This article uses a metaphor of social cybernetics to explain the neoliberal science politics manifest in the deployment of information technology to homogenize, centralize and globalize scholarly performance criteria, a development that benefits the developed regions of the world that already have a competitive advantage in the use of the technologies. The international citation indexes collect, organize and analyse skewed proportions of the world’s scholarly publications mainly from the North and make generalizations about the state and structure of global scientific knowledge, thus exerting undue control and discipline on global intellectual discourse. The databases do not accord any deference to the global diversity and complexity in human and other resources. However, autonomous databases that have regional, national and organizational focuses are beginning to emerge, but such an infrastructure is not yet available in Africa and many other developing regions. It is envisaged, however, that the current African Citation Index Project of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa will contribute in bridging this gap.