Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST))

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST)) by Subject "Communication in science"

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    Factors influencing the public communication behaviour of publicly visible scientists in South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Joubert, Catherina Magdelena (Marina); Weingart, Peter; Mouton, Johann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Given the policy intention of the South African government to encourage and support public science engagement, this study set out to identify and understand the factors that influence scientists’ behaviours as far as public communication about their work is concerned. Based on an extensive literature review and interviews with 30 publicly visible scientists, a complex blend of factors that influence scientists’ participation in public science communication were identified and explored. Important factors included field of research, career stage, age, gender, personality and population group, as well as scientists’ attitudes towards communication platforms and the public. Furthermore, this study yielded new insight into the influence of the historical, bio-geographical, cultural and socio-political contexts on scientists’ engagement with public audiences, while also highlighting how their communication behaviour is shaped by institutional environments and national contexts. The population group to which the individual scientists belong emerged as an important factor in terms of scientists’ perceived ability to connect with multi-cultural and multi-lingual audiences in South Africa. In light of changes in the norms that govern scientists’ behaviour, and contradictory policies that scientists may encounter, the conflicted and contested nature of public science communication was highlighted, along with scientists’ resulting ambivalence about their own participation in these activities. The current study shows that visible scientists in South Africa are mostly keen to engage with public audiences, and that they are typically motivated towards public engagement by a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Time constraints and a lack of institutional support, incentives and recognition remain key barriers which limit scientists’ participation in public communication of science. Earlier findings that visible scientists are typically highly productive leaders in the science community were validated, thereby challenging the perception that public science communication carries a stigma and is too time-intensive to accommodate in the career of a serious scientist. Based on the findings in this study, it is recommended that policymakers who seek to stimulate quality and/or quantity of public science engagement, need to focus on the contextual factors, i.e. the policies and support structures in the institutions where scientists work. Further policy implications that are outlined include the value of mobilising black scientists as role models and enabling visible scientists to act as communication mentors, as well as the need to ensure responsible use of social media and ethical science PR practices in public communication of science.
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    New potentials in the communication of open science with non‐scientific publics: The case of the anti‐vaccination movement
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Van Schalkwyk, Francois Barend; Weingart, Peter; Muller, Johan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: There is persistent pressure on science to be more open. But for all the fervour, scant attention has been paid to the full gamut of the potentials of openness, both positive and negative. These potentials are, in many cases, linked to open access to the formal communications of science made possible by digitisation, the internet and developments in information and communication technologies. A consequence of direct access to the formal communications of science is that traditional channels of communication are no longer the gatekeepers to the public’s understanding of science. Instead, new and different types of channels for the communication of science are proliferating in a society that is increasingly online and networked, and it is therefore reasonable to expect attentive non‐scientific publics to access the communications of science. If this is the case, then open science introduces new trajectories in its communication that are best understood with reference to flows of information in the communication networks that define the network society. It is the direct access to the communications of open science by non‐scientists that this thesis examines in order to answer the question ‘What are the potentials of open science in the communication of science?’. It does so by investigating the presence of two products of science – open research data and open access journal articles – in the online communications of a specific non‐scientific community: the anti‐vaccination movement. Specifically, it determines (1) whether the product is being accessed by the anti‐vaccination movement as indicated by references in three online spheres (Twitter, Facebook and the web); (2) whether the product is being used by the antivaccination movement as indicated by the movement’s level of engagement in each online sphere; and (3) whether there are intermediaries in the online communication networks of the antivaccination movement as indicated by mapping the movement’s online communication networks centred around the products of open science. Findings show that the anti‐vaccination movement is not accessing open research data. In the case of open access journal articles, findings show that online social networks allow the anti‐vaccination movement to amplify its minority position by being selective in terms of the vaccine science it feeds into its online communication networks, and by being highly active without engaging closely with the scientific knowledge at its disposal. In part, the amplification was found to be attributable to the presence of different types and a disproportionate number of intermediaries. The consequences of the anti‐vaccination movement’s use of open access journal articles in its online communications is the production and amplification of uncertainty around the safety of vaccinations. Science communicators will need to develop new strategies to counter the potentially detrimental health outcomes of increases in uncertainty and vaccine refusal in the broader population. This first foray into the potentials of open science shows that the development of such communication strategies will require further research to understand better how attention, influence and power function in a society increasingly defined by its global communication networks.
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    A scientometric analysis of the science system in Tanzania
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Maziku, Joseph; Mouton, Johann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main goal of the study was to conduct an assessment of the state of science in Tanzania. More specific objectives focused on the levels of research investment, human resources for S&T, and the research performance of the system. In addition we also investigated the challenges that young scientists in the country face. Our study shows that Tanzanian expenditure in R&D remains still below 1% of GDP and lags behind several African countries including Kenya the sister EAC country. In spite of the slight increase in spending in R&D from 0.38% in 2010 to 0.53% of the GDP in 2013, there is still overdependence on international funding sources. It was also found that the lack of research funding and funding for research equipment are the biggest challenges in the performance of research for young scientists. The study also found that Tanzania's human resources for S&T remains unacceptably small compared to several SADC countries, which results in relative low output per million of the population. However, it was revealed that there was a gradual increase in Tanzania scientific outputs from 339 publications in the year 2005 to 1389 publications in 2018 which is more than four times the growth of literature. In spite of the increase in the publications across all research fields,Tanzania dropped its position in world rank from position 74 in 2005 to position 80 in 2018. Tanzanian science remains strong in its traditional fields: the relative strength analysis revealed that the agricultural and health sciences, and to a lesser extent, the social sciences, are the most active fields compared to the world output across these fields. The overall top five prolific R&D institutions in the production of scientific papers are the MUHAS, UDSM, SUA, NIMR, and IHI. International co-authorship is on the increase in most fields, but these trends probably reflect the growing participation of Tanzanian scientists in global health and agricultural projects rather than any substantive growth in research collaboration. Our main recommendation is that the Tanzanian government commits to increasing its investment in R&D as aspired to by the R&D policy. In addition, the number of R&D personnel has to be increased to ensure that knowledge production continues to grow and the application of science, technology, and innovation for inclusive development is achieved.