South Africa plans to limit number of publications eligible for subsidies — TimesLIVE
South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training plans to introduce restrictions from May 2027 for universities and researchers claiming research outputs for state subsidies. As TimesLIVE reports, the new rules are intended to counter the artificial inflation of publication numbers, plagiarism and other unethical practices in the science incentive system.
The South African government subsidises university research for publications in journals, books, conference proceedings, as well as graduates of research-based master’s and doctoral programmes. For the 2025/26 financial year, 5.8 billion rand was allocated to this mechanism. Funds are distributed among institutions according to the number of so-called publication units; the current payment for one such unit is approximately 130,000 rand.
New rules for subsidies
The ministry intends to set a maximum number of publications that one author will be able to claim during a year. It also plans to tighten requirements for journals and publishers whose materials will qualify for subsidies, and to scrutinise more closely applications from visiting researchers whose primary affiliation is outside South Africa.
The department also plans to combat plagiarism, “gift authorship” and the practice of splitting one large-scale study into several small articles with minor interim results. Minister Buti Manamela informed universities about the planned measures, referring to findings from a project of Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology. The results of this project have not yet been published.
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Examples of anomalous numbers of works
Johann Mouton, director of the Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, said that most universities and researchers comply with the rules, but some participants exploit loopholes in the 2015 policy. According to him, one person claimed 125 articles and 30 conference presentations last year, while another claimed seven books.
Mouton also said that such behaviour is concentrated in five or six of South Africa’s 26 public universities, but did not name them. The ministry’s proposals are to be discussed with universities at a consultation forum at the end of November.
Lynn Morris, deputy vice-chancellor for research at the University of the Witwatersrand, supported stricter checks. According to her, the current system may reward quantity rather than quality: a multi-author study with international partners in a reputable international journal may receive only a fraction of a unit, while a single-author work in a low-impact local journal may receive a full unit.
