Universities face crackdown over research subsidy abuse

The department of higher education & training is poised to crack down on universities and academics that are gaming its research incentive system, which has seen the worst offender claiming for more than 100 publications in a single year.

The department encourages university research with an output subsidy that rewards them for publications in journals, books and conference proceedings, as well as research masters and doctoral graduates.

The funds are drawn from a sub-block grant that was allocated R5.8bn in 2025/26 and shared among universities in line with their total publication “units”, which range from up to 10 for a scholarly book to a fraction of a unit for a multi-author study.

The amount paid per publication unit fluctuates from year to year, as it is determined by the total number of units claimed in prior years, and is currently about R130,000.

Higher education & training minister Buti Manamela wrote to universities last week, announcing that his department intends to introduce a series of measures to stamp out unethical and fraudulent practices ranging from hyperpublication to self-published books.

“It has become clear that gaming has reached such levels that the department must intervene,” said the minister, citing the findings of a project commissioned from the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (Crest) at Stellenbosch University.

The publication quality framework project (PQFP), the results of which have yet to be released, expands on a previous Crest study published in 2019 that found a significant number of South African authors were publishing in predatory journals or publishing vast quantities of conference proceedings.

The new restrictions, to be implemented from May 2027, include a cap on the total number of publications that can be claimed by a single author per year, tighter rules about which journals and publishers will be eligible for the subsidy, and closer scrutiny of claims from visiting researchers whose primary affiliation is outside South Africa.

The department also plans to clamp down on plagiarism, gift authorship and “salami-slicing” — a practice in which a substantial study is fragmented into several smaller papers that report minor, incremental results instead of publishing the findings in one go.

The department’s proposals are due to be discussed with universities at a “consultative forum” in late November, during which it is expected to provide more details.

Most universities and academics are playing by the rules, but a minority are exploiting loopholes in the department’s 2015 research output policy with an outsized effect, said Johann Mouton, director of the Centre of Excellence for Scientometrics and Science TTI Policy.

Universities are required to submit audited subsidy claims on behalf of their research staff, which implies some either overtly collude or turn a blind eye to suspicious activity. The department pays the subsidy to universities, which have the discretion to decide whether or not to direct some of the funds to individual researchers.

“One individual submitted 125 articles and 30 conference presentations last year. Another has submitted claims for seven books,” said Mouton.

Gaming behaviour is concentrated at five or six of South Africa’s 26 public universities, he said, declining to identify them as institutions have yet to be briefed on the PQFP’s findings.

One of the aims of the 2015 policy had been to narrow the gap in research outputs between the top-performing universities and those that were weaker, but it has had the opposite effect and created a more unequal public university system, said Mouton.

The University of Johannesburg has for the past four years been awarded the most publication units.

In 2024, it received 2,780.6 units, or 13.52% of the total, according to the department’s “Sector report on the evaluation of the 2024 universities’ research output”, the latest year for which such analysis is available. Its publication units have increased significantly since 2016, when it received 1,559 units, or 8.57% of the total.

By contrast, the absolute number of units awarded to the University of Fort Hare rose only slightly, from 244 in 2016 (1.34% of the total) to 301.9 in 2024 (1.38% of the total).

Wits deputy vice-chancellor for research Lynn Morris welcomed the department’s plans to tighten scrutiny of research output subsidy claims. A system that was vulnerable to gaming meant money was being awarded to undeserving individuals who were not doing good research, she said.

The current policy paradoxically rewarded quantity over quality, she said, as it accords a university only a fraction of a unit for a multi-authored study with international collaborators that is published in a high-impact international journal, while a single-authored study published in a low-impact local journal receives a full unit, she said.