Review

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 30 years of machine learning research in Africa, highlighting trends, collaborations, and future directions to foster knowledge exchange across the continent.

Contribution

It offers the first extensive bibliometric overview of African machine learning research over three decades, identifying key trends, collaborations, and research gaps.

Findings

Identified 2761 machine learning documents from 54 African countries.

Visualized research landscape and future trends in African machine learning.

Highlighted collaboration patterns among African research institutions.

Abstract

In this paper, a critical bibliometric analysis study is conducted, coupled with an extensive literature survey on recent developments and associated applications in machine learning research with a perspective on Africa. The presented bibliometric analysis study consists of 2761 machine learning-related documents, of which 98% were articles with at least 482 citations published in 903 journals during the past 30 years. Furthermore, the collated documents were retrieved from the Science Citation Index EXPANDED, comprising research publications from 54 African countries between 1993 and 2021. The bibliometric study shows the visualization of the current landscape and future trends in machine learning research and its application to facilitate future collaborative research and knowledge exchange among authors from different research institutions scattered across the African continent.