CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Vol 23, No 8, September 2012
AFRICA
421
Editorial
Publication subsidies: challenges and dilemmas facing
South African researchers
ANGELA J WOODIWISS
Abstract
In an attempt to encourage and enhance research productiv-
ity in higher educational institutions, various systems have
been introduced. Currently in South Africa, a government
subsidy is granted to higher educational institutions in
reward for research outputs (primarily journal publications
and postgraduate student graduations). The purpose of this
article is not to attack the current or past publication subsi-
dy systems but rather to enlighten researchers, especially
emerging researchers, on the benefits and risks of the publi-
cation subsidy systems and other systems used to encourage
research outputs.
With this aim in mind, a comparison of the current
versus the previous South African funding formulae will be
made and the positive and negative impacts of these formu-
lae (focusing primarily on the one currently in use) will be
discussed in the light of international experiences using simi-
lar such approaches. In essence I wish to highlight the chal-
lenges and dilemmas faced by SouthAfrican researchers and
higher education institutions as they strive to find ways to
increase research outputs while simultaneously sustaining or
enhancing the quality and impact of these research outputs,
in order to maintain and/or gain national and international
recognition.
Keywords:
publication subsidy, Department of Higher Education
and Training subsidy formulae, research outputs, higher educa-
tion institutions
There is no doubt that the reputation, both national and
international, of a higher educational institution is entrenched
in its research profile, which depends to a major extent on its
publications and the citations of these publications. Consequently,
in aspiring to maintain and/or gain high-level profiles, all higher
educational institutions strive to increase research outputs.
In South Africa, as in other countries, the Department
of Higher Education and Training, in part to justify public
expenditure (to provide greater accountability for the use of
research funds), endorses these goals. Moreover, bearing in mind
the academic adage ‘publish or perish’, individual researchers
strive to maintain and/or increase their publication outputs.
Indeed, in addition to a researcher’s reputation (both nationally
and internationally) in a particular research field, successful
attainment of grant funding as well as promotion are intimately
linked to research outputs.
Like many countries around the world, South Africa has
a system aimed to incentivise researchers and hence higher
educational institutions to increase research outputs.
1-8
The
details of the South African systems (the previous system
compared to the present system)
8
will be discussed and then
compared to those used by other institutions worldwide.
1-7
There
have been many criticisms raised against the various systems
used to encourage research productivity within the different
higher educational institutions worldwide. Indeed, a commentary
on the politics of publication, published in
Nature
in 2003,
9
incited a barrage of correspondence both in support of,
6,10,11
and
against
12-14
various assessments of research outputs.
As it is advisable to avoid previous shortfalls in systems,
especially those which may have long-lasting impacts on the
reputation of a higher educational institution,
3
it is important
to consider these criticisms and their possible relevance in
the context of the current South African system. Hence, the
positive versus the negative impacts of the various systems used
worldwide will be debated.
The system currently used to encourage research productivity
by South African researchers at higher educational institutions is
largely intended to be a financial reward-based system.
8
Hence,
the financial value (past and present) of research outputs will be
presented. Comparisons will be made of the declining percentage
of public expenditure on higher education as a percentage of the
gross domestic product (GDP) in South Africa versus other
countries in Africa,
15
as well as worldwide.
15-17
Moreover, as
the intent of the South African system is to reward and hence
encourage individual researchers,
8
the differential distribution of
the funds both between and within the different South African
higher educational institutions will be described.
Bearing in mind the controversies raised against the various
assessment systems used worldwide, the potential impact of
possible declines in the financial value of research output units,
and the potential inequity as a consequence of differential
distribution practices within and between higher education
institutions in South Africa, some proposals for the way forward
will be presented.
Comparison of subsidy formulae used in
South Africa
In South Africa, government subsidies to higher educational
institutions were previously (from 1987 to 2003) based on the
SouthAfricanpost-secondary school (SAPSE) subsidy formula.
8,15
The 1997 White Paper on Higher Education Transformation
18
rejected this model and proposed its replacement with a new
model aimed to bring equity and efficiency into the higher
educational system.
8
One of the main concerns with the SAPSE
