Kigali, Rwanda - A new scientific journal has been launched in Africa in an effort to increase research output from the continent, which currently provides just two percent of all global research publications.

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and Elsevier announced the launch of The Scientific African on Monday during the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) conference in Kigali, Rwanda.

“Scientific African is central to the Next Einstein Forum’s vision of propelling Africa onto the global scientific stage,” AIMS CEO and NEF founder Thierry Zomahoun said during the unveiling.

“The NEF is committed to promoting scientific excellence and collaboration in Africa. We believe the two go hand-in-hand to improve scientific output and outcomes and we are happy that Scientific African will be led by the NEF’s brilliant community of scientists,” he said.

The Scientific African is not only a way for African researchers to showcase their research, but it is also meant as a stepping stone to bigger, more prestigious journals.

“Scientific African is a state-of-the-art platform, which will complement national and regional efforts to increase visibility and provide cohesion for the African research community,” Elsevier CEO Ron Mobed said.

Elsevier is one of the world’s most prominent publishers of scientific journals.

Besides offering the infrastructure for African scientists to publish their work, Elsevier will also offer services to improve the scientific community in Africa as a whole.

“We offer the majority of our research for free to around a hundred developing countries around the world,” Mobed said.

“We offer grants for researchers to travel and we offer grants specifically to women early in their careers to help them break free from whatever infrastructural or environmental circumstances might be holding them back to achieve their full potential,” he added.

The company will also offer courses to librarians and institutions to curate bodies of research.

During the three-day Next Einstein Forum, scientists, policymakers and other stakeholders from across the continent come together with the goal to not only improve the field of science in Africa but also discuss how science can help improve the lives of people all over Africa.