Arrr you a pirate?

Teleread published an interesting take on pirating of material in their article"Talking to pirates: Can e-publishers learn from a game developer’s dialogue? by Chris Meadows.

"There has been a lot of rhetoric flung back and forth between providers of content (be it books, games, music, or movies) and those who “pirate” them, but not a lot of dialogue.
Recently, Cliff Harris, an independent game developer decided to change that. He asked for e-mails that would answer the fundamental question: “Why do you pirate my games?”
What he got back was partly what he had asked for, but more of the answers seemed to address the broader issues of game piracy in general."

Academic Rankings of Universities

Each year Shanghai's University rank the World's Top 500 Universities by several indicators of academic or research performance and for the 2008 rankings South Africa reached 25th place in the country rankings with UCT, WITS and UKZN in the top 500

The indicators include:

• alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, (The total number of the alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics and Fields Medal in Mathematics)
• highly cited researchers,
• articles published in Nature and Science,
• articles indexed in major citation indices, (Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Science Citation Index in 2007. Only publications of article type are considered.)
• the per capita academic performance of an institution. (The weighted scores of the above five indicators divided by the number of full-time equivalent academic staff.)
  

There are many methodological and technical problems with the ranking. Methodological problems include: the proportion of indicators on teaching and services, the weight of per capita performance, the type of institutions (comprehensive or specialized), the language bias in publications, the selection of awards and the experience of award winners. Technical problems include: the definition of institutions, the attribution of publications and awards, and the history of institutions.

Top Universities

Each year the Jiao Tong University brings out their Top 100 World Universities in Broad Subjects list. (Not a single African country managed to get on the list)

The ranking list includes every institution that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medals, and Highly-Cited Researchers. In addition, major universities of every country with significant amount of articles indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also included.

Institutions are ranked by five broad subject fields, including:

• Natural Sciences and Mathematics (SCI),
• Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences (ENG),
• Life and Agriculture Sciences (LIFE),
• Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy (MED),
• Social Sciences (SOC).

Ranking indicators include:

• alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals,
• Highly Cited Researchers,
• articles indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI).
• percentage of articles published in the top 20% journals of each field
• engineering research expenditure

University news from Africa

AFRICA: Three universities in global top 500, two out / Karen MacGregor
Two African universities have slipped from the top 500 identified by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, leaving only three - the universities of Cape Town, the Witwatersrand and KwaZulu-Natal - in the elite global list for 2008. South Africa follows Ireland into 25th place in terms of percentage distribution of top universities by country, ahead of Europe's Greece, Hungary, Poland and Portugal as well as India.





ZAMBIA: Students riot over lecturer strike
Nine University of Zambia students have been arrested following rioting aimed at pressing the government to resolve a crippling strike by lecturers at the country's oldest institution. Similar protests two months ago resulted in police shooting and injuring two students.






CAMEROON: New Maroua university due to open
President Paul Biya has fulfilled an 11-year promise and the University of Maroua, Cameroon's seventh, is about to open. The new institution will consist of faculties yet to be created, and two grandes écoles, the Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Institut Supérieur du Sahel.


ZIMBABWE: Lecturers warn of university closures/ Clemence Manyukwe
Academics in Zimbabwe have warned President Robert Mugabe that all state-controlled higher education institutions face closure as a result of poor working conditions, the brain drain and other problems arising from the country's political and economic crises. With inflation now at 42 million percent, lecturers said their salaries no longer covered transport costs and that they had not been working since June.


BOTSWANA: Lecturer on Zimbabwe sanctions list deported/ Clemence Manyukwe
The Botswana government has deported a media studies lecturer at the University of Botswana who is on the latest Zimbabwe sanctions list of the European Union. Ceasar Zvayi, former political editor of the Harare-based state-owned newspaper The Herald, had moved to Botswana to take up the lecturing job shortly after President Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election in a one-man poll on 27 June - prompting a public outcry in Botswana.


SENEGAL: Students punished for protest against minister
Fifteen students at the University of Ziguinchor have been punished for protesting against the Minister for Higher Education, Professor Moustapha Sourang, during his visit in July. The most severe penalty was immediate exclusion from the university for up to two years.

University news from the West

Keeping Track of Students, and Staying in Touch
At first, the idea sounds deceptively simple. Software that lets professors manage their office hours and keep tabs on their students? Isn’t a daybook enough?
For some faculty members, a pen and paper — or a well-organized e-mail inbox — might be enough. But a new start-up company, Starfish Retention Solutions, based in northern Virginia is betting that its forthcoming services will fill a need that many colleges don’t realize they have — and boost retention and student success along the way.

Five Secrets to Publishing Success/ By Thom Brooks
For many young academics (whether graduate students or assistant professors preparing their tenure files), the subject of publishing is a source of anxiety and consternation. In addition, whether or not one has a sound understanding of publishing more often than not is true thanks to being teamed up with a helpful supervisor. Thus, what most young academics know about publishing is only limited to what little they may have heard from helpful — and often not so helpful — mentors. In this essay, Thom will uncover what he believe are five secrets to publishing success. (Secret #1: Finding your voice, Secret #2: The importance of focus;Secret #3: Rejection is the norm;Secret #4; Getting a book contract;Secret #5: Publishing takes time)





Suicidal Thoughts Are Common Among College Students, Study Suggests
A study of 26,000 students at 70 colleges and universities suggests that suicidal thoughts are not rare among that population, with more than half of the responders reporting they have thought about suicide and 15 percent reporting they have seriously considered ending their lives. More than 5 percent reported attempting suicide sometime in their lives. .

British Universities Offer Cash to Get Students to Enroll in Unpopular Programs
Several British universities apparently are offering cash incentives to students to induce them to enroll in unpopular degree programs.

Finland, Like Sweden, to End Free Study for Some Foreigners
Some foreign students in Finland will be charged tuition beginning in 2010, if a new university law drawn up by the government is approved and goes into effect, as expected, in late 2009.


Siege mentality
A fortnightly series in which academics step outside their area of expertise. Terence Kealey reveals how hypocrisy, violence and torture in the America of George Washington have helped create the US of George Bush

Filtering tips/ Rebecca Attwood
Applications from would-be students are increasingly less likely to be seen by an academic as universities turn to new ways to sieve the burgeoning number of applications.

Grappling with the digital divide / Hannah Fearn
Students are increasingly 'transliterate', communicating across a range of technologies. Can academics keep up?




GLOBAL: University world rankings/ Geoff Maslen
Universities in the United States have again dominated the world's top 500 in the latest rankings by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It is the sixth year since the Chinese university began listing the world's top higher education institutions and once more, US universities have taken 17 of the first 20 places and 55 of the top 100. This compares with America's main competitor - Britain - which managed to squeeze only two of its universities in the top 20 and a mere 10 in the first 100.

GREECE: Cheque-book higher education / Makki Marseilles
The first step towards privatisation of higher education in Greece has been taken by the government despite strong opposition from the academic community, political parties, educational trades unions as well as parents and students at large.

CHINA: Rise of research in the Middle Kingdom/ Simon Marginson
A notable development of the last decade was the pluralisation of research capacity in the sciences. Between 1995 and 2005, the annual number of scientific papers produced in China rose from 9,061 to 41,596. China was poised to overtake UK and Germany at the top of the EU table though its output remained less than one fifth that of the EU as a whole.

lies, lies and impact factors?

The Open Access journal Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics (ESEP) have devoted entire first issues of 2008 to the question of Impact Factors with their theme:

The use and misuse of bibliometric indices in evaluating scholarly performance

Here is the editors' foreword:
Bibliometric indices (based mainly upon citation counts), such as the h-index and the journal impact factor, are heavily relied upon in such assessments. There is a growing consensus, and a deep concern, that these indices — more-and-more often used as a replacement for the informed judgement of peers — are misunderstood and are, therefore, often misinterpreted and misused. The articles in this ESEP Theme Section present a range of perspectives on these issues. Alternative approaches, tools and metrics that will hopefully lead to a more balanced role for these instruments are presented.

Here is the TOC:
INTRODUCTION:
Factors and indices are one thing, deciding who is scholarly, why they are scholarly, and the relative value of their scholarship is something else entirely/ Browman HI, Stergiou KI

Escape from the impact factor/ Campbell P
Makes the argument that the most effective and fair analysis of a person’s contribution derives from a direct assessment of individual papers, regardless of where they were published.

Lost in publication: how measurement harms science/ Lawrence PA
Changes to the way scientists are assessed are urgently needed, and suggestions are made in this article.

Hidden dangers of a ‘citation culture’/ Todd PA, Ladle RJ
A look at one of the areas where citation numbers can be inaccurate in terms of the manner in which papers are cited, indexed and searched for.

The siege of science/ Taylor M, Perakakis P, Trachana V
The academic as author, editor and/or reviewer, under intense competitive pressure, is forced to play the publishing game where such numbers rule, leading to frequent abuses of power. Here, Perakakis and Trachana review the current status of this siege, how it arose and how it is likely to evolve.

The economics of post-doc publishing/ Cheung WWL
This article explores how bibliometrics affect the publication strategy from a point of view of a post-doctoral fellow, with analogy and explanation from simple economic theories.

Chasing after the high impact./ Tsikliras AC
Although young scientists may not always be aware of the advantages and pitfalls of the impact factor system when it comes to the choice of which journal to submit to, journal ranking is among the selection criteria, following the journal’s general scope and rapid manuscript handling but preceding choice of a journal which allows authors to suggest potential referees, and open access journals.

Challenges for scientometric indicators: data demining, knowledge flows measurements and diversity issues/ Zitt M, Bassecoulard E
This article describes some of the challenges for bibliometric indicators (data ‘demining’, knowledge-flow measurements and diversity issues) underlying, among other applications, reliable evaluation procedures.

Google Scholar as a new source for citation analysis/ Harzing AWK, van der Wal R
Traditionally, the most commonly used source of bibliometric data is Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge, in particular the Web of Science and the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), which provide the yearly Journal Impact Factors (JIF). This paper presents an alternative source of data as well as 3 alternatives to the JIF to assess journal impact.

Re-interpretation of ‘influence weight’ as a citation-based Index of New Knowledge (INK)/Pauly D, Stergiou KI
The INK method for assessing the ‘influence weight’ of journals is re-interpreted as a potential citation-based indicator of the impact of scientific and other publications.

Benefitting from bibliometry/ Giske J
Within a department, the evaluation of performance may be one of several incentives for improving scientific quality and productivity. However, used alone, performance evaluation can lead to destructive competition and marginalization of potentially valuable staff members.

Using a balanced approach to bibliometrics: quantitative performance measures in the Australian Research Quality Framework/ Butler L Erratum
Within a department, the evaluation of performance may be one of several incentives for improving scientific quality and productivity. However, used alone, performance evaluation can lead to destructive competition and marginalization of potentially valuable staff members.

Citation counts for research evaluation: standards of good practice for analyzing bibliometric data and presenting and interpreting results/ Bornmann L, Mutz R, Neuhaus C, Daniel HD
Here Bornmann et al present standards of good practice for analyzing bibliometric data and presenting and interpreting the results.

Validating research performance metrics against peer rankings / Harnad S In and of themselves, metrics are circular: They need to be jointly tested and validated against what it is that they purport to measure and predict, with each metric weighted according to its contribution to their joint predictive power.

World Universities' ranking on the web - UJ not in top 10

Webometrics has just released their 2008 World Universities's ranking on the web, and UJ is listed as the 14th Top African University, and 3,704th in the world.

Objectives of the Webometrics Ranking of World's Universities


"The original aim of the Ranking was to promote Web publication, not to rank institutions. Supporting Open Access initiatives, electronic access to scientific publications and to other academic material are our primary targets. However web indicators are very useful for ranking purposes too as they are not based on number of visits or page design but global performance and visibility of the universities.


As other rankings focused only on a few relevant aspects, specially research results, web indicators based ranking reflects better the whole picture, as many other activities of professors and researchers are showed by their web presence.

The Web covers not only only formal (e-journals, repositories) but also informal scholarly communication. Web publication is cheaper, maintaining the high standards of quality of peer review processes. It could also reach much larger potential audiences, offering access to scientific knowledge to researchers and institutions located in developing countries and also to third parties (economic, industrial, political or cultural stakeholders) in their own community."
more

The top ten consisted of:
(the number is brackets is the university's world ranking)


1 University of Cape Town (385)
2 Stellenbosch University (654)
3 Rhodes University (722)
4 University of Pretoria (734)
5 University of the Witwatersrand (831)
6 University of the Western Cape (1,218)
7 University of Kwazulu Natal (1,313)
8 University of South Africa (1,499)
9 American University in Cairo (1,654)
10 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (2,145)

University News from the West

CHINA: Olympics - low-key involvement by universities Michael Delaney University sports are a big deal in China, followed with great fervour by students and alumni, and many universities boast excellent sporting facilities and stadiums. Yet historically there has been a great distance, even antipathy, between the state administration and university sports departments. As a result, the nation's centralised sports system means universities have largely been left out in the cold when it comes to preparing athletes for the Olympic Games.

GLOBAL: Liberalisation shelved as talks collapse Keith Nuthall Proposals to sweep away some restrictions preventing private universities and higher education service providers from teaching, researching and examining in foreign countries have been put on ice at the World Trade Organization.

GERMANY: Plans to create more leeway for research Michael Gardner Germany's federal government has adopted a five-point plan to create more autonomy for public-funded research institutions. In future, they will enjoy considerably more scope in terms of budgets, staff, networking, construction measures and procurement. The new measures will ultimately lead to a special law on academic freedom agreed to by the government last year.

SPECIAL REPORT: E-Learning
E-learning is one of the buzzwords of 21st century higher education, with academics around the world increasingly relying on technology to communicate with their students – and transmit their lectures. But as University World News writers report in this special on E-learning, as some designate it, although a great boon to many lacking easy access to education, technology must be used intelligently as a tool for learning and not be regarded simply as a panacea.
SOUTH AFRICA: Universities not far behind the curve Karen MacGregor The use of information and communication technologies to support learning in South African universities is booming and they are "not very far behind the curve" of developed countries in e-learning, says Stephen Marquard, learning technology coordinator for the University of Cape Town.

AUSTRALIA: Online studying for the remote and on-the-move Geoff Maslen

UK: Virtual lectures? No thanks, say students Diane Spencer The British government is keen to promote e-learning, as are UK universities. Yet research shows that students still prefer face-to-face learning.

FRANCE: Universities lag 'digitally native' students Jane Marshall French universities must urgently catch up with information and communication technologies if they are to satisfy the higher education demands of the advancing generation of 'digitally native' students.

BRITISH COMMONWEALTH: Big changes in small states Nick Holdsworth
The Commonwealth of Learning - the world's only intergovernmental agency solely dedicated to promoting and delivering distance education and open learning - is working with 30 of the British Commonwealth's smaller states to create a 'virtual university'.


Call Your PR Director, Fast When a production company tells your president or dean it wants to profile your college or school in a national television documentary, the offer may not be what it seems

Game Over The University of Florida is the latest to call for an end to beer pong and other popular college drinking games.

Game Over The University of Florida is the latest to call for an end to beer pong and other popular college drinking games.


SIDESTEPPING THE CRANKS
Professors are often magnets for crackpots bearing pet theories and searching for validation.

PLEASE DON'T GO
Administrators at public universities are devising new strategies to keep key faculty members in an era of increased poaching.

THOSE WHO DO, TEACH
Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn at Penn prompts Mark Oppenheimer to ask: Do celebrity profs energize or cheapen a university?

AUTHOR, AUTHOR?
Two Case Western Reserve University professors say Routledge recycled their work without credit or royalty.

'SCORES DESCRIBE BUT DON'T EXPLAIN'
When used without regard for their complexities, Daniel Koretz says, the results of standardized tests can be misleading.

Accredited journals - the missing piece of your research puzzle?

Quite a few lecturers have been asking me how they can limit their results in a database to accredited journals only.

It is important to remember that you can limit your searching in a database to include only scholarly, peer-reviewed or academic journals - accredited journals is not a searching option.

Some of the reasons for this are that accreditation changes year on year and while there are international lists, countries also have their own local list of accredited journals. This makes it difficult for databases to keep such lists as search options.

How do you go about getting articles from accredited journals then?

To only search in accredited journals, you would have to have the names of those journals and then limit your searches in the databases to those specific journals only. (You simply add the name of the accredited journal in the search box and choose Journal title/Publication title/Source from the field box.)

The list of SA accredited journals is not too long and it fairly easy to read through and then identify the journals that would suit your topic.

The internationally accredited journals (ISI or IBBS), however, present a problem as the lists has over 15 000 journals covering all research disciplines and is searchable only with the ISSN, title or part of the title of the journal.

In other words it is extremely difficult to identify all the journals within a specific topic. It is much easier if you already have a reference to a journal to then look up the title in the accreditation list.

So in a nutshell:

• get the name of accredited journals from the lists and search by that journal only, or
• get articles you like and then check if they journals they are published in are accredited

Unfortunately, as with research, there is no easy or quick way.

Blending teaching and technology

(click on the image to enlarge)

Have you found EduCause Connect yet? It is part of the bigger EduCause which is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

In EduCause Connect you can find articles and tools to help you use information technology in your everyday teaching.

Most relevant to you might be the topic Teaching and Learning with the categories being:

Assessment and Evaluation(254)
E-Learning(866)
Faculty(217)
Instructional Design(218)
Instructional Technologies(505)
Interaction and Engagement(146)
IT Integration(155)
K-12 Programs(28)
Knowledge Management(64)
Learners(186)
Learning(347)
Learning Space Design(199)
Library Projects(66)
Organizational Issues, Teaching and Learning(19)
Standards and Specifications: Teaching and Learning(16)
Teaching(276)
Virtual Community(146)

In each category you will find links to featured content, primary publications on the topic, wiki's, blogs, communities, events in keeping with the topic, authors on this topic, conference resources and other internet sources and more.

Some of the other popular topics include:
Cybersecurity(300)
Information Systems and Services(98)
Information Technology Management and Leadership(265)
Libraries and Technology(230)
Networking and Emerging Technologies(101)
Policy and Law(151)

Emerald suspending alerting and Table of Content services

Emerald recently found a bug in their system that affected the following services:

- Saved search alerts (for new articles on your topic)
- ToC (Table of Contents) alerts (for new issues of journals)
- Weekly digest.

They have identified the following issues:
- The alerting service duplicated the number of alerts that recipients received in their inbox
- Some content was out-of-date/incorrect.

To ensure that these problems do not continue they will be suspending these services until further notice.

Finally the wait is over!

Well, the wait is finally over! The Beijing 2008 Olympic has started - and it's going to be a great event.

Here is a selection of places you can use to keep up to date with the latest events, results and happenings in Beijing:

The official Olympic Website - read the latests Olympic news, see the fixtures, view results, meet the athletes and teams, view interviews of Olympic greats (past and perhaps even the present), read the newsletter, download Olympic wall papers and screensavers and even play online games.

Olympics on television - SuperSport is devoting 3 channels to the Olympics: SuperSport Xtra 1 and 2 and Olympic HD (only available with the DStv HD PVR decoder) If you've missed the action you can see the results on their SuperSport Olympics page as well.

News on the web - News24 has an Olympic channel, as does CNN.

A new Aviation wikipedia?

copyright: katman1972

A new website has been launched last month that aims to create a sharing space for pilots. "It's kind of like the Wikipedia for aviation," HowItFlies.com webmaster Keith West told AVweb

HowItFlies.com encourages pilots and aviators to share opinions, information, photos, videos, specs, and history of aviation.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

New journal issues published in SAePublications

The new issue of Acta Commercii has been published in SAePublications:

1. The economic value of the 2010 Soccer World Cup Authors: Saayman, M.; Rossouw, R.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 1-14
2. Employee performance, leadership style and emotional intelligence : an exploratory study in a South African parastatal Authors: Hayward, B.A.; Amos, T.L.; Baxter, J.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 15-26
3. Developments and reforms in small business support institutions since 1996 Authors: Molapo, S.; Mears, R.R.; Viljoen, J.M.M.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 27-40
4. 'Hidden messages' emerging from Afrocentric management perspectives Authors: Van den Heuvel, H.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 41-54
5. The cotton farming pipeline of Malawi and South Africa : management implications Authors: Grundling, J.P.; Steynberg, L.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 55-63
6. A generic taxonomy of shopping motives among hypermarkets (hyper-stores) customers and the relationship with demographic variables Authors: Dhurup, M.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 64-79
7. Factors influencing the preparation, support and training of South African expatriates Authors: Vogel, A.J.; Van Vuuren, J.J.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 80-89
8. Day labourers in Pretoria, Windhoek and the United States - a comparison of two capitals and a different world Authors: Schenck, C.J.; Blaauw, P.F.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 90-102
9. Employment creation through public works programmes and projects in South Africa : experiences and potentials Authors: Thwala, W.D.; Published: 2008From: Acta Commercii, Vol 8, Pages: 103-112

Call for papers on Employee Relations: Are we having fun yet?

This forthcoming special issue of Employee Relations ‘Are We Having Fun Yet?’ explores the idea of organised fun at work as the latest employee engagement mechanism.

From fancy dress days and team based sporting activities, to chill out rooms, party nights or skiing and sailing weekends, an entire industry of laughter consultants’ prescriptions and methods has emerged to advocate and facilitate the creation of fun in the workplace. Yet, are we having fun yet?

It is timely for a fresh look at the notion of fun at work: what it is, what it does, and what it really means to people. This special issue calls for an assessment of the current fascination with this hitherto informal, subterranean social side of work, and the veracity of the very under-theorised association between fun, happiness and productivity. We call for papers that offer new insights into the impulse to ‘manage’ play, laughter, and fun at work; and also people’s reactions to efforts to contain, shape and exploit the creativity and energy to be found in shared humour and humanity in the workplace. Particularly we seek papers that combine original conceptual approaches with empirical studies that capture the actions and reactions of people involved in ‘fun’ cultures.

Papers may wish to, but are not restricted to:

• Present accounts or data on organisational initiatives around fun, and formal engagement with the social side of organising
• Explore the philosophical underpinnings and the case for and against the implied link between fun, workplace morale and productivity
• Critically appraise the science of happiness movement and related developments in positive organisation studies as a precursor to ideas about fun at work.
• Dialogue with consultants, practitioners, managers and employees about their intentions and experiences in this domain
• Reflect on the implications of the fun agenda for workplace practice
• Determine, whether indeed, we are having fun yet by offering a historical, structural, or geographical comparative analysis
• Consider who fun is for, who it omits
• Highlight methodological avenues for appraising workplace fun

Manuscript requirements

Manuscripts of between 3000-6000 words should be submitted to the editors no later than January 31 2009. Please email by Word document attachment, with Employee Relations in the subject line, to: Professor Sharon C. Bolton: sharon.bolton@gsb,strath.ac.uk and Dr Maeve Houlihan: maeve.a.houlihan@ucd.ie

For full manuscript submission guidelines please refer to the Employee Relations homepage at:

Closing date: JANUARY 31, 2009.

R7b spent on BBBEE and SMMEs in Gauteng

BuaNews Online reported that Gauteng is spending R7b on BBBEE and SMMEs in the province:

"The department is running a support programme for emerging contractors who have been awarded construction contracts, under the auspices of a trading entity known as Impophoma Infrastructure Support Entity.

Impophoma leases fleet and plant equipment at reasonable prices to SMMEs, thus ensuring that they become sustainable concerns. Construction contractors also receive assistance with Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Registration plus free training on business planning, modelling and marketing. This takes place at three dedicated Construction Contact Centres in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

With regards to SMME Development, a total 1 687 BBEEE companies and 1 139 SMMEs were awarded contracts by the department. The value of these contracts amounted to about R4 billion for BBBEE and R2 billion in the case of SMMEs. On the other hand, the construction of the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link has, in the 2007/2008 fiscal year alone, spent R1.89 billion in procurement and sub-contracting to BBBEE's and SMME's."

Be careful of the Impact Factor

I've received a few enquiries regarding the Impact Factor (IF) of certain journals.

Lets first start with what IF is:
IF was devised in 1955 to help select journals for the Science Citation Index and

"it is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period.

The annual JCR impact factor is a ratio between citations and recent citable items published. Thus, the impact factor of a journal is calculated by dividing the number of current year citations to the source items published in that journal during the previous two years.

The impact factor is useful in clarifying the significance of absolute (or total) citation frequencies. It eliminates some of the bias of such counts which favor large journals over small ones, or frequently issued journals over less frequently issued ones, and of older journals over newer ones. Particularly in the latter case such journals have a larger citable body of literature than smaller or younger journals.

All things being equal, the larger the number of previously published articles, the more often a journal will be cited." ISI Impact Factor

But the IF is NOT a way to assess the usefulness of a journal and should not be misused:
"The impact factor should not be used without careful attention to the many phenomena that influence citation rates, as for example the average number of references cited in the average article. The impact factor should be used with informed peer review. In the case of academic evaluation for tenure it is sometimes inappropriate to use the impact of the source journal to estimate the expected frequency of a recently published article. Again, the impact factor should be used with informed peer review. Citation frequencies for individual articles are quite varied." ISI Impact Factor

For step-by-step instructions on how to search for a journals IF, click and download the presentation Journal Citation/Impact factors.

Transportation Statistics

The US Dept. of Statistics has released the State Transportation Statistics for 2007. This report presents a statistical profile of transportation in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Some of the highlights include:

Transportation System Extent
All public roads: 4.02 million miles
Interstate: 46,630 miles
Road bridges: 599,766 1
Class I railroad trackage: 94,801 miles
Inland waterways: 29,627 miles
Public use airports: 5,233 (604 certificated for air carrier operations)

Commuting (percent of workers)
Car, truck, or van—drove alone: 76.0
Car, truck, or van—carpooled: 10.7
Public transportation: 4.8
Walked: 2.9
Taxicab, motorcycle, bicycled or other means: 1.7
Worked at home: 3.9

For South African Transportation Statistics the newest stats available is 2006.

Highlights include:
Transport
The total income for the transport industry in 2006 was R159 551 million.
The total income represents an increase of 7,1% per annum over the income reported to the corresponding survey of 2002 (R121 193 million).
The total expenditure for the transport industry in 2006 was R145 618 million.
The total expenditure in the transport industry was primarily made up of purchases (R48 684 million or 33,4%), and salaries and wages (R29 992 million or 20,6)%
The total number of persons employed in the transport industry at end June 2006 was 235 444. The total represents an increase of 0,9% per annum over the number of employees reported to the corresponding survey of 2002 (226 939)

Other SA transport statistics can be found at NationMaster - South Africa ; International Transport Worker's Federation; Dept of Transport annual report 2005/6

University News from Africa

SOUTH AFRICA: Students demand an end to racism/ Karen MacGregor
The South African Students Congress - the country's biggest student union - has called for students "to take up arms and fight racism" on campuses, for the sacking of the Minister of Education, a five-year plan to deliver free education and the renaming of Rhodes University because of its "imperialist" associations.



ANGOLA: Plans to regulate university expansion
Government plans to open public universities in different regions of Angola should resolve a number of issues in these areas, said Joao Saveia, Vice-rector of the Université Technique d'Angola (Utanga), according to the Angola Press Agency of Luanda.


UK-MALAWI: Project to reduce medical brain drain/ Clemence Manyukwe
Scotland's University of Dundee has launched a pilot project aimed at reducing Africa's medical brain drain, through a partnership with the University of Malawi's college of medicine that will see selected final year students undergoing four-month placements in the southern African country.


EGYPT: Medical school enrolments to be slashed/ Ashraf Khaled
Although he came top of his class in this year's secondary school certificate examinations Hassan Abdel Fatah, 19, is unlikely to achieve his dream of attending medical school. An Egyptian court recently upheld a request from the Doctors' Association, an independent union, that the number of new medical students be slashed because of pressure on standards and an over-supply of doctors. In line with the ruling, the number of new enrolments at medical schools will be cut by 14%, from 7,800 to 6,700.


TUNISIA: Higher education must 'professionalise'
Tunisian Higher Education Minister Lazhar Bououni has stressed the need to instil an entrepreneurial culture in students and to implement higher education reforms passed in February, reported La Presse of Tunis. The reforms include raising the quality of education, decentralisation and improving management efficiency, as well as strengthening the systems of evaluation and allocating posts.

University news from the West

Here is a roundup of HE news from the West ...

Report sets out new vetting system for research staff A new integrity office detecting misconduct could be on the horizon

Artistic licence The rise of digital and conceptual art, and a declining interest in traditional craft skills, is forcing art departments to reinvent themselves. Hannah Fearn investigates

Lecturers' feedback efforts 'misguided' Students need to play a more active role in assessment, an expert claims. Olga Wojtas reports

NO MYSTERY HERE
The cultural bias against serious study of science and technology is rarely recognized as a reason for American students' poor performance, Peter Wood points out.





WHEN A SYLLABUS IS NOT YOUR OWN
Is it plagiarism when a colleague borrows your syllabus and then uses it in its entirety for his own course?





IT'LL END IN TEARS
Conflict between the inventor of a medicine for dry eyes and the university where she worked highlights the pitfalls in commercialization of academic discoveries.


'JUST LIKE REAL LIFE'
The University of Phoenix imports real-world scenarios, flaws and all, into many of its courses.





NEW ZEALAND: Women-only scholarships challenged/John Gerritsen*
In a case that could have repercussions around the world, a Victoria University of Wellington academic has queried the legality of tertiary education scholarships for women. Institute of Policy Studies senior research fellow and acting deputy director, Dr Paul Callister, created a storm of debate in New Zealand when it emerged he had written to the country's Human Rights Commission about the issue.





EUROPE: Researchers told: be less nationalistic/ Alan Osborn
Research in European Union countries is too national in focus to be fully effective, says the European Commission. The commission says this poses a major obstacle to the ambitious Lisbon strategy for giving the EU a global lead in technology by 2010.
EU: Legal status for major research projects/Keith Nuthall
The European Commission has proposed the creation of a new legally distinct organisation for incorporating major research projects so they could operate without paying sales tax. Under proposals from EU research commissioner Janes Poto_nik, the special bodies - called European Research Infrastructures - would have the authority to conclude agreements with universities and other higher education organisations outside the EU.


BRUSSELS: Report on reforming Europe's universities
Since the introduction of the Shanghai ranking of world universities it has been clear that European institutions are under-performing. A new report by the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel - titled Higher Aspirations: An agenda for reforming European universities and written by senior scholars from Belgium, the US and Spain - recommends gradual raising of spending on higher education by 1% of European Union GDP over the next 10 years to approach American funding levels, increasing university autonomy, fostering greater student and faculty mobility, improving success rates and developing competitive graduate schools.











Court Strikes Down ‘Overbroad’ Harassment Policy


Ruling by U.S. appeals panel, in case involving Temple U., could make it much easier to challenge public colleges’ nondiscrimination policies. more


Keys to Hiring Women in Science
Campuses are full of both success stories and horror stories about the recruitment of women to positions in science and engineering departments. There are search committee chairs convinced that they know what worked — and would-be professors who never bothered applying for positions because they didn’t feel welcome.