The Academic Freedom Index is the first conceptually thorough assessment of academic freedom worldwide and a times series dataset going back to 1900. While some previous datasets exist, they are geographically limited and methodologically or conceptually insufficient to offer a comprehensive picture of the levels of academic freedom across time and space. This paper introduces the new expert-coded dataset that includes the overall Academic Freedom Index alongside several specific indicators, to which more than 2050 country experts around the world have contributed and which is freely available as part of V-Dem's time-series data releases. The paper discusses its advantages compared to other types of data on academic freedom, details the conceptualization of the new indicators, and offers a content and convergent validation of the results. The dataset provides ample opportunities for scholars to conduct in-depth research on academic freedom and its infringements, and for policymakers and advocates to monitor and analyze patterns and trends of academic freedom around the world. 

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The Academic Freedom Index and Its indicators: Introduction to new global time-series V-Dem data

/pdf/gender-political-inclusion-and-democracy-in-africa-some-1b1j0u3z.pdf

Gender political inclusion and democracy in Africa: some empirical evidence

/pdf/gender-political-inclusion-and-democracy-in-africa-some-1v34prxk.pdf

Gender, political inclusion, and democracy in Africa: Some empirical evidence

Academic freedom in Africa: A systematic review of content analysis studies

The objective of this paper is to provide information on reliable sources of secondary data available for applied social researchers, feasible studies, and Econometric Modelling techniques that can be applied in those studies. Using secondary data for research projects has now become popular with the availability of nation-wide survey data from reliable sources. The Econometrics methods ranging from multiple regression analysis to dynamic panel analysis can be applied with secondary data to generate nationally representative empirical evidence on the subject of interest. However, the researchers need to be careful of reading secondary data using documentation provided along with datasets. There are limitations and challenges of using secondary data for researching as well.

Researching with Secondary Data: A brief overview of possibilities and limitations from the viewpoint of social research

Shared experiences but diversified developments make Africa an interesting region in which to investigate the impact of education on democracy, and the role of academic freedom in this impact. As b...

Hajer Kratou

Papers

The Impact of Academic Freedom on Democracy in Africa