The Great Commission to LIS workers:

1
The Great Commission to LIS workers Go ye
therefore and make researchers

• Dr. O.B Onyancha
• Dept of Information Science
• UNISA

2
Contents

• Introduction
• Sources of data
• Results and discussion
• Research output
• Which is the most researched, SSH or NSE?
• Which subject/discipline category is most
  researched?
• Which category of researchers is most prolific?
• Research growth in SA
• What is the trend of research in SA?
• NRF rating of researchers
• Does NRF rating of researchers reflect the
  pattern of research output discussed above?
• What does NRFs funding of the research focus
  areas portend for the country?
• How much money has each of the focus areas
  received since 2001?
• How many grant applications have been funded in
  each focus area since 2001?
• DSTs support in RD in NSE SSH, 2001-2005
• Where is/are LIS research/researchers in SA?
• Conclusions and recommendations

3
In South Africa, transformation has become
synonymous with the process of political,
socio-economic and cultural change associated
with the end of apartheid and the concomitant
realignment of various societal sectors to make
it inclusive of all South Africans, to rectify
the injustices of the past and to reduce the
inequalities brought about by our history of
racial discrimination. (Source The FW De Klerk
Foundation, 2006)
4
Transformation in South Africa

• Transformation Transition Change
• Used in
• Political rhetoric
• Academic discourse
• National legislation
• Government policies
• Initiatives
• Black Economic Empowerment
• Equity Employment
• Merger of institutions of higher learning

5
Transformation in research in SA

• Transformation is increasingly being applied to
  Research too, e.g.
• NRF cross-cutting corporate strategic priorities
• Redressing and ensuring equity in race and gender
• Thuthuka programme established in 2001
• Research Initiative for Black Academics (REDIBA)
  - support black researchers who were in former
  white institutions
• Women in research (WiR) and
• Researchers in training (RiT) - support academics
  in attaining their doctoral qualifications
• MRC reports an increase of research output by
  black researchers 11 of these publications
  have black Africans as primary authors,
  suggesting that transformation is taking place,
  albeit too slowly (MRC, 2006)
• Academic institutions, too, conform to equity
  policies when awarding grants to researchers
• Masters and Doctoral Support Programme UNISA
• Subsidiary of NRF Thuthuka programme
• Supports Blacks, Women and Physically challenged
  persons

6
Purpose of this presentation

• To provide insight into the current research
  trends in South Africa using different platforms,
  with special reference to LIS research
• Compare Social Sciences and Natural Sciences
  research
• Growth of publications, 1981-2007
• Most productive researchers and subject
  categories
• NRF Rating of researchers in SSH and NSE
• NRF funding of focus areas grant applications
• Government support for research and development
• In the process, the paper may shed light on the
  impact of transformation on research in South
  Africa

7

• Years covered
• 1981-2007
• Data collected
• Research output by
• Year of publication
• Most researched fields/subjects
• Most productive researchers and their specialties
• Total cites of most researched fields

8
SABINETs CCR

• Years covered
• 1986-2005
• Data collected
• Yearly research output by subject field/discipline

9

• Years covered
• 2001 2005
• Data collected
• Amount allocated to different focus areas
• Number of registered grants per year

10

• Years covered
• 2007
• Data collected
• Name of rated researcher
• Field of research
• Specialties (sub-fields)

11
SA DST RD Surveys

• Years covered
• 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005
• Data collected
• GERD
• GERD by field
• Research indicators

12
Data Analysis tools

• ISI analysis platform
• Analyses by author, country, document type,
  institution, language, publication year, source,
  subject category
• Compiles frequencies

• Bibexcel uses text format files
• Generates frequencies of occurrence of
  words/phrases
• Can be used for citation analyses (e.g.
  cocitation analysis, etc)

13
Research indicators in South Africa
Indicator 2001- 2002 2003- 2004 2004- 2005
Gross domestic expenditure on RD GERD (R millions) 7488.1 10082.6 12010.0
GERD as a percentage of GDPa 0.76 0.81 0.87
Total RD personnel (FTE)b,c 21195 25185 29692
Total researchers (FTE)b,c 14182 14129 17910
Total researchers per 1000 total employment (FTE)b,c,d 3.1 2.2 1.6
Total RD personnel per 1000 total employment (FTE)b,c,d 4.6 3.9 2.6
Civil GERD as a percentage of GDP 0.71 0.72 0.8
Total researchers (headcount)c 26913 30703 36979
Women researchers as a percentage of total researchersc 36 38 38.3
a The 0.76 for 2001/02 is as reported in the
2001/02 RD Survey Report and is not based on
revised GDP figures. b FTE Full Time
Equivalent c Following OECD practice, doctoral
students are included as researchers. d Changes
in the methodology used by Statistics South
Africa in the Survey of Employment and Earnings
have resulted in a 39 increase in the total
number of employees reported for the formal
non-agricultural sectors between March 2002 and
March 2004.
Source Republic of South Africa. Dept of Science
and Technology, 2002-2006
14
SA research output in ISI, 1981-1994
Year of Publication No of articles of Total Change in no. of articles Change Cumulative articles of total cumulative Change in cumulative
1981 1997 2.21 1997 2.21
1982 2107 2.34 110 5.51 4104 4.55 2.34
1983 2225 2.47 118 5.60 6329 7.02 2.47
1984 2292 2.54 67 3.01 8621 9.56 2.54
1985 2575 2.85 283 12.35 11196 12.41 2.85
1986 2937 3.26 362 14.06 14133 15.67 3.26
1987 3291 3.65 354 12.05 17424 19.32 3.65
1988 3149 3.49 -142 -4.31 20573 22.81 3.49
1989 2925 3.24 -224 -7.11 23498 26.05 3.24
1990 3011 3.34 86 2.94 26509 29.39 3.34
1991 3189 3.54 178 5.91 29698 32.93 3.54
1992 3095 3.43 -94 -2.95 32793 36.36 3.43
1993 3068 3.40 -27 -0.87 35861 39.76 3.40
1994 3092 3.43 24 0.78 38953 43.19 3.43
15
SA research output in ISI, 1995-2007
Year of Publication No of articles of Total Change in no. of articles Change Cumulative articles of total cumulative Change in cumulative
1995 3225 3.58 133 4.30 42178 46.76 3.58
1996 3412 3.78 187 5.80 45590 50.54 3.78
1997 3566 3.95 154 4.51 49156 54.50 3.95
1998 3632 4.03 66 1.85 52788 58.53 4.03
1999 3791 4.20 159 4.38 56579 62.73 4.20
2000 3600 3.99 -191 -5.04 60179 66.72 3.99
2001 3766 4.18 166 4.61 63945 70.89 4.18
2002 3977 4.41 211 5.60 67922 75.30 4.41
2003 3928 4.35 -49 -1.23 71850 79.66 4.35
2004 4265 4.73 337 8.58 76115 84.39 4.73
2005 4486 4.97 221 5.18 80601 89.36 4.97
2006 5087 5.64 601 13.40 85688 95.00 5.64
2007 4509 5.00 -578 -11.36 90197 100.00 5.00
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Research output in apartheid and post-apartheid SA
Papers of Total Years Papers/year
1981-1994 38953 43.19 14 2782
1995-2007 51244 56.81 13 3660
TOTAL 90197 100.00 27 3341
17
Growth of publications, 1981-2007
18
Performance of SA in NSE, SSH and AH, 1981-1994
SCI SSCI Ratio of SSCI to SCI AHCI Ratio of AHCI to SCI
1981 1905 164 11.62 32 59.53
1982 1993 169 11.79 54 36.91
1983 2080 196 10.61 61 34.10
1984 2143 178 12.04 69 31.06
1985 2385 218 10.94 82 29.09
1986 2703 234 11.55 105 25.74
1987 3070 215 14.28 90 34.11
1988 2934 230 12.76 90 32.60
1989 2719 193 14.09 82 33.16
1990 2747 234 11.74 111 24.75
1991 2892 296 9.77 114 25.37
1992 2847 232 12.27 132 21.57
1993 2768 274 10.10 111 24.94
1994 2777 249 11.15 132 21.04
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Performance of SA in NSE, SSH and AH, 1994-2007
SCI SSCI Ratio of SSCI to SCI AHCI Ratio of AHCI to SCI
1995 2866 348 8.24 114 25.14
1996 3030 358 8.46 121 25.04
1997 3194 331 9.65 129 24.76
1998 3264 357 9.14 120 27.20
1999 3453 329 10.50 109 31.68
2000 3225 384 8.40 117 27.56
2001 3408 364 9.36 116 29.38
2002 3526 453 7.78 130 27.12
2003 3525 448 7.87 140 25.18
2004 3787 512 7.40 134 28.26
2005 3981 575 6.92 143 27.84
2006 4446 735 6.05 156 28.50
2007 4038 606 6.66 123 32.83
TOTAL 81706 8882 9.20 2917 28.01
20
Coverage of SA research papers in ISI vs NRF
Rating of researchers NSE and SSH
21
Projects, theses and dissertations in CCR
1986- 1988 1989- 1991 1992- 1994 1995- 1997 1998- 2000 2001- 2003 2004- 2006 TOTAL
Social Sciences 868 1180 1447 1371 1613 1609 1550 9638
Humanities 1021 1194 1291 1587 1518 1340 1322 9273
Natural sciences 340 398 434 445 456 505 555 3133
Formal Sciences 301 382 450 509 456 447 546 3091
Professions and Applied Sciences Professions and Applied Sciences
Education 1075 1400 1521 1518 1675 1639 1701 10529
Health sciences 725 885 1044 1102 1139 1495 1553 7943
Business 956 875 797 1315 1189 1243 1518 7893
Engineering 844 912 871 948 893 983 1146 6597
Agriculture 318 377 320 323 429 619 611 2997
Law 198 249 291 358 462 582 666 2806
Env. Sci. Forestry 67 96 137 271 309 459 473 1812
Social work 187 228 282 229 241 218 236 1621
Library Info Sci. 55 68 89 83 107 194 189 785
KEY
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Author No of publications Subject specializations NRF Rated?
VANSTADEN, J 587 0.65 Plant Sciences, Biotechnology Applied Microbiology, Horticulture Y
WINGFIELD, MJ  384  0.43 Mycology, Plant Sciences, Forestry Y
NOAKES, TD  269  0.30 Sport Sciences, Physiology, Medicine (General Internal) Y
MOODLEY, J  248  0.28 Obstetrics Gynecology, Medicine (General Internal), Surgery Y
COVILLE, NJ  211  0.23 Chemistry Y
STEIN, DJ  211  0.23 Psychiatry, Neurosciences Y
OPIE, LH  198  0.22 Cardiac Cardiovascular System, Pharmacology Pharmacy Y
ANDERSON, R 198 0.22 Pharmacology Pharmacy, Immunology, Infectious Diseases N
CROUS, PW  198  0.22 Mycology, Plant Sciences, Agronomy N
SELLSCHOP, JPF  189  0.21 Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Science Technology N
NASSIMBENI, LR  178  0.20 Crystallography, Chemistry Y
JACOBS, P  177  0.20 Hematology, Medicine (General Internal), Oncology N
YAVIN, Y  176  0.20 Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Operations Research Management Science N
MILLAR, RP  175  0.19 Endocrinology Metabolism, Biochemistry Molecular Biology, Cell Biology N
LETCHER, TM  173  0.19 Physical Chemistry, Thermodynamics, Chemical Engineering N
WINGFIELD, BD  173  0.19 Mycology, Plant Sciences, Biochemistry Molecular Biology Y
HORAK, IG  172  0.19 Veterinary Sciences, Entomology, Zoology Y
CHOWN, SL  171  0.19 Ecology, Entomology, Biodiversity Conservation Y
KILKENNY, D  169  0.19 Astronomy Astrophysics N
COOVADIA, HM  168  0.19 Medicine (General Internal), Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases N
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Top 10 SA LIS authors in ISI indexes
Author Articles Other subject categories TC AV cites h-index NRF Rated
VAN BRAKEL, PA 16 Computer science, information systems 25 1.56 4 Y
BRITZ, JJ 10 Computer science, information systems 23 2.30 3 N
DU TOIT, ASA 10 Computer science, information systems 10 2.20 1 N
FOURIE, I 9  Computer science, information systems 19 2.11 3 N
LOR, PJ 9 Computer science, information systems 17 1.89 3 N
NASSIMBENI, M 9 Educational educational research 9 1.0 2 Y
SNYMAN, R 9 Computer science, information systems 2 0.22 1 N
POURIS, A 8 Computer science, interdisciplinary applications Computer science, information systems 10 1.25 2 N
OCHOLLA, DN 7 Computer science, information systems 12 1.71 2 Y
MYERS, G 6   3 0.50 1 N

• Percentage contribution of most productive LIS
  author 0.02 (N90197)
• All top LIS authors Academics (Lecturers)
• Number of NRF rated LIS researchers 6
• No non-academic LIS worker is rated by NRF. All
  NRF rated LIS workers hold title of Professor

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Rank Subject category Articles TC Av cites h-index
1 Medicine, General Internal 6479 54012 8.34 80
2 Plant Sciences 4897 34637 7.07 51
3 Zoology 3342 26055 7.80 47
4 Ecology 3329 46059 13.84 67
5 Multidisciplinary Sciences 2814 30595 10.87 77
6 Biochemistry Molecular Biology 2680 36592 13.65 67
7 Veterinary Sciences 2619 16776 6.41 39
8 Surgery 2537 23999 9.46 57
9 Marine Freshwater Biology 2450 33848 13.82 57
10 Environmental Sciences 2285 22538 9.86 51
11 Astronomy Astrophysics 2290 37054 16.18 71
12 Water resources 2077 13466 6.48 42
13 Pharmacology Pharmacy 1844 19830 10.75 50
14 Chemistry, Multidisciplinary 1710 13815 8.08 45
15 Geosciences, Multidisciplinary 1653 17340 10.49 50
16 Chemistry, Physical 1575 14442 9.17 39
17 Microbiology 1553 22560 14.53 54
18 Entomology 1539 8379 5.44 28
19 Public, environmental occupational health 1519 13778 9.07 42
20 Biotechnology Applied Microbiology 1487 18559 12.40 52
127 Library Information Science
268 588
2.19 10
25
NRF rated researchers fields
Fields 249
26
Top specialties of NRF rated researchers

• Except for
• Human Rights
• Literary theory
• Gender studies
• Constitutional law

ALL are natural and/or formal sciences
27
A 147686120
B 96395078
C 92561180
D 62776634
E 56968145
F 50488750
G 20843459
H 17454920
I 9532893
NRF funding by focus area, 2001-2005
KEY
28
Total number of grants per focus area
Average number of grants per focus area
A 230.6
B 151.2
C 146.6
E 107.2
F 88.0
G 68.6
D 63.2
H 37.0
I 14.2
KEY
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Average amount per grant per focus area
  2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 TOTAL
C 61688.77 97024.38 183746.86 176545.39 235875.64 147197.52
G 86555.56 269016.88 112666.67 118192.64 72975.20 134266.10
B 71342.61 104025.44 106193.82 155909.17 197550.94 129473.06
F 96248.64 125582.52 140470.41 133993.40 140435.33 128088.57
I 184672.27 88417.83 130577.67 145450.23 125006.44 127506.72
E 221455.00 110999.10 115700.24 120093.05 115936.21 126277.19
A 162615.29 70156.92 43502.33 60397.51 240275.57 117120.59
H 90555.26 76677.71 83312.50 97538.46 122347.30 94350.92
D 60001.10 67977.29 84158.91 64347.65 59058.70 65960.31
TOTAL 114134.29 102271.14 116154.11 123163.17 150476.66 122370.88
KEY
30
Expenditure on RD by major research field
Source Republic of South Africa. Dept of Science
and Technology, 2002-2006
31
Conclusions recommendations

• Conclusions
• Research output in South Africa has increased
  linearly since 1981
• No major leaps (upwards nor downwards) witnessed
  two periods
• Research in natural and engineering sciences is
  dominant
• Scientists in NSE are the most prolific
• Similarities between South African research
  output and NRF rating
• Funding towards research is skewed in favour of
  NSE
• NRF
• Government
• NRF rated researchers areas of research interest
  were the most researched as shown in ISI
• NRF pattern of funding may imply continued
  dominance of NSE for as long as few SSH
  researchers are rated
• Government funding pattern dominance of NSE
• More black researchers Equity in research
• Impact of the transformation initiatives on
  research in SA?
• Hard to tell Too early to conclude?
• Whether negatively or positively Eyes of the
  beholder?

32
Conclusions recommendations

• Recommendations
• Growth of social science research output
  including LIS research
• Multidisciplinary research?
• Research within the focus/niche areas expansion
  of areas
• Research within the Millennium Development Goals
• More funding, Perhaps!
• Visibility (influence/impact)
• Collaboration with international scholars
• Presentation and/or publications of research
  findings both nationally and internationally
• Application for NRF rating Researcher
  visibility?
• Further research
• Impact of funding on research
• How and to what extent rating of researchers
  affect research output?
• How pre-determined focus areas affect research
• Are focus areas limiting in any way?
• Other factors that influence high productivity in
  NSE research
• For example, Do the number of researchers in a
  discipline matter?

33
Go therefore LIS researchers
COMMENTS, QUESTIONS?
Contact detailsDr. OB OnyanchaUniversity of
South AfricaDept of Information SciencePO Box
392 UNISA 0003Email onyanob_at_unisa.ac.zaTel
27 72 356 5036