In the academic world citation counts, as does your number of patents, but how about measuring the impact of your research by the number of mentions in Parliament?
In his recent state of the nation address President Kgalema Motlanthe quoted research by a team of academics at Stellenbosch University.
Megan Louw, Leon du Toit and Professor Servaas van den Berg, who led the research, were mentioned for their August 2007 work titled Poverty trends since the transition: What we know. It dealt with the impact that the government’s social wage has had in tackling poverty.
So what is the value of being quoted in the president’s state of the nation address?
We asked a few experts, including one of the researchers in question.
Servaas van der Berg, a researcher who was mentioned by name in the state of the nation address, said: “It was a complete surprise. It shows that politicians do not ignore academic work. One actually hopes that it translates into new policy instead of just supporting existing policy.”
Mohamed Shaikh, senior director of communication at Stellenbosch University, said: “It illustrates that the professor is recognised for his expertise … and he and the institution are both acknowledged as role-players in South African society.”
Peter Bezuidenhoudt, former director of marketing and communications at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the value of being quoted “depends on your view of the person quoting you. It certainly gives prominence to your work.”
But, said Bezuidenhoudt, the value may be questionable “if you’re an Aids researcher being quoted by [ex-president Thabo] Mbeki and labelled a dissident”.
Dr Ivan May, non-executive director of the National Research Foundation, feels that such a quotation “puts it [the research] on the agenda and gives it a strong position for influence … Political advisers to the president must have applied their minds to it before including it in the limited space of the speech.”