CREST’s S A Knowledgebase (SAK)
SA Knowledgebase is a dynamic database of public science in South Africa, developed by the Centre for Research on Science and Technology (CREST) at the University of Stellenbosch.
The Centre’s work on the database commenced in 1998, with the aim of mapping the following aspects of the country’s public science base:
■ Scientifi c output, measured as peer-reviewed journal articles
■ Human resources for Science and Technology
■ Research and Development-performing institutions
■ Publicly funded research projects and programmes
As far as scientifi c output is concerned, SA Knowledgebase collects bibliographic information (excluding citations) on articles, with any South African author addresses, which have appeared in journals accredited by the South African Department of Education (including those included in the ISI and IBSS indexes). It should be emphasized that SAK collects information on articles that appear in South African journals which – at any given date and time – have been accredited by the DoE. As should be evident from the discussion above, however, given the changing nature of the DoE list, it cannot be claimed that all 253 currently accredited South African journals are equally well covered in SA Knowledgebase. Every time there is a shift in policy with a concomitant change in the list of SA accredited journals, there has to be an adjustment in the SAK data-importing procedures.
SA Knowledgebase captures information on every article title, full authorship, journal name, publishing details, and keywords. Data are captured from a variety of sources, including the ISI Web of Science, the Index of South African Periodicals, institution-specifi c information on DoE submissions, institutional and other websites, as well as from individual curriculi vitae. At present, almost 100 000 articles are included in SA Knowledgebase.
As implied, SA Knowledgebase not only covers articles produced by the South African higher education sector, but also articles by the science councils, national research facilities and government research organizations located in South Africa. The database also provides author- specifi c information by disaggregating the article output by selected demographic variables (gender, race, year of birth, highest qualifi cation, areas of specialisation and institutional affi liation). The linking of these demographic data to the article authors is an on-going task.
Since 1998 CREST has utilised a variety of sources, including its own national surveys, requests for demographic information from South African universities, technikons and science councils, as well as web searches, to add the demographic information of the authors of these articles.
The almost 100 000 articles have been produced by more than 50 000 unique individual South African authors.
CWTSs ISI citation indexes
The journal citation analyses were conducted with CWTS’s bibliometric version of Thomson Scientifi c’s Citation Index-database (CI-database). Thomson Scientifi c was formerly known as
7 In fact, at least two other journals which had been previously included in the ISI-indexes (Sa Journal of Psychology and Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa should be added to this number as they do not appear on the new DoE lists, thus bringing the total of South African “accredited” journals to 257.
SA (DoE)
ISI
IBSS N=21
N=12 N = 220
N = 14 000+
N = 400+
N=2
Figure 1: SA Journals by index
the Institute for Scientifi c Information (ISI); the acronym ISI will be used from now on when referring to Thomson Scientifi c. The current version of the CWTS/CI-database is an integrated information system comprising the CD/ROM-editions of the ISI’s Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and six Specialty Citation Indices.
The CI-database covers the years 1980-2004/5.
The CWTS/CI database consists of some 10,000 peer-reviewed journals, including conference proceedings published in journals; this is the set of ‘source’ journals. These sources are either fully indexed (‘cover-to-cover’) or partially indexed by ISI for inclusion in the CI. Most of the research publications in these source journals include the reference list with relevant ‘citations’
to related scientifi c literature. The large majority of these ‘citations’ relates to CI-indexed
‘source items’, that is cited publications in journals that were ISI-indexed during the entire time interval 1980-2004/5. Most of the remainder consists of citations to items in ISI--listed journals which are not peer-reviewed original articles (and therefore not indexed in the sense of being included in the denominator function in calculating impact factor), ‘non-ISI’ citations to
‘non source’ items such as books and reports, or publications in ‘non source’ journals that were never ISI-indexed. These two categories are not mutually exclusive; in between we fi nd the
‘ISI/nonISI’ citations to source items in journals that were only indexed for a limited number of years during in the past.
Hence, the CWTS/CI database enables us to fi nd out if, how heavily, and by whom, research publications in SA journals (both ISI-indexed, non-indexed, or partially indexed journals), are cited in the international scientifi c literature. This information allows us to develop quantitative measures to characterize and compare SA journals according to their international scientifi c impact. Most importantly, it allows us, for the fi rst time, to compare ISI-indexed SA journals and non-indexed journals in terms of citation impact. In doing this we build on CWTS’s unique database and relatively new data-mining techniques developed at CWTS (e.g. Butler and Visser, 2006).
PROFILES OF SOUTH AFRICAN RESEARCH JOURNALS IN TERMS OF ISI VERSUS NON-ISI, AND FOREIGN VS. LOCAL
For the purposes of this chapter, the high-level analyses of SA Knowledgebase has been confi ned to the period 1990 to 2003, and for more detailed analyses (e.g. by scientifi c fi eld) to the period 1990 – 2002. One of the consequences of this decision is that it does not bring into play the IBSS as an index which contains information on SA journals. In the analyses presented below, there is a concentration– where appropriate – on comparing ISI to non-ISI South African journals. This in effect means that one can “categorize” South African journal articles in one of two different ways, viz. ISI versus non-ISI and foreign versus local:
■ If articles in ISI versus non-ISI journals are compared, it turns out that 56176 (or 57%) of all articles appeared in ISI journals and the remaining 43% in non-ISI journals.
■ If South African (local) versus non-South African (foreign) journals are compared, 55157 (or 57%) appeared in local journals and 43% in foreign journals.
These two ways provide very different perspectives on SA scientifi c output between 1990 and 2003. Within the fi rst perspective (ISI versus non-
ISI), one is comparing two systems of “accreditation” or
“quality assurance”. But neither system is purely based on considerations of quality. The ISI-Thompson system – as has been well documented – is equally interested in commercial concerns (Van Raan, 2005; Weingart, 2005). Although journal impact factors (and the underlying citation patterns) are the main criterion for inclusion in ISI Citations Indexes, it is common knowledge that journals with large subscription bases and published by big commercial publishers are more likely to be included. There is also doubt that criteria for inclusion operate equitably, certainly at the margins of the system where regional and/or developing country journals have been concerned. As far as the DoE (or non-ISI) system goes, there is also suffi cient evidence to suggest that a
SA (DoE) N=13 184 ISI N = 41 973
N = 42 992 Figure 2: SA Articles by index CHAPTER 3: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF SOUTH AFRICAN RESEARCH JOURNALS
The CWTS/CI
database enables
us to fi nd out if,
how heavily, and
by whom, research
publications in SA
journals (both ISI-
indexed, non-indexed,
or partially indexed
journals), are cited
in the international
scientifi c literature
rigorous concern for quality has not always been applied; there certainly seems to be too many inconsistencies that have surfaced over the past years in the inclusion and exclusion of SA journal titles, to warrant a strong belief in quality as the sole criterion. (As far as is known, the Department of Education has not clearly indicated how it intends monitoring the quality of journals currently listed in the future so as to ensure that a decline in journal quality is identifi ed in good time: see chapter 6).
The second way of looking at the journal output, viz. as local versus foreign brings other factors into play. It is fair to say that one of the consequences, if not explicit objectives, of the original DoE policy, was both to protect and encourage the expansion of local journals. There are very good reasons why a relatively small science system such as South Africa should take special measures to protect viable and high-quality small journals. This is especially the case in very small niche areas (see Chapter 2). The obvious concern is that this form of “protectionism”, as is often the case, might go hand in hand with a loss in quality.
It is probably fair to say, that most science policy makers in South Africa would prefer the “intersection” of the two Venn diagrammes to have been larger, i.e. more journals and more journals articles that are BOTH South African and ISI. The fact of the matter is that the inclusion of journals in the ISI indexes is neither predictable nor reliable and – as some people have suggested – not immune to political manipulation (Weingart, 2005).
In Figures 3 and 4, the focus is on these distributions over time. Figure 3 shows three quite different trends for each of the “index type” journals. The number of articles in South African ISI-journals has remained reasonably stable over the 13-year period (red line). The number of South African authored articles in South African journals not indexed in ISI has declined steadily (green line), whereas (conversely) the number of articles in ISI-journals has increased quite dramatically.
If the trends are compared for the same articles in terms of local versus foreign journals (Figure 4), the numbers of articles appear to have nearly converged by 2002. There may soon be a situation, if it has not already happened, where South African scientists and scholars publish in equal numbers in local and overseas journals. If one looks at the situation in 1990 – the heyday of apartheid academic isolation – where only 36% of all articles were published in foreign journals with the situation in 2002 where nearly half (47%) were published in foreign journals, great strides have been made in breaking out of the isolation mould.
Two salient points emerged from the analysis in this section:
■ As far as the ISI versus non-ISI journals are concerned, one has witnessed a signifi cant increase in the number of South African articles published in ISI-journals. Unfortunately, the number of South African journals included in ISI has remained rather constant (in fact 0
500 1 000 1 500 2 000 2 500 3 000 3 500 4 000
1990
ISI SA ISI non-SA Non-ISI SA
2002 2001
2000 1999 1998
1997 1996 1995
1994 1993 1992
1991
Figure 3: Journal articles by index type by year (1990–2002)
If one looks at the situation in 1990 – the heyday of apartheid academic isolation – where only 36%
of all articles were
published in foreign
journals with the
situation in 2002
where nearly half
(47%) were published
in foreign journals,
great strides have
been made in
breaking out of the
isolation mould
there has been a small decline), which explains why the number of articles in this category has remained fairly stable.
■ As far as the distinction between local and foreign journals is concerned, the proportion of articles in foreign journals has increased from just over one third in 1990 to nearly half in 2002.
These two trends (increased production in ISI-journals and in foreign journals) are of course interdependent, although the actual numbers are in themselves worth noting.