The writing on the wall of South African science: A scientometric assessment

This article reports on an investigation of the health of academic science in South Africa in terms of papers published over the period 1981-1994. It is suggested that national scientific performance should be assessed as interim results of 'marathon races and that mapping in the matrix Publication Ratio -Relative Citation Index can provide useful insights into disciplinary priorities and their trends, particularly for countries with pluralistic scientific systems. We argue that it is an unfortunate irony that South Africa was relatively strong in science at a time when this activity was less crucial than it is today in determining economic performance and international competitiveness. In the 1990s, South African science is losing ground when the winning economies and industries are becoming increasingly science intensive. The disciplinary mapping of South African science confirms our previous findings that the country's natural wealth still determines national research priorities. We further suggest that national funding policies have strengthened the traditionally most active disciplines and that the country would need innovative new mechanisms in order to redirect the scientific system.