South African universities in world rankings

South Africa has 23 universities, of which five are placed in one or more of the 2011 Shanghai Jiao Tong, Times Higher Education, and Quacquarelli Symonds world university rankings. The five are: Cape Town, Witwatersrand, KwaZulu-Natal, Stellenbosch and Pretoria. They are ranked above the other 18 universities, with Cape Town in top position, mainly because they have significantly higher publication and citation counts. In the Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking Cape Town??s Nobel Prize alumni and highly-cited researchers give it an additional lead over second-placed Witwatersrand, which has Nobel Prize alumni but no highly-cited researchers. KwaZulu-Natal, in third place, has no Nobel Prize alumni but one highly-cited researcher, which places it ahead of Stellenbosch and Pretoria despite the latter two having higher publication output. However, in the Times Higher Education ranking, which places Cape Town first and Witwatersrand second, Stellenbosch is ranked but not KwaZulu-Natal, presumably because the publication and citation counts of Stellenbosch are higher. The other 18 universities are ranked by the SCImago and Webometrics rankings in an order consistent with bibliometric indicators, and consistent with approximate simulations of the Shanghai Jiao Tong and Times Higher Education methods. If a South African university aspires to rise in the rankings, it needs to increase publications, citations, staff-student ratio, and proportions of postgraduate students, international students and international staff.     

Gender differences in publication productivity in psychology in India

An analysis of gender differences in psychology in India provides quantitative and qualitative assessment of R&D output contributed by psychologists with the indication of the trend of growth, skewness, relatedness, co-authorship pattern of productivity.     

The publication productivity of international agricultural research centers

The literature output over one year, 1990, of 22 International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs), including 16 Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers, was examined. Total output of the IARCs was 1,694 items, of which on average 42% were primary (refereed) literature; 24% were reports and monographs; 18% proceedings papers; 8% book chapters; and 8% semitechnical/popular literature. Total literature production from the IARCs is similar in magnitude to that of FAO. There were 1,230 internationally recruited scientists in the IARCs, with an average annual productivity of 1.38 items per scientist, including 0.58 primary literature articles. There was no correlation between scientific productivity and numbers of scientists in a center. However, there was a significant positive correlation between scientific productivity and center budget, indicating higher efficiency in the larger centers. In view of the nature of IARCs' literature output, we argue that IARCs should reject the trend for scientists to be assessed only by citations in core primary literature; and that IARCs should set up an international standard, perhaps based on the present proportionality of types of their literature output in order to assess IARC individual scientists and the health of their institutional output.     

Quantifying the publication preferences of leading research universities

Research universities have a strong devotion and advocacy for research in their core academic mission. This is why they are widely recognized for their excellence in research which make them take the most renowned positions in the different worldwide university leagues. In order to examine the uniqueness of this group of universities we analyze the scientific production of a sample of them in a 5 year period of time. On the one hand, we analyze their preferences in research measured with the relative percentage of publications in the different subject areas, and on the other hand, we calculate the similarity between them in research preferences. In order to select a set of research universities, we studied the leading university rankings of Shanghai, QS, Leiden, and Times Higher Education (THE). Although the four rankings own well established and developed methodologies and hold great prestige, we choose to use THE because data were readily available for doing the study we had in mind. Having done that, we selected the twenty academic institutions ranked with the highest score in the last edition of THE World University Rankings 2020 and to contrast their impact, we also, we compared them with the twenty institutions with the lowest score in this ranking. At the same time, we extracted publication data from Scopus database for each university and we applied bibliometrics indicators from Elsevier’s SciVal. We applied the statistical techniques cosine similarity and agglomerative hierarchical clustering analysis to examine and compare affinities in research preferences among them. Moreover, a cluster analysis through VOSviewer was done to classify the total scientific production in the four major fields (health sciences, physical sciences, life sciences and social sciences). As expected, the results showed that top universities have strong research profiles, becoming the leaders in the world in those areas and cosine similarity pointed out that some are more affine among them than others. The results provide clues for enhancing existing collaboration, defining and re-directing lines of research, and seeking for new partnerships to face the current pandemic to find was to tackle down the covid-19 outbreak.

     

Analysis of publication and invention productivity in some Soviet academic institutions

Some peculiarities and tendencies of the productivity of publication and invention activities for a large group of academic institutions of different scientific type of the Ukrainian SSR conducting research in the field of natural and technical sciences have been revealed.     

Variables associated with agricultural scientists' work alienation and publication productivity

This study focuses on work alienation and publication productivity of agricultural scientists in two international research centers. Previous research has been criticized because the variables emphasized have typically been poorly correlated with publication productivity. Additionally, although work alienation of professionals has received considerable attention in the literature, seldom has it been included in empirical studies of publication productivity. Results indicate two perceptions of structure, centralization and formalization, are significantly correlated with work alienation, but less so with publication productivity. Work alienation is significantly, but modestly, correlated with publication productivity. In a multiple regression analysis, work alienation proved to be less important than perceived centralization. Implications for supervisors of scientific staffs include reducing the layers of hierarchy and empowering staff by giving them a voice in research goals and organizational operations.     

Nobel laureates: Their publication productivity,collaboration and authorship status

Summary The application of the measurement of scientific and technical activities has been a lengthy process of the appropriate metrics and the assignment of the standards and benchmarks for their usage. Although some studies have addressed issues of the management of science and technology and their relation to scientometrics and infometrics, there is nevertheless a need to consider the linkages between the conceptual background of scientific generation and progress - and the measurement of its process and outcomes. This paper first reviews the three main approaches to the generation and progress of human knowledge in general and scientific activity in particular. These approaches are reviewed in terms of the demands they would make on the measurement of scientific process and outputs. The paper then examines the currently used categories of metrics, and arrives at several conclusions. The paper provides an analysis of these conclusions and their implications to the generation and utilization of metrics of science and its outcomes. The review of the conceptual or philosophical foundations for the measurement of science offers an in-depth examination, resulting in the correlation of these foundations with the metrics we now use to measure science and its outcomes. The paper suggests research directions for a much needed link between theories of science and knowledge, and the application of metrics used to measure them. Finally, the paper offers several hypotheses and proposes potential empirical studies.     

Measuring multidisciplinary health research at South African universities: a comparative analysis based on co-authorships and journal subject categories

This study developed a comparative bibliometric profile of multidisciplinary health research at South African universities over a 30-year period (1984–2013), based on two measures of multidisciplinarity. The first measure used article co-authorship as a proxy for collaboration between authors with health and non-health addresses, and the second measure focussed on articles published in journals with both health and non-health subject categories. The article overlap between the two measures was 25%, meaning that one measure would exclude 75% of articles identified by the other. Both showed an increase in the percentage contribution of multidisciplinary health research to health research over time, and both generated similar profiles of the national institutions that contribute to multidisciplinary health research. Both measures also provided evidence of a sustained increase in the percentage international co-authorship in health research although the second measure gave a markedly lower estimate of the percentage international co-authorship. These preliminary results would need to be followed up with more advanced bibliometric approaches, and possibly qualitative analyses to investigate the degree of integration between disciplines, pointing to interdisciplinary or even transdisciplinary health research.     

Boosting research productivity in top Russian universities: the circumstances of breakthrough

The Russian project for enhancing competitive ability enforced top 21 universities to stimulate the research output actively. The results surpassed expectations with the fivefold increase in the number of publications from 2010 to 2016. This paper discusses the background and reasons for this phenomenal rise and explores in detail the most significant strategies to boost research productivity and publication output. In our study, a classification of university publications is proposed in accordance with the strategies for stimulating the publication activity, mainly corresponding with the set of measures applied by university management. The analysis made it possible to rank the strategies for contributing to the growth of publication activity, to identify the leading strategies for individual universities, and showed a significant difference between universities in the set of explicitly or implicitly applied strategies. The most effective strategy was the Additional paper, associated with the authors, indicated the affiliation of the university as complementary to their main institution. The next most important and fastest growing was the Russian conferences strategy thanks to the efforts of the organizers of domestic conferences to promote their proceedings in Scopus. A notable place is also occupied by the strategy connected with the attraction of prominent authors, which we called Headhunted author. It was possible to determine the role of the Predatory journals strategy in the growth of the publication activity, fortunately, this strategy turned out to be highly localized in only 2 of the 21 universities participating in the project and is visibly declining. It was possible to show that the share of publications in domestic journals, despite the constant increase in their presence in Scopus is steadily falling in the case of leading universities. One of the significant results of the study is an assessment of the dynamics of the average authors’ productivity, which grows insignificantly and almost reached one article per author per year. This fact also shows that the growth of publication activity of top Russian universities is mainly associated with an increase in the number of faculty involved.     

Research performance in key medical universities in China observed from the scientific productivity

Research activities in the life sciences during the past few years, have increased appreciably in China, both in regard to relative output of publications and in their impact on the international research community. The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate quantitatively the scientific productivity of key medical universities in China by using CBMdisc, MEDLINE and SCI databases. The results showed that Tongji Medical University ranks first in terms of paper output in Chinese and in English languages, while Beijing Medical University is placed second in output but is first in citation impact. Shanghai Medical University had the top annual paper output per scientist, with 2.53 papers in Chinese and 0.13 papers in English. The results also showed that the coverage of Chinese biomedical publications by western indexing services is very poor.     

The three cultures in American science: publication productivity in physics,history and economics

Scientometrics - In 1959 Lord Charles Percy Snow delivered a scathing critique of the bifurcation of scientists into two cultures: The humanists and the natural scientists. Five decades later,...     

Identifying areas of strength in South African technology

This article is an attempt to identify the strengths and weaknesses of South African technology as they are manifested in patent analysis. Using the Technological Activity and Impact Indicators Database of CHI Research/Computer Horizons, Inc., we identified the South African Innovation profile for the period 1975–1988. Patents are analysed in their aggregate form in patent classes, Standard Industrial Classes and technologically similar classes. The result indicates a shift of activity from low to medium technology fields and a weakness in high technology fields. Comparison of scientific and technological activity also eveals that South Africa contributes five times as much in international science than it does in technology. Detailed analyses indicate the rise of a defence related industry in the country and reveal areas of emphasis and neglect.     

The international publication productivity of Latin American countries in the economics and business administration fields

The present study compares the international publication productivityof Latin American countries in the fields of business administration and economicsfrom 1995 to 1999. Only four countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, andMexico – have a substantial research production in these areas. Amongthese countries, Chile showed the most favorable results according to variousindicators of publication productivity. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The role of South African researchers in intercontinental collaboration

Scientometrics - The analysis presented here focuses on mapping, based on publication output, the scientific collaboration of African based researchers and the role of the South African research...     

The model of maximum productivity for research universities SciVal author ranks,productivity, university rankings,and their implications

Scientometrics - Aware of the growing importance of global rankings, universities aim to enhance their positions. However, the exact relation between research productivity and ranking positions is...     

Radar in World War II: the South African contribution

The science and engineering of radar are not much more than fifty years old and recently that brief history has been the subject of much examination. Although the contributions of the major powers towards the development and use of radar are well known, very little has been published about the pioneering work done in other countries, particularly those in the southern hemisphere. The author describes the development and operational use of a radar system by the South Africans at the outbreak of World War II. The success of that major undertaking was due to the key people involved and their role in this saga is emphasised     

Carbonation of concrete bridge structures in three South African localities

Rates of carbonation for reinforced concrete bridges were investigated for three localities in South Africa: Cape Peninsula, Durban and Johannesburg. Carbonation data from approximately 90 in-service bridges aged between 11 and 76 years were interpreted in terms of influence of materials and environment on carbonation rates. The data were grouped with respect to concrete strength grade and exposure condition prior to statistical analysis. Bridges in Johannesburg had the highest rates of carbonation owing to the relatively dry environment. Durban bridges had lower carbonation rates than Johannesburg bridges, but higher than bridges in the Cape Peninsula, ascribed to differences in ambient temperature and the nature of precipitation. Overall, average carbonation rates for Grade 30 concretes over a 30-year period varied from approximately 0.3 mm/annum in Cape Peninsula structures to approximately 0.7 mm/annum for Johannesburg structures. Exposure condition, characterised by degree of shelter, had little influence on carbonation rate in Durban and Johannesburg bridges, ascribed to the average relative humidity and duration of precipitation at these localities. Carbonation rates for older bridges were lower than for newer structures, attributed possibly to changes in cement characteristics with time related to the need for fast track construction in modern structures.     

The law of limited excellence: publication productivity of Israel Prize laureates in the life and exact sciences

The present paper extends Lotka’s theorem—which we rename as “the law of limited excellence”—while empirically modelling the scientific productivity of 46 Israel Prize laureates in the life and exact sciences—a group best described as ‘Star Scientists’. By focusing on this highly selective group we expose unequal scientific productivity even amongst Israel’s most prolific scientists. Specifically, we test the invariance of Lotka’s law by focusing attention on the extreme tail of publication distributions while empirically exploring the non-linearity of its seemingly “flat” tail. By exposing the rarity of excellence even in this extreme end of publication productivity we extend the generality of Lotka’s theorem and expose that—like a fractal—the tail of excellence behaves as the entire distribution. We end this empirical contribution by suggesting a few implications for research and policy.     

Publication productivity and collaboration of researchers in South Africa: new empirical evidence

Apart from a few bibliometrical studies the South African scientific system is a scantly researched area and asking for more empirical evidence. This empirical study of academics and researchers (n = 204) from a selected province of South Africa examines the interrelationship between publication productivity and collaboration, and the sectoral differences between higher education institutions and research institutes. The study highlights the specific context of the scientific system in South Africa with its characteristics features of productivity and collaboration and shows how they are structurally facilitated and hindered. Being a prominent contributor to the development of science in Africa the study offers some interesting findings.