By IPS Correspondents
CAPE TOWN, May 12 2006 (IPS)

"Publish or perish" is the warning given many academics at the start of their careers. But it&#39s publication of a very particular kind that scholarly researchers crave.

They hunger for their discoveries to achieve immortality in something seldom found on the shelves of your neighbourhood bookstore: specialised academic journals, speckled with footnotes and dense with terminology.

For an ambitious academic, journals offer a chance for their work to be recognised by the brightest minds in the field, and an opportunity to snare invitations to overseas conferences. Despite their tiny print runs, journals can also – over time – influence governments and shape economies.

Or at least, that&#39s the way the process is supposed to work.

However, a newly-released investigation by six members of the Academy of Science of South Africa has concluded that the local journal system is deeply flawed. (The academy is an independent body located in the capital, Pretoria, that groups the country&#39s leading researchers.)

Demurely titled &#39A Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa&#39, the 180-page document indicates that publishing is now primarily motivated by financial incentives – rather than the desire to give an airing to important research findings.

Only about 20 South African journals are considered to be of international standard, something determined by the extent to which the material they publish influences, and is quoted by researchers beyond the country&#39s borders.

But many more, 255 journals in total, are recognised by the Department of Education – "Some…not worth the paper they are printed on," says Dr Anastassios Pouris, director of the Institute for Technological Innovation at the University of Pretoria, and one of the authors of the report.

As a result, whether an academic article is published in a top-flight journal or one viewed as mediocre, it still earns the university where the author is based a hefty 13,000-dollar government subsidy. This appears to have sparked a dash to publish by cash-strapped tertiary institutions, with scant regard for whether the research in question is really of significance, or well done.

Scant regard too for whether it is even being read. According to Professor Johann Mouton, director of the Centre for Research in Science and Technology at Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape Province, about a third of South Africa&#39s journals have never had an article quoted by researchers abroad. Mouton is also an author of the report.

The proliferation of journals stems in part from the hurdles which academics in developing countries have faced in getting their papers accepted by the handful of elite titles.

These difficulties have come in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from decrepit computers and linguistic difficulties to snail-paced telecommunications, and having to cope with student caseloads the size of a small village.

Above and beyond that, says Professor Dan Ncayiyana, editor of the South African Medical Journal, was the "perception that research in the South does not have the same standing or acceptance as research from the North." (The journal was one of the local publications pronounced first-rate by the Academy of Science of South Africa.)

The upshot of all of this was that academics sought their fortune with other journals, a number of which leave something to be desired.

However, Isaac Mazonde, deputy director of research and development at the University of Botswana, cautions against using the same measuring stick to evaluate all publications.

"It is not helpful to compare apples with oranges," he says.

"Journals need to be judged on the basis of the objectives they have set for themselves. Journals that serve a particular geographical region are not necessarily lower-quality outlets; they have a mandate that is usually tied to the development needs of the region concerned."

By drawing attention to the limited readership of many South African publications, the academy&#39s report also highlights the difficulties of making scientific inquiry benefit the broader community.

If scientists aren&#39t even communicating with researchers in other institutions through the accepted channel of academic journals, there is probably little hope that their work on malaria, tuberculosis or education is being taken up by policymakers in government.

"What is the point in spending your time doing something that is not useful?" asks Pouris.

To address these complex issues, the academy has proposed that universities which benefit from government publication subsidies contribute a set fee to local journals, to enable them to put South African scientific research on the internet. Many are still unable to do so.

The hope is that this would allow poor research to be exposed – not buried in university book stacks. By making the contents of lesser-known journals accessible at the click of a mouse, it could also increase their readership – and the all-important number of times good articles are quoted.

"The internet has radically changed everything," concludes academy executive officer Wieland Gevers. "We can go online for the whole world to see."

Key aspects of the report, issued this month, were debated Thursday at a conference of South African research and innovation managers held in Pretoria. The academy researchers undertook their task at the request of the Department of Science and Technology, tracking nearly 15 years worth of publications.

"Journals are the life-blood of living and evolving science," says Dr Xola Mati, projects director of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

For this circulatory system to remain healthy, though, publishing as usual will have to come to an end.

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