The Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science at Stellenbosch University is leading the African pack when it comes to high quality scientific papers published in the top 1% of the world's leading scientific journals during 2014.
This is according to global survey data released by Nature Index 2014 – a unique database that can be used to track down which institutions made the biggest absolute contribution to high-quality scientific research in a field, region or globally.
The Nature Index was compiled by selecting over 57 000 primary research papers from the top 68 scientific journals in the world. These papers were then weighed in terms of how many authors on a paper came from the same institution or country (the article count or AC) and how many from outside. The more authors there are from the same institution or country, the higher the score (the so-called weighed fractional count or WFC), and vice versa.
Seven primary research papers from SU's Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science were included in the Nature Index, with a combined weight count of 6.27. This constitutes 60% of the total contribution from Stellenbosch University and 40% of the total contribution from Africa. Four of those papers originated from only one research group in the department.
"Our contribution is by far the highest by a chemistry department in South Africa and Africa. This is a clear indication of the quality of the researchers in our department," says Prof Peter Mallon, Head of the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science.
"If you consider that the Web of Science lists 8 500 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals, and that there are thousands more that are not listed, then you start to appreciate the significance of this achievement," he adds.
Prof Len Barbour's research group, which focuses on the principles of crystal engineering to design new functional materials, produced four of the scientific papers. The papers were published in Chemical Communications, Analytical Chemistry, Angewandte Chemie International Edition and Inorganic Chemistry.
The research leaders on these papers are Prof Len Barbour, Prof Harald Pasch, Prof Bert Klumperman, Prof Klaus Koch and Prof Leon Dicks (from the Department of Microbiology). All of them hold A or B ratings from the National Research Foundation and are recognised internationally as leaders in their fields.
The other authors and co-authors are established researchers, recent PhD graduates or candidates and postdoctoral fellows at SU: they are Prof Catharine Esterhuysen, Dr Prem Lama, Dr Vincent Smith (RCA Fellow), Elrika Harmzen, Himanshu Aggarwal, Dr Simon Herbert, Guillaume Greyling, Dr Pieter Murray, Leon Engelbrecht Charl Bezuidenhout, Dr Prashant M Bhatt and Tiaan Heunis (Department of Microbiology).
According to Nature Index's overview of scientific publications from Africa, South Africa and Egypt contributed 75% of the region's articles in the index. Africa trails far behind the rest of the world when it comes to scientific publishing, but the continent leads in terms of international collaborations. During 2014 more than 70% of Africa's output came from work done with scientists from other countries.
To view all the contributions from Stellenbosch University, go to http://www.natureindex.com/institution-outputs/South%20Africa/Stellenbosch%20University%20%28SU%29
On the photo, at the back from left to right, Prof. Klaus Koch, Leon Engelbrecht (PhD student), Guillaume van
Eeden (PhD student), Prof. Harald Pasch, Prof. Len Barbour and Dr
Vincent Smith. In the front sits Prof. Catharine Esterhuysen and Prof. Leon Dicks.
Photo: TC Kieck
