Water research and collaboration in the Southern African Development Community

This article investigates water-related research in the Southern African Development Community. Water issues are part of the region’s science and technology priorities as 4countries receive less rain than the global average of 860 mm/yr – Botswana with 400 mm/yr, Namibia with 254 mm/yr, South Africa with 497 mm/yr and Zimbabwe with 652 mm/yr. Furthermore, the international literature indicates that joint or internationally coordinated research has the potential to improve the scientific–technical quality of international agreements, prevent conflict and shape the way for appropriate management of the shared resources. Scientometric analysis using the Web of Science database is employed in order to identify the state of water research and collaboration in the SADC region. The Web of Science indexes a defined set of journals worldwide and the South African Government provides incentives/subsidies for publications indexed by this database. The results show that South Africa is the main producer (80%) of research publications in the region. Similarly, in the field of water research South Africa produces 75% of the region’s research. The SADC collaboration matrix in water-related research reveals that there is minimal, if any, collaborative research on the topic. Some seed-level research exists between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The main funders of research are the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) (acknowledged in 180 publications), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (72 publications), the National Institutes of Health (64 publications) and the Wellcome Trust (60 publications). Policy implications are discussed (e.g. the establishment of SADC Common Water Research Area; research support for the region, etc.).Keywords: bibliometrics, SADC, collaboration, scientometrics, research, Web of Scienc

Coal demand for electricity generation in South Africa : analysis and conditional forecasts to the year 2020

Bibliography: leaves 201-221.The purpose of this thesis is to provide an analytical framework for the examination of the demand for coal for the generation of electricity where more than 50 of the coal produced in the country is consumed. More specifically, the aim of the thesis is to identify the factors influencing the demand for steam-coal, disentangle their interrelationships, and evaluate their relative influence and importance

Competing in a globalising world : international ranking of South African universities

Rankings of higher education institutions are important for students, research administrations, industry and academics. A number of rankings are published internationally, most of which aim to identify the top universities in the world. Developing countries are also interested for relevant rankings that could assist them to develop appropriate higher education policies. In this article we develop a ranking approach based on citations received for articles produced by universities in a variety of scientific disciplines. The approach is relatively simple and has the potential to guide policy. In this context this article identifies the international standing of the South African universities in the various scientific disciplines, compares them with their standing over time and elaborates on the consequences relevant to higher education and science and technology policy

An assessment of South Africa’s research journals : impact factors, Eigenfactors and structure of editorial boards

Scientific journals play an important role in academic information exchange and their assessment is of interest to science authorities, editors and researchers. The assessment of journals is of particular interest to South African authorities as the country’s universities are partially funded according to the number of publications they produce in accredited journals, such as the Thomson Reuters indexed journals. Scientific publishing in South Africa has experienced a revolution during the last 10 years. Our objective here is to report the performance of the country’s journals during 2009 and 2010 according to a number of metrics (i.e. impact factors, Eigenfactors® and the international character of editorial boards); to identify and compare the impact of the South African journals that have been recently added to the Thomson Reuters' Journal Citation Reports®; and to elaborate on issues related to science policy.http://www.sajs.co.za/am201

Scientometric research in South Africa and successful policy instruments

This document provides an analysis of scientometric research in South Africa and it discusses sources of growth in the country’s research literature in general. South Africa is identified to have limited expertise in the field revealed mainly during the last decade. However, the country is ranked 21st in the world among the countries publishing in the journal Scientometrics and it is the only African country with such a standing in the field. Identification of the forces affecting positively the growth in the number of research publications in the country indicates that the primary incentive fuelling the recent growth is the new funding formula in the country which subsidizes the universities by more than R100 000 for each publication that their staff produces. The increase in the number of journals indexed in the ISI Thomson Reuters database and the incorporation of social sciences at the NRF have also affected the growth of research publications, but to a lesser extent.An extended version of a paper presented at the 13th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, Durban (South Africa), 4–7 July 2011.http://www.springerlink.com/content/0138-9130/ai201

A bibliometric assessment of energy research in South Africa

The results of an effort to identify the performance of energy and fuels research in South Africa during the most recent period (2003–2013) are reported. Bibliometric approaches have been employed in order to assess the field of energy research. Energy research was identified to be improving over time, albeit from a small basis. The field appears to equally emphasise fossil and renewable energy research. Similarly, universities were identified to be producing a subcritical number of energy articles in comparison with international organisations. The relatively small activity in the energy field appears to affect the international collaboration of the field, which is well below the national average. International comparisons in terms of articles per GWH of electricity produced and articles per million population show that South Africa should increase substantially its effort in the field in order to be comparable with other countries. SIGNIFICANCE : • This article makes a unique contribution in scientometrics to the field of energy research in South Africa which, given its multidisciplinary nature, is a generally neglected field of study in South Africa.South African Department of Science and Technologyhttp://www.sajs.co.zaam2017Institute for Technological Innovation (ITI

The state of green technologies in South Africa

No description supplie

Dioscorides' Investigations on Pharmacological Properties of Pistacia lentiscus L. and Marrubium Vulgare L.: Two Plants with Timeless Medicinal Use

Pistacia lentiscus L. and Marrubium vulgare L. are two plants described by Pedanius Dioscorides that have been examined for their use in medicine. This review aimed to determine whether the pharmacological properties of these two plants identified by Dioscorides are consistent with modern pharmacological data. There will also be a record of the chemicals identified by these plants from different studies and their contributions to disease control. A hundred literature references were studied in this review work but only 51 references were included. Many of the substances isolated from P.lentiscus and M.vulgare have pharmacological properties described by Dioscorides. The pharmacological properties of these two plants have been certified by modern techniques described in several of the articles mentioned in this mini review. Many studies have shown that mastic oil (originated from P.lentiscus) has a chemotype dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ethers, oxides, furans, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and monoterpene hydrocarbons with specific biological effects. The chemical composition of the aerial parts of Marrubium vulgare consist of y-eudesmol, β - citronellol, citronellyl formate, germacrene D, flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds. It can be concluded that the results are highly consistent with the observations of Dioscorides. Further studies can reveal if the rest of the plants listed in the book De Materia Medica are related to the pharmacological properties recently reported. There are many substances with pharmacological use in plants described by Dioscorides that have remained largely unnoticed to date. Many texts written so far contain a wealth of knowledge. This information combined with state-of-the-art techniques could lead to faster and more targeted results in the field of herbal medicine

An assessment of the economic impact of South Africa’s public universities

With the understanding that universities play multiple social purposes, we aimed to provide an estimation of the economic impact of the public universities in South Africa. Using models described in the literature, we estimated economic benefits from four university activities – university exports, research at universities, the production of graduates and universities as business entities. Comparative analysis shows that, as an economic sector, Higher Education contributes more to South Africa’s gross value added than other economic sectors such as Wood and Wood Products, Textiles, Clothing and Leather Goods, or Paper and Paper Products. It is comparable to sectors such as Gold Mining, and Beverages and Tobacco. Taking into account a number of assumptions, which are explained in the text, for 2018 the total economic impact was estimated at about ZAR513 billion. Governmental expenditure on higher education in that year was ZAR66 billion. These figures produce a cost–benefit ratio for the sector of 1 : 7.7, considering only these four university activities. Significance: The South African public higher education institutions form a very significant economic sector within the national economy. In terms of the gross value added, it is very similar in size to the gold mining industry. Taking into account four activities of universities, this sector contributes about ZAR500 billion annually to the economy, which is likely to be an underestimate of the actual contribution. This finding opens the way for policymakers to understand the importance of the sector as an area of investment. Recognising the potential limitations of the use of the modelling developed for other economies, our study indicates the importance of further work to indigenise the economic modelling for local conditions