a strategic approach to scholarly research in south africa - s veldsman (assaf)
TRANSCRIPT
Applying scientific thinkingin the service of society
A strategic approach to scholarly research in South Africa
S VeldsmanDirector: SPURhodes
University 21 Sept 2014
Open Access in South Africa: in a nutshell
• Berlin Declaration: RSA 14, ROF 22• Institutional repositories: SA 24• Limited APC funds: Univ. Pretoria, Cape
Town and Stellenbosch
Open Access in South Africa: in a nutshell
• Berlin Declaration: RSA 14, ROF 22• Institutional repositories: SA 24• Limited APC funds: Univ. Pretoria, Cape
Town and Stellenbosch
JOURNALS @ RU
7 editors of journals published through societies or commercial publishers
DOAJ.org – RSA (n = 284) 201470 (27%)
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Towards a new quality assurance system in South Africa
• In 2003, the Policy and Procedures for the Measurement of Research Output of Public Higher Education Institutions.
• The purpose of the policy is to “encourage research productivity by rewarding quality research output at public higher education institutions.
• The policy assumed that recognised research outputs are of high (assured) quality,
• that they are widely accessible across the globe, • and that they provide a sound basis for grant-making involving
public funds, • Applications for both new and current journals in the system• Check on technical compliance and not check in quality• DHET approached ASSAf 2009-only new applications• 2013??
Government funding for research output
• Units as per policy: Books = 331Conference Proceedings = 351Journal articles = 7403
Unit: n= R117 000
• Funds generated: Approx. R 945 million to H. E. institutions as block subsidyApprox. R 38 million for booksApprox. R866 million for journals
Improving quality and quantity of research
Systematic external peer reviewing of SA journals• Aim: To establish their quality and their role in the nation’s
knowledge capital – Divided +/- 284 journals into broad subject (discipline) groups– Appointed panels and reviewers– Formulated process guidelines and editor questionnaires– Published 5 reports: Social Sciences; Agriculture; Theology;
Health; Law (150 journals)– Finalising: Humanities – Classics, Literature & Language– Rolling out next 8 groups
• Review of new applications, books and conference proceedings for accreditation for DHET
“Accredited” journals (262)
• 2003 - 2014– RSA DOE list – application process (202)– ISI (Thompson Reuters WoS)/IBSS (60)
• 2015 (?)– SciELO SA– Scopus– Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals– RSA list = “developmental” (5 years)
Scholarly Journal Publishers Accredited RSA Journals (N = 284)
Universities
Independents
Societies
Museums
28%
42%27%
Scholarly Books: production, use and evaluation in SA:2009
Findings in book report:
• Analysis of monograph data: 60 p.a; static; 80% in Hum/SocSci; 50% local publisher
• Analysis of collected works: increasing; 80% Hum/SocSci; only 20% local; 50% commercial
• Books highly rated by Hum/SocSci scholars = effort on one monograph much more than 5 articles
• Books small % of accredited outputs (e.g. 331 ex 8062)
Book accreditationPurpose of book: disseminate original research and developments within specific disciplines, sub disciplines or field of study
Chapter= 1 unit60 pages= 2 units120 pages=4 units180 pages = 6 units240 pages= 8 units300 pages plus= 10 units
Peer review evidence must be clear and unambiguous
Conference Proceedings accreditation
Approved conference proceedings: those which appear in approved journals lists/indexes
Articles in approved conference proceedings = 0.5 units
Complete articles (not abstracts) must be peer reviewed and evidence must be provided
Increasing visibility of SA scholarly research
• Large proportion of SA research published in local journals, many of which are non-WoS – journals from Africa & Middle East comprise <1% of WoS journals
• ASSAf 2006 report on Scholarly Publishing revealed that papers published in 60 SA journals did not receive a single citation in any of 9 000 WoS journals over a 15-yr period
• Local, high-quality journals not necessarily available to the rest of the world – well known that WoS biased in favour of developed and English language countries
• Global recognition—research must be accessible to global world. SA has only 67 journals on WoS system
• Promotion of local knowledge very important
Increasing visibility of SA scholarly research
• Establishment of SciELO SA open access platform
• Modeled on a similar approach in Brazil and other South American countries
• 46 titles—aim to have approx. 180 titles out of 284 journal titles
• Only journals of proven quality (peer review, international indexing) are added
SciELO GrowthSciELO SA August 2013 August 2014
Visits 50 358 68 388
Visits per day 1 624 2 206
Usage increase Usage increase 26 %
SciELO SA August 2014
Titles 41 titles
Issues 539 issues
Articles 9 009 articles
INCREASE IN VISIBILITY OF PRINT-ONLY JOURNALS
Journal title Articles viewed
From 2010 to date
South African Orthopaedic Journal 136 951
Journal of the South African Institute of Civil Engineering 92 469
Kronos: Southern African Histories 60 254
Psychology in Society (PINS) 32 678
Important developments to ensure continued quality assurance, visibility and accessibility for South African journals
•Certification of the SciELO SA collection
•Inclusion on the Web of Knowledge platform
•Signing a Memorandum of Agreement with DHET to do quality peer review of ALL South African journals
•Change in the DHET policy for the automatic accreditation of SA journals
•Improved accreditation policy towards the publishing of books and conference proceedings
OA Publications produced by SA
OA Publications produced by SA in collaboration with international authors
Access to knowledge resources• South Africa's higher education system is confronted with three major
priorities: – (1) to produce a highly qualified human resource base which is needed for
national development, – (2) to develop the next generation of academics to sustain and transform the
system; and – (3) to produce high-quality research and innovation outputs that can
enhance the country’s global competitiveness.
• All three priorities are absolutely dependent on access to papers published by other scholars, local and international, in leading journals.
• Many of these journals are high-cost, commercial titles published by large multi-national corporations.
Access to knowledge resources
• The equitable model will be a more cost-effective and sustainable route for facilitating access to the intellectual resources required for achieving our higher education priorities.
• Without this, or the investment of billions of additional Rands in higher education, we are unlikely to succeed in developing an equitable, diverse human resource base on which to build the knowledge economy.
The road ahead……• Open Access Policy• Article Processing Charges• Perception of poor quality of OA
“Science” Sting! Journal high-jacking “Bothalia”
• Impact Factor “pressure” vs OA encouragement - Govt & Univ
• Data management• New trends (video journals, crowd-
sourced peer-review, early cite, publish article immediately following peer-review)
