SKEWED SCIENCE
SARAH WILD: Foreign researchers hunt local material and leave out local scientists
’ Parachuting research effectively deprives local scientists of the ability to play on the global stage’
At a cursory glance, there is nothing wrong with the research. The scientific article ticks all the right boxes and should get us all atwitter. The research looks at how fire management in the Kruger National Park is promoting biodiversity. Tick. It is published in one of the world’s leading academic journals, Science. Tick. This means it has been peer-reviewed. Tick. It makes SA look good. Tick. But this piece of research has one major, irredeemable flaw: it does not have a single South African or African author. This is not an isolated incident, but rather the latest in what is commonplace in a country as naturally rich as SA: foreign scientists come in, use our resources to get published and build a name out of it — with no benefit accruing to local scientists, many of whom have dedicated their careers to the same subject. A journal like Science makes careers. Along with the likes of Nature, the Lancet and Cell, if a researcher manages to get a foot in the door at one of these el...
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