Physics publication productivity in South African universities

Publication productivity during 2009–2011 was studied for physicists who teach in South African universities, using data from departmental websites and Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science. The objective was to find typical ranges of two measures of individual productivity: number of papers and sum of author share, where author share per n-author paper is 1/n author units (AU). All values given below are average output per year. Median productivity was 1.33 papers (inter-quartile range 0.33–2.33) and 0.3 AU (inter-quartile range 0.1–0.5 AU). The lowest 10 % did not publish, and the top 10 % produced above four papers and above 1 AU. Productivity varied with rank, ranging from medians of 0.67 papers and 0.2 AU for lecturers to 1.67 papers and 0.4 AU for full professors. Productivity of South African professors was similar to that of a sample of USA professors in a comparable mid-ranked bracket in the Shanghai Jiao Tong world ranking of universities, and about half that of professors in the six top-ranked departments in the world, which had medians of four papers and 1 AU.