FEATURE ARTICLE

 

The visibility of engineering research in South Africa, 1975-2005

 

 

R Sooryamoorthy

Sociology Programme, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa sooryamoorthyr@ukzn.ac.za

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Engineering as a branch of science has a crucial role in the growth of the economy. The growth and development of engineering is therefore highly relevant. One way to understand this is to examine the characteristics of the scientific knowledge produced in the field of engineering. Drawing on the publications in engineering from the ISI Web of Science over the last three decades, this paper looks at the visibility and importance of engineering research in South Africa. The visibility of research publications is studied in terms of the number of citations a publication receives. The analysis shows that the visibility of South African engineering research is determined by the number of authors involved in the production of a paper, the presence of international collaboration, the degree of collaboration, and the journals in which the papers are published. Engineering research in South Africa, compared with that of all subjects, is clearly growing. But the visibility of South African engineering publications, in comparison with all other subjects, has been diminishing in recent years.

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OPSOMMING

Ingenieurswese as 'n vertakking van die wetenskap speel 'n kardinale rol in die groei van die ekonomie. Die groei en ontwikkeling van die ingenieurswese is dus uiters relevant. Een manier om dit te verstaan, is om die eienskappe van die wetenskaplike kennis wat op die terrein van die ingenieurswese geproduseer word te ondersoek. Deur na die publikasies in ingenieurswese op die "ISI Web of Science" te kyk oor die afgelope drie dekades, bestudeer hierdie artikel die sigbaarheid en belangrikheid van navorsing in die ingenieurswese in Suid-Afrika. Die sigbaarheid van navorsingspublikasies word bestudeer aan die hand van die aantal sitasies wat 'n gepubliseerde artikel ontvang. Die ontleding toon dat die sigbaarheid van Suid-Afrikaanse ingenieurswese-navorsing bepaal word deur die aantal outeurs betrokke by die artikel, die teenwoordigheid van internasionale samewerking, die mate van samewerking asook die joernale waarin dit gepubliseer is. Navorsing in die ingenieurswese in Suid-Afrika is duidelik aan die groei in vergelyking met ander vakgebiede. Daarteenoor, neem die sigbaarheid egter af wanneer dit met ander vakgebiede vergelyk word.

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