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 of technical information"

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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.