Local researchers are gaming government’s subsidy system
Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology says if left unfettered, these practices threaten the integrity of SA research
Researchers at Stellenbosch University have sounded the alarm about a host of dodgy publishing practices that local researchers are using to abuse the government’s subsidy system. Researchers are claiming generous government subsidies for publishing in shoddy “predatory” journals, publishing excessively in journals in which they play an editorial role, and exploiting a policy loophole that allows them to claim subsidies for a limitless number of conference presentations, said Johann Mouton from the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University. Left unfettered, these practices threaten the integrity of SA research and might mean less funding is available for more worthy work. CREST’s analysis found the most extreme case of questionable conference proceedings among academics from the University of Johannesburg, one of whom submitted 113 unique conference proceeding titles in 2017. If true, this meant the academic was producing one conf...
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