Water research and collaboration in the Southern African Development Community

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dc.contributor.author Pouris, Anastassios
dc.date.accessioned 2019-03-14T10:28:35Z
dc.date.available 2019-03-14T10:28:35Z
dc.date.issued 2018
dc.description.abstract This article investigates water-related research in the Southern African Development Community. Water issues are part of the region’s science and technology priorities as 4countries receive less rain than the global average of 860 mm/yr – Botswana with 400 mm/yr, Namibia with 254 mm/yr, South Africa with 497 mm/yr and Zimbabwe with 652 mm/yr. Furthermore, the international literature indicates that joint or internationally coordinated research has the potential to improve the scientific–technical quality of international agreements, prevent conflict and shape the way for appropriate management of the shared resources. Scientometric analysis using the Web of Science database is employed in order to identify the state of water research and collaboration in the SADC region. The Web of Science indexes a defined set of journals worldwide and the South African Government provides incentives/subsidies for publications indexed by this database. The results show that South Africa is the main producer (80%) of research publications in the region. Similarly, in the field of water research South Africa produces 75% of the region’s research. The SADC collaboration matrix in water-related research reveals that there is minimal, if any, collaborative research on the topic. Some seed-level research exists between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The main funders of research are the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) (acknowledged in 180 publications), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (72 publications), the National Institutes of Health (64 publications) and the Wellcome Trust (60 publications). Policy implications are discussed (e.g. the establishment of SADC Common Water Research Area; research support for the region, etc.). en_ZA
dc.description.department Institute for Technological Innovation (ITI) en_ZA
dc.description.librarian am2019 en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorship This investigation has been supported by the Water Research Commission of South Africa (Project K5/2511). en_ZA
dc.description.uri http://www.wrc.org.za en_ZA
dc.description.uri http://www.ajol.info/index.php/wsa en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation Pourias, A. 2018, 'Water research and collaboration in the Southern African Development Community', Water SA, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 358-364. en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn 0378-4730 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 1816-7950 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.4314/wsa.v44i3.03
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/68667
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher Water Research Commission en_ZA
dc.rights Published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence. en_ZA
dc.subject Bibliometrics en_ZA
dc.subject Collaboration en_ZA
dc.subject Scientometrics en_ZA
dc.subject Research en_ZA
dc.subject Southern African Development Community (SADC) en_ZA
dc.title Water research and collaboration in the Southern African Development Community en_ZA
dc.type Article en_ZA


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