Research Standing of South Africa in the BRICKS Community

RESEARCH STANDING OF SOUTH AFRICA IN THE "BRICKS" COMMUNITY Vuyani Lingela and Mapule Degama
Department of Science and Technology; Postal Address: Private Bag X894, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; Tel: +27 12 843 6517; Fax: +27 86 681 0051; Email: Vuyani.Lingela@dst.gov.za

Introduction It is a well known fact that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have formed the BRICS grouping of nations. The BRICS formation aims to achieve peace, security, development and cooperation. It also seeks to contribute significantly to the development of humanity and establish a more equitable and fair world1. The agenda for BRICS has evolved to include global challenges such as agriculture, health, science and technology and climate change2. This formation was originally conceptualised as BRIC during the first meeting of the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China in New York in September 2006. The first BRIC Summit took place in Yekateringburg, Russia, in June 2009, where the leaders of the four countries formally declared their membership of the BRIC economic community3. South Africa joined the group for the first time in December 2010, at which point the group became known as BRICS. The President of South Africa participated for the first time in the third BRICS Leaders Summit in April 2011 in Beijing, China4. The BRICS Strategy for South Africa was approved by Cabinet on 19 September 2012 in order to guide South Africas engagement in BRICS5. South Africa will host the fifth BRICS Summit on 26 and 27 March 20131. Scientific research plays a significant role in advancing knowledge generation and technological developments that are vital for advancing the BRICS agenda, which includes advancing global peace and security, as well as technological developments in agriculture, health and climate change. Korea (Republic of Korea), which is not a member of BRICS, is included in this paper as one of the newly industrialised economies that has established bilateral cooperation with South Africa in science and technology. Together, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Korea and South Africa are referred to as "BRICKS" in this paper. The purpose of this paper is to examine the standing of South Africa in scientific knowledge production within the BRICKS community, as well as to examine the intensity of international research partnerships between South Africa and other BRICKS countries. Methods In order to show the research standing of South Africa and examine the intensity of its international research partnerships with BRICKS countries, data on the number of publications produced by BRICKS researchers and the number of times they were cited between 1981 and 2011 were obtained from InCites6. In order to analyse the intensity of the international research partnerships, the number of co-authored publications between South African and BRICKS researchers were examined at national and institutional levels. At the institutional level, institutions in BRICKS were ranked by the total number of their publications. The top institutions that accounted for at least 65% of all publications produced by each country were identified. Out of those institutions, institutions that had co-authored at least one publication with South Africa were selected. Results and discussion The relative number of publications produced by BRICKS countries and the number of times they were cited between 1981 and 2011 are presented in Figure 1. The 39% (1 453 617) share of publications produced by China as a percentage of the total number of publications

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produced by BRICKS illustrates the dominant position of China in scientific knowledge production. It should be noted that data for China in Figure 1 includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. China is followed by Russia, which produced 22% (824 314) of BRICKS publications. India produced 17% (625 506), Korea produced 10% (396 749), Brazil produced 9% (333 958), and South Africa produced 3% (129 382).

5% 11% 3%

China
9%

Russia
40% 10% 12% 39%

India Korea
17%

Brazil South Africa

22% 16%

16%

Figure 1. Number of publications (inside) and citations (outside) between 1981 and 2011 The results presented in Figure 1 indicate that China has produced scientific publications that have been cited much more often than those produced by other BRICKS countries between 1981 and 2011. China has received a 40% (10 713 045) share of citations from its publications as a percentage of the total number of citations received from publications produced by BRICKS. China is followed by Russia and India, which received 16% (4 318 852) and 16% (4 209 121), respectively, of BRICKS citations. Korea received 12% (3 296 177), Brazil received 11% (2 791 478) and South Africa received 5% (1 406 235). Figure 2 shows the percentages of the total number of publications produced by BRICKS researchers relative to the total for the world. Data for China in Figures 2 again includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The results indicate that the percentage of scientific publications produced by China has increased dramatically from 1981 to 2011. Whereas China accounted for 0,46% of all scientific publications produced in the world in 1981, it accounted for 14,49% in 2011. In recent years, China accounted for a large proportion of research publications produced in the world relative to other BRICKS countries. There was a substantial improvement in the percentage of publications produced by Brazil and Korea, marked by a large increase from 0,43% and 0,05% of the worlds publications in 1981 to 2,71% and 3,55%, respectively, in 2011. There was a small improvement in the percentage of publications produced by South Africa and India, marked by a marginal increase from 0,49% and 3,04% of the worlds publications in 1981 to 0,69% and 3,61%, respectively, in 2011. The results, however, indicate a decline in the percentage of publications produced by Russia, from 5,32% in 1981 to 2,24% in 2011. Figure 3 shows the total number of publications produced by each country and the total number of publications each country has co-authored with South Africa. It should be noted that, although data for China in Figures 1 and 2 includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, Figure 3 includes mainland China only. The results indicate that

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between 1981 and 2011, mainland China produced a total of 1 049 509 publications and, of these, 1 214 were co-authored with South Africa. Although Russia produced more publications (824 314) than India (625 506), India co-authored more publications (1 176) with South Africa than Russia (799). Korea, which produced more publications (396 749) than Brazil (333 958), has co-authored fewer publications (354) with South Africa than Brazil (1 004). This indicates that China, India and Brazil account for most joint publications with South Africa among BRICKS countries.
South Af rica 16.0 14.0 12.0 Russia Brazil Korea India China

Percentage

10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Figure 2. Percentage of publications produced in the world

1,400

Publications co-authored with SA

1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 0 200,000 400,000

Korea Brazil

China India

Russia

600,000

800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000

Number of publications per country

Figure 3. Total number of publications and publications co-authored with South Africa

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300

Publications co-authored with SA

CAS

250 200 150

UFRJ

100 50 0

PU NU RAS

IIMC SU

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

Number of publications per institution

Figure 4. Total number of publications and publications co-authored with South Africa

Table 1. List of institutions and number of co-authored publications with South Africa
Country Institution Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China India India India India India Univ Sao Paulo Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz Univ Estadual Paulista Univ Fed Minas Gerais Univ Fed Sao Paulo Univ Fed Rio Grande Sul Univ Estadual Campinas Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro Harbin Inst Technol Sun Yat Sen Univ Univ Sci & Technol China Zhejiang Univ Huazhong Univ Sci & Technol Jilin Univ Cent S Univ Tsing Hua Univ Wuhan Univ Sichuan Univ Nankai Univ Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ Fudan Univ Lanzhou Univ Shandong Univ Nanjing Univ Peking Univ Chinese Acad Sci Iit Kharagpur Univ Mumbai Osmania Univ Indian Vet Res Inst Anna Univ Co-authored Publications 2 6 12 25 35 39 39 102 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 18 21 23 60 63 93 249 1 2 2 2 2 Country Institution India India India India India India India India India India India India India Korea Korea Korea Korea Korea Korea Korea Korea Korea Korea Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia IIT Univ Madras Indian Assoc Cultivat Sci Univ Hyderabad Univ Calcutta Indian Stat Inst Indian Inst Chem Technol Bhabha Atom Res Ctr Banaras Hindu Univ Aligarh Muslim Univ Univ Delhi Jadavpur Univ All India Inst Med Sci Korea Univ Pusan Natl Univ Seoul Natl Univ Korea Inst Sci & Tech Kyungpook Natl Univ Hanyang Univ Kyung Hee Univ Chonnam Natl Univ Sungkyunkwan Univ Yonsei Univ St Petersburg State Polytech Univ Novosibirsk State Univ Russian Acad Sci Irkutsk State Univ Ural State Univ So Fed Univ Lomonosov Moscow State Univ St Petersburg State Univ Co-authored Publications 2 4 4 5 7 8 9 13 17 25 25 34 61 1 3 4 5 6 6 9 10 13 43 1 1 1 3 3 3 7 37

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The results presented in Figure 4 show that all eight institutions that accounted for 66% of all publications produced in Brazil have co-authored publications with South Africa. Almost all (18) of the 19 institutions that accounted for 65% of all publications produced in China have co-authored publications with South Africa. Ten institutions out of 12 that accounted for 66% of all publications produced in Korea have co-authored publications with South Africa. A total of 18 institutions out of 30 that accounted for 64% of all publications produced in India have co-authored publications with South Africa. On the other hand, only eight out of 25 institutions that accounted for 55% of all publications produced in Russia have co-authored publications with South Africa. There were no additional Russian institutions in the database. A complete list of the institutions above, as well as on Figure 4, is presented in Table 1. The results indicate that, between 1981 and 2011, the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) of Brazil, Peking University (PU) of China, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (IIMC), Shandong University (SU) of China, and Nanjing University (NU) of China have co-authored the highest numbers of publications with South Africa compared to all other institutions in Figure 4. The Russian Academy of Science, which has produced the highest number of publications (259 478) compared to all institutions in Figure 4, has co-authored only one publication with South Africa. Although the CSIR of India has produced 12% of the total number of publications produced by India, i.e. more publications than any other institution in India, data on the number of co-authored publications with South Africa could not be identified because there were many CSIRs listed in the database and none of them was identified as the CSIR of India. Conclusions In recent years, there has been a steady increase in scientific knowledge production in the BRICKS community. South Africa, however, is lagging behind and there is much room for improvement in scientific knowledge production. Korea, which has a much smaller population than Brazil, but which is about the same size as South Africa, is an excellent example to illustrate that small countries have the potential to perform much better in scientific research than those countries with larger populations when the national research environment is favourable. The same could be said about Russia, which performs much better than India, which has a much bigger population. This paper also showed that South Africas international research partnerships with China, India and Brazil is much stronger than with Russia and Korea. It is to be hoped that the BRICS formation might help improve the international research partnership between South Africa and Russia by drawing lessons from its much stronger international research partnership with China. References 1. Department of International Relations and Cooperation (2012). Fifth BRICS Summit. http://www.brics5.co.za/site/ 2. Miller Matola (2012). SA in BRICS: collaboration for growth, March 2012. http://www.southafrica.info/global/brics/miller-matola-280312.htm#.UITo3XKFTct 3. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India (2012). Fourth BRICS Summit. http://www.bricsindia.in/index.html 4. Government Communication and Information System (2012). BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/programmes/ international/brics.html 5. Government Communication and Information System (2012), Statement on Cabinet meeting of 19 September 2012. http://www.gcis.gov.za/content/newsroom/mediareleases/cabstatements/19Sept2012 6. InCitesTM, Thomson Reuters (2012). Report Created: 15 and 16 Oct 2012. Data Processed Dec 31, 2011. Data Source: Web of Science.

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