Academy of Science South Africa 2005/6 Annual Report

Programme 2ASSAfASSAf will have succeeded in making the South AfricanJournal of Science into Africa’s highest impact research journal,offering worldwide open access to full-text at all times.The Academy is poised to become a key link in partnership between different governmentdepartments through its evolving role in the accreditation of journals recognised for supply-side subsidyof research outputs, with implications for more effective quality assurance and more reliable indicatorsof productivity and impact. If the Academy is to establish a portfolio function of research outputsaccreditation for the S&T system, it will need additional resources to establish the core steady-statecompetence and the supporting networks that will provide the expected benefits in a relatively shorttime. In addition, the proposed framework for South African research journals recommended for theproject includes provision for targeted and well-managed financial support for high-quality journalsthat are listed in international databases, complementing own-revenue from a mix of page chargesubscriptions and advertising.To implement some of the brief recommendations as outlined in the report, ASSAf is setting up aCommittee on Research Publication in South Africa and a Research Publication Office to undertake theprocess of implementing those recommendations in the report that can be initiated by the Academyunder the supervision of the Projects Director, Dr Xola Mati.Publishing the South African Journal of ScienceA “Nature” for South AfricaThe South African Journal of Science continues to showcase a great diversity of original work byresearchers throughout the country and abroad, concentrating on articles that have an appeal thatis wider than that of single disciplines. Among the highlights of the volume published in 2005 werea number of articles featuring the research at historically black universities supported by the RoyalSociety-NRF bilateral programme. The journal appears six times a year, and is accessible online as oneof the e-publications managed by SABINET. The editor is Dr Graham Baker, who was supported in theyear by editorial assistant Ms Eldaleen Jacobs (who was succeeded by Ms Lizel Kleingbiel in February2006) and Prof G Michael Berger (MASSAf) is part-time associate editor. To mark the hundredth year ofDr Graham BakerEditor of the South African Journal of SciencePublished by ASSAfAnnual Report 2005/0625