Jan Resenga Maluleka

Knowledge production through collaborative research in sub-Saharan Africa: how much do countries contribute to each other's knowledge output and citation impact?

This paper examines co-authorship of research articles in Thomson Reuters citation indexes in order to assess knowledge co-production in selected sub-Saharan African countries. Two indicators, namely publications and citations, were analysed to establish the patterns of knowledge co-production and its scientific impact, respectively. The study found that knowledge production through collaborative research among sub-Saharan African countries is minimal and contributes only a small percentage when compared to collaboration between sub-Saharan African countries and their foreign counterparts. Similarly, the scientific impact of international collaboration was higher than that of continental collaboration. Countries belonging to the same geographic region contributed to each other’s knowledge production more frequently than they did to the countries outside their region. It is recommended that, for knowledge co-production in sub-Saharan Africa to improve, various measures such as encouraging student and staff exchange, hosting more regional conferences and encouraging research networks need to be put in place.

Research collaboration in the archives and records management field across and beyond universities in Africa : an informetric analysis

Due to technological developments, innovation and globalisation, research is becoming more complex, requiring wide-ranging skills. A lack of resources and publishing platforms has led to low research output in archives and records management (ARM) in most developing countries in Africa. However, experienced researchers from different countries can collaborate by sharing and transferring knowledge and making optimal use of resources that will lead to the sustainability of research output. Utilising informetrics analysis, as well as co-authorship as the measure for collaboration, this article examines the nature, trend and type of ARM research collaboration in Africa by identifying individuals, institutions and countries that collaborate in order to recommend ways of improving such activities. Quantitative data was extracted from the database of African Journals Online (AJOL) and analysed. The key finding suggested a low level of collaboration among ARM researchers, with the work produced emanating mostly from one institution. The study argues that social and physical proximity contribute to research collaboration in ARM in Africa. The scarcity of literature on ARM in Africa led the article to recommend more collaborative projects whereby established researchers nurture and mentor novice researchers to become self-sustainable in producing scholarly literature. Hopefully, this would help to formulate research agendas to address grand societal challenges, such as a lack of accountability, poor audit results and poor service delivery, which all stem from a breakdown in the records system and a non-sustainable ARM profession in Africa, in order to become on par with the rest of the world.

RESEARCH COLLABORATION AMONG LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE SCHOOLS IN SOUTH AFRICA (1991–2012): AN INFORMETRICS STUDY

This study sought to assess the extent of research collaboration in Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in South Africa between 1991 and 2012. Informetric research techniques were used to obtain relevant data for the study. The data was extracted from two EBSCO-hosted databases, namely, Library and Information Science Source (LISS) and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA). The search was limited to scholarly peer reviewed articles published between 1991 and 2012. The data was analysed using Microsoft Excel ©2010 and UCINET for Windows ©2002 software packages. The findings revealed that research collaboration in LIS schools in South Africa has increased over the past two decades and mainly occurred between colleagues from the same department and institution; there were also collaborative activities at other levels, such as inter-institutional and inter-country, although to a limited extent; differences were noticeable when ranking authors according to different computations of their collaborative contributions; and educator-practitioner collaboration was rare. Several conclusions and recommendations based on the findings are offered in the article.

Factors influencing research collaboration in LIS schools in South Africa

The study sought to explore the underlying factors that influence research collaboration in Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in South Africa. The population for the study consisted of 85 academic teaching staff employed by LIS schools in South African universities. A survey design was used to obtain data for the study, through a questionnaire containing open- and close-ended questions. A total of 85 teaching staff in 10 LIS schools in South Africa were alerted, through email, to the location of the Web-based questionnaires, developed using the Stellarsurvey software. A total of 51 questionnaires were completed and returned for analysis. The findings suggest that factors such as networking, sharing of resources, enhancing productivity, educating students, overcoming intellectual isolation, and accomplishments of projects in a short time as well as learning from peers influenced research collaboration in LIS in South Africa. Factors that are likely to hinder effective collaboration in LIS research include bureaucracy, lack of funding, lack of time, as well as physical distance between researchers. The findings further suggest that even though there are drawbacks to collaboration, majority of LIS researchers thought that collaboration is beneficial and should be encouraged.

The preservation of knowledge of traditional healing in the Limpopo province of South Africa

The study aimed to investigate the methodologies employed by traditional healers to preserve knowledge of traditional healing. Organisational knowledge conversion theory was employed to guide the study. The study adopted the hermeneutic phenomenological research method and utilised snowball-sampling to identify participants. Data collection was done through observations and interviews. The findings indicate that there is some consensus among healers that ancestors control knowledge of traditional healing and pass it down to the chosen healers through dreams and visions. However, even though ancestors are believed to be the ones who preserve knowledge of traditional healing, there are healers who document their knowledge using different mediums chosen by them. The study concludes that even though the knowledge of traditional healers is largely preserved orally, and faces challenges, there are some initiatives globally and in South Africa to have this knowledge externalised and documented.

Integrating traditional medical knowledge into mainstream healthcare in Limpopo Province

In most African states, the majority of the population depend on indigenous healing knowledge for their healthcare. This knowledge is in danger of being obliterated due to a number of factors such as it being not documented, low life expectancy where people die before transferring it to the next generation and the governments failing to incorporate it into the mainstream health system that is often overloaded. This qualitative study adopted a hermeneutic phenomenology to investigate the development of a framework to integrate knowledge of traditional healing into the mainstream healthcare system in the Limpopo province. Data were collected through interviews with traditional healers chosen through snowball sampling technique augmented by observations and analysis of legislation, notes, records and other forms of documents held by healers. Data were analysed and interpreted thematically according to the objectives of the study. The study established that indigenous medical knowledge is marginalised, and healers are not getting support from the government despite the important role they play in the national health systems. Traditional healing is not properly regulated creating a loophole for anyone to practise as a healer. A framework that points the link factors that attempt to create an understanding of how knowledge of traditional healing can be managed and integrated into the mainstream healing is proposed. It is concluded that failure to recognise traditional healing and integrate it in the mainstream health system will continue to hamstring the health system with resources in South Africa.

Referencing patterns in South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science, 1996 - 2007

This study uses bibliometric techniques to examine the frequency and patterns of referencing in articles published in South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science (SAJLIS) from 1996 to 2007. The authors believe that an analysis of references and referencing patterns in a journal is vital because references play an important role in scholarly communication, which is defined as the process of sharing and publishing research findings in order to reach a wider scholarly and professional community. This paper thus seeks to determine, among other objectives : the growth of publications in the journal; the growth of references; articles with the most number of references; types of sources consulted by SAJLIS authors; language used to publish the consulted sources; and whether the length of articles influences the number of references. It was found that SAJLIS has maintained regular publication for all but one year, 1999, when the journal was not published. On average, SAJLIS published 15 articles per year between 1996 and 2007; journal articles were the most commonly consulted document type by SAJLIS authors (2241; 46.6%), followed by books (1512; 31.5%), Internet-based sources (665; 13.8%), and conference proceedings (189; 3.9%); Internet-based sources and electronic journals were growing in popularity among the researchers; the average number of references per article equated to 29.13; and the highest and lowest number of references recorded in a single article were 101 and 4, respectively. We also observed that the number of references in an article does not influence the length of the article; the average length of SAJLIS papers is 10 pages and there was an increased usage of electronic resources by SAJLIS authors from 2001. Finally, this paper draws several conclusions based on the findings of the study and provides some recommendations for further research.