PROGRAMME OFFICER’S TRAINING IN ETHIOPIA October 19, 2011
Posted by Louise in : ASADI, Africa, Events, NASAC , add a comment
The participants outside the conference venue
Zarina Moola (Policy Advisory Programme) and Louise van Heerden (Scholarly Publishing Programme) from the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) were invited to participate in the Programme Officer’s Training Course organised by the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC), in collaboration with the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences. The training was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 3 to 6 October 2011. There were representatives from the academies of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Senegal, Morocco, Ethiopia and South Africa. The course was made up of four days of lectures and practical exercises designed to provide participants with practical skills and knowledge useful for the designing, planning and managing of academy activities and the dissemination of results. Participants were also familiarised with the functions, organisation and operations of other African academies and fostered an exchange of ideas on how science academies in Africa support policymaking in their countries.
The training facilitators were Lauren Alexander Augustine (The National Academy of Science, U.S.A), Jackie Olang (NASAC), Doyin Odubanjo (Nigerian Academy of Science) and Nthabiseng Taole (ASSAf). The training was made possible thanks to generous support from the Royal Society (U.K.) and the National Academies of Science (U.S.A.) through the ASADI programme.
Louise and Zarina at ‘Lucy’s Restaurant’ (named after Lucy, the famous partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis found in Ethiopia)
Open-access journal publishing August 31, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing , add a commentThe Academy of Science of South Africa and UNESCO hosted a two-day workshop on open-access journal publishing at the Academy of Science of South Africa in Pretoria on 18 and 19 August 2011.
NATIONAL SCHOLARY EDITORS’ FORUM MEETS AGAIN August 24, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Events , add a comment
The National Scholarly Editors’ Forum (NSEF) held its fifth annual meeting in Kempton Park’s Emperors Palace Convention Centre on Thursday, July 28 2011. This was the second NSEF meeting to be hosted at the venue near the OR Tambo International Airport.
The theme this year was: “Changing landscapes of academic research and publishing”. (more…)
ASSAf welcomes contributions June 14, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing, Projects, Publications , add a comment
Litnet: Discussion on the paper by Braam Roux and Fanie de Beer
Reply from Prof Wieland Gevers (University of Cape Town) and Susan Veldsman (Academy of Science of South Africa)
The extended article by Roux and de Beer entitled“Towards quality science 2: The role of strategy, vision and quality” is one of the most thoughtful recent contributions to key issues in science policy in South Africa, and is to be welcomed. They rightly plead for a deeper and wider debate on the ways in which scholarship and science should be fostered in the country, and linked to national development in the widest sense. (more…)
Interns at Scholarly Publishing Unit June 14, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing , add a comment
Mohau Moja is a University of Pretoria, information science graduate born in Mokopane (Limpopo). Along with this achievement, Mohau is also an IT-inclined computer technician whose interest is mainly to troubleshoot both the physical and operating systems involved in end-user computing. As from 1 April 2011 he has been appointed as an intern on a 12-month contract through the DST-NRF Internship Programme 2011-2012. His responsibilities include SciELO markup and e-publishing as well as other Scholarly Publishing Unit activities.
Goodwin Khuli
SciELO SA UPDATE June 13, 2011
Posted by Louise in : Open Access Scholarly Publishing, Press , add a comment
The Scholarly Publishing Unit of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) has recently added the following prestigious scholarly journal titles to the SciELO SA Open Access platform:
- Acta Theologica;
- SA Orthopaedic Journal; and
- Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research
This brings the total number of titles on the platform to 17. Approximately 1 additional title and 100 articles are added to the platform per month. Over the last six months the platform has, on average, been visited 690 per day. At this stage the countries that visit the platform the most are South Africa, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
Visit the SciELO SA database : www.scielo.org.za
What’s in a name? The naming of Australopithecus sediba May 10, 2010
Posted by Alan in : SAJS, Uncategorized , 1 comment so farProf Alan Morris, UCT; Associate Editor of SAJS
The first person to describe a new fossil gets the rights to name it. This has got be done at the time of the first publication as the privilege is not retrospect. Hesitate and someone else will pip you at the post. The payout is pretty impressive because the once the fossil has been named, the name is there forever with your priority stamped all over it in Latin.
But not everything in the name game is about priority and bragging rights. The whole system of classification is an art, not a science, and the choice of name tells you as much about the researcher as it does about the fossil. (more…)
Securing the Humanities in an Age of Failing Economics April 7, 2010
Posted by Peter in : Humanities and Education Studies, Projects, Uncategorized , add a commentProf Peter Vale, Co-Chair, ASSAf Consensus Panel on the Humanities
From almost every corner of the Anglophone world, the complaint is the same: “The Humanities are under threat”. I use the qualifier because, sadly, my ability to access other language worlds – beyond the Dutch-Afrikaans link – is limited.*
The question is what is to be done to recover and revive the Humanities?
Research and deliberations into ASSAf’s own Consensus Report on the Humanities in South Africa is well under way and the hope is to issue a preliminary report in late October, 2010. My own view of this issue is framed by an understanding of political economy – the rise of neo-liberal economics has emphasized economic growth and efficiency and, in this particular universe, the Humanities have no place ( the State of Science in South Africa, pg 210). This is a fallacy, of course. Take the creation of jobs. In this country alone, right now, one of the strongest areas of economic growth is Afrikaans cultural production – most of this is both creates jobs and pushes economic growth. (more…)
TWAS conference benefits South Africa November 23, 2009
Posted by Mutheu in : International Relations , 2comments
From left: Prof Robin Crewe (ASSAf), Prof Jacob Palis (TWAS), Prof Mohamed Hassan (TWAS), President Jacob Zuma (RSA), and Minister Naledi Pandor (DST).
The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) hosted an International Conference of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) from 18 – 23 October 2009 at the Durban International Convention Centre. The conference was attended by 452 participants from 63 countries in the developing world.
These participants included TWAS Fellows, TWAS Young Affiliates, DST senior officials, representatives from other government departments, Presidents of Science Councils in South Africa, Presidents of African science academies, and university representatives. The conference was also attended by the Ministers of Science and Technology of South Africa, Brazil, and India, other high ranking technical advisers of various governments in the developing and developed world, and representatives of Indian, Chinese, and Brazilian diplomatic missions in South Africa.
South African Journal of Science: current issue highlights October 23, 2009
Posted by Linda in : SAJS , 2commentsUniversities in a time of change
The common thread between all universities is that they are centres of debate and independent and critical thinking. In this issue, Nithaya Chetty discusses the threat that the suppression of academic freedom poses to South African universities, and raises his concerns regarding their corporatisation; and an associated marginalisation of the views of academics.
He points out that there is a widely-held view in South Africa, that academic freedom is a front for the perpetuation of elitism, and resistance to transformation. He thus argues that in order for our universities to protect academic freedom, it is essential for them to embrace valid processes of transformation.
Read more: S. Afr. J. Sci. 105 (9/10), 325 – 327.
South Africa’s gold production: not worth its weight in gold?
South Africa’s gold mining industry continues to be a major economic force in the country, but it is not nearly as important as it used to be. South Africa has, for example, recently fallen into second place behind China in the world ranking of gold producing countries. Despite this decline in production, South Africa still claims first place in the world ranking of gold reserves. Hartnady discusses the credibility of this claim using a critical analysis of gold production on the Witwatersrand. He argues that the Witwatersrand goldfields are 95% exhausted, and that it is time to examine the benefits of a declining industry against the costs to the environment.
Read more: S. Afr. J. Sci. 105 (9/10), 328 – 330.
Possible termite fossils in South Africa
The range of possible trace fossil architectures found in the Lower Jurassic sandstones in the Karoo region is reported for the first time in this issue by Bordy et al. The architecture of these sandstone structures indicates that they are fossils of an early Jurassic social insect, and they may be the best preserved social insect traces from the former Gondwana reported to date. This discovery in South Africa, together with an increasing number of fossils attributed to termite origin in North America, suggests that sociality in insects originated in the early Mesozoic, before the breakup of Pangea, which would explain their worldwide distribution today.
Read more: S. Afr. J. Sci. 105 (9/10), 356 – 362
Fire management in threatened fynbos
Brian van Wilgen reviews current and historical fire management practices in fynbos. In fynbos, burning was initially considered to be destructive and prevented where possible. But gradually, as the vital role of fire in fynbos ecosystems became better understood, managers turned to prescribed burning and experimented with different space and time protocols. Despite these policies of prescribed burning, wild fires remain the dominant feature in fynbos, fortunately driving a variable fire regime that remains broadly aligned with conservation objectives. The problem of conserving fire-adapted fynbos is complicated by invading alien trees that are also fire adapted. Despite improvements in control methods, alien trees, notably pines, continue to spread almost unchecked. Biological control offered some hope for controlling pines, but was ruled out as too high a risk for these commercially important trees. Failure to address this problem adequately will almost certainly result in the severe degradation of remaining fynbos ecosystems.
Read more: S. Afr. J. Sci. 105 (9/10), 335-342.
