The closing date for submission of 2015 research publications was 1 February and preparation of SU’s claim for subsidy to Department of Higher Education & Training (DHET) has started. For the first time the online system that is used to handle these publications, the Research Administrator (RA), has linked directly to the university’s official sources on academic staff (SUN-eHR), postgraduate students and postdocs (SIS), as well as extraordinary appointments and research fellows (SUNid). The reason for this direct linkage was due to the increased complexity of requests for research management information as well as DHET’s message to HEI’s last year re affiliated researchers (see paragraph below from the official report on the previous round’s research publication outputs):
The Department urges institutions to follow strict research ethical practices, particularly with regard to claiming outputs by individuals who are clearly not employed by the claiming institution, or claiming publications of visiting scholars who spend very little time at the claiming institution. The Department is aware that some institutions are appointing individuals, who are based elsewhere as honorary employees, so that they can, in turn, claim subsidy for the publications produced by these individuals. Institutions are urged to regulate such unacceptable practices, failing which the Department will be forced to develop its own regulations and sanctions. Moreover, such practices skew the Department’s targeted approach to develop institutions that are either showing potential or are less developed with regard to research and in developing the research potential of South African academics.
It has come to our attention that there were a number of instances where authors stated their affiliation as SU without having a formal appointment by the university. We are unable to claim subsidy for their contributions due to ethical reasons. We want to emphasize the importance of a formal affiliation of all claiming SU authors and urge all concerned to take note of this requirement.
You can contact Dalene Pieterse mver@sun.ac.za/ 021 808 3557 for more information.
