Abstract
Academic publishing in South Africa attracts a state research incentive for the universities to which
the authors are affiliated. The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the composition of the
research value chain and (2) to identify the effects of broken links within the chain. The methodology
selected was a lived cultural economy study, which was constructed through incorporating dialogue
with editors, authors and researchers in terms of my own experience as a journal editor, read through
a political economy framework. The prime effect is to exclude journals, especially independent titles,
from directly earning publishing incentives. The behaviour of universities in attracting this variable
income is discussed in terms of rent-seeking which occurs when organisations and/or individuals
leverage resources from state institutions. Firstly, this process commodifies research and its product,
publication. Secondly, the value chain is incomplete as it is the journals that are funding publication
rather than – in many cases – the research economy funding the journals. Thirdly, authors are seeking
the rewards enabled by the incentive attached to measurement systems, rather than the incentive
of impacting the discipline/s which they are addressing. Fourthly, the paper discuses some policy
and institutional matters which impact the above and the relative costs between open access and
subscription models. Editors, journals and publishers are the un- or underfunded conduits that enable
the transfer of massive research subsidies to universities and authors, and, in the case of journals,
editors’ voluntary work is the concealed link in the value chain enabling the national research economy.
Significance:
• The South African scientific publishing economy is built on a foundation of clay: this economy distorts
research impact and encourages universities and academics to commoditise output.