College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2020 26 Research and innovation Prof Kelvin Bwalya, Vice-Dean: Research, Innovation and Internationalisation COVID-19 impacted research productivity and postgraduate supervision, but nevertheless the College’s research output has seen a very pleasing growth trajectory. overview In 2020, South Africa and particularly the CBE was not spared from COVID-19 especially with the fact that it entered the second wave (SARS-CoV-2). As a result, research productivity and postgraduate supervision were significantly impacted. The CBE has specifically experienced delayed responses from both the reviewers of research publications and examiners for students’ final outputs. There has also been increased requests from students for interruption of study given the fact that quite a number of our postgraduate students are part-time and have lost income from their employment. The year 2020 has been both encouraging and somewhat disappointing from the perspective of research and innovation. The number of published journal articles grew from 404 to 568 papers (+41%), conference proceedings dropped from 179 to 61 papers (-66%), and book chapters increased from 44 to 52 (+18%). In total, the CBE submitted around 686 individual publications in 2020, compared to the 633 submitted in 2019. The reduction in the number of conference publications is in conformance with the CBE strategy to steer away from over-reliance on conferences. The increase in the number of journal articles submitted in 2020 shows that there is a continuous increase in the quality of research outputs. Although the number of book chapters submitted increased, the number of research credits obtained were reduced due to a change in the calculation of research output units (ROUs) by the Department of Higher Education (DHET). In addition, the pandemic resulted in publication delays, for instance, in obtaining feedback from reviewers, and in obtaining the mandatory documentation required for the submission of book publications. The College’s research output has nevertheless seen a very pleasing growth trajectory since 2017, with a year-on-year increment of 66 ROUs. In 2020, ROUs increased to 454 (+3%) when compared to 440 ROUs in 2019. The increase in the number of journal articles submitted in 2020 reflects a continuous increase in the quality of research outputs.
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