University of Pretoria Research Information Session

1. Strengthening the impact, visibility and quality of South African scholarly research S Veldsman Director: Scholarly Publishing Unit University of Pretoria Research Information Session

2. ASSAf Overview • ASSAf was launched in 1996 • Recognised as the official national science academy of SA through ASSAf Act (Act 67 of 2001) (as amended by S&T Laws Amendment Act (Act 11 of 2011)) • Became operational in mid-2002 • Represents SA in the national and international arena of science academies • 339 current members

3. ASSAf Mandate • To honour distinguished scholars in all fields of scientific enquiry • To generate evidence-based solutions to national and global challenges

4. Involvement of UP in ASSAf activities • 44 UP-based Academy Members (third highest after UCT and WITS, out of interest). • Gold Medal Awards (for excellence in the application of outstanding scientific thinking in the service of society) -Prof Kobus Eloff (2012) • TWAS Prize winner (Earth Sciences) Prof Pat Eriksson (Dpt of Geology, UP) He will present a lecture about his research at TWAS’s 24th General Meeting in Argentina in 2013.

5. Involvement of UP in ASSAf activities (2) • Distinguished Visiting Scholar ProgrammeProf Vic Webb from UP was the national host for the 2012 scholar, Dr ToveSkutnabb-Kangas • Education: Renewal in basic science education in France and worldwide (South Africa – France year) – November 2012 Prof William Fraser (Acting Head: Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, University of Pretoria) hosted Keynote Speaker: Prof Pierre Lena, Emeritus Professor, Université Paris Diderot & Délégation à l'éducation, Académie des sciences, France • 7  Journals @SciELO SA (editors) • Peer review panels and peer reviewers

6. Scholarly Publishing Programme’ (SPP) • Is a concerted intervention into the country’s national system of Innovation (NSI), • focused on the enhancement of • the quality and quantity • worldwide visibility and accessibility of original, peer-reviewed publications produced by researchers in the public sector, • and the fostering of a new generation of highly competent and productive scientists and scholars.

7. 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??

8. 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 +/- 296 journals into broad subject (discipline) groups Appointed panels and reviewers Formulated process guidelines and editor questionnaires Published 2 reports: Social Sciences; Agriculture (32 journals) Finalising 4 reports: Theology; Health; Humanities – Classics, Literature & Language; Law (150 journals) Rolling out next 4 groups Review of new applications for accreditation for DHET (pilot project)

9. Scholarly Books: production, use and evaluation in SA

10. Increasing visibility of SA scholarly research Large proportion of SA research published in local journals, many of which are non-ISI – journals from Africa & Middle East comprise 1% of ISI journals Proportion varies across universities and by discipline 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 ISI journals over a 15-yr period Local, high-quality journals not necessarily available to the rest of the world – well known that ISI biased in favour of developed and English language countries Global recognition—research must be accessible to global world. SA has only 70 journals on ISI system Promotion of local knowledge very important

11. 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 23 titles—aim to have approx. 180 titles out of 290 journal titles Only journals of proven quality (peer review, international indexing) are added

12. www.scielo.org.za

13. SciELO Growth

14. International usage of the SciELO SA research

17. Important developments to ensuring 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

18. Advantages of the SciELO SA collection being certified • It will become searchable through the SciELO network portal • We can exchange metadata with other international databases • Eligible for participation in special integration projects like Web of Knowledge • Certified collections are rated higher than collections-under-development

20. SciELO Collections: Web of Knowledge inclusion • The WoK interface will allow the subscribed user to access the journal collection WoS and SciELO together, as well as other individual collections. • All the search, navigation and citation metrics functions for the collections will be available together or individually; • The update will be on weekly basis, so that every new journal issue indexed in SciELO will be immediately indexed in WoK; • TRSI will produce annually a list of citations that the SciELO journals receive in the WoK and in the WoS and SciELO together. This will allow us to have a citation rate of SciELO journals that are indexed in WoS and SciELO;

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. Thank you Website: www.assaf.org.za