South African scientists are demanding urgent reform of the country's research publishing system, following a report that most of its journals have no international credibility.

The devastating analysis, released in May by the Academy of Science of South Africa, found that one-third of the 255 government-accredited journals are essentially vanity publishers, with not a single article in the past 14 years mentioned outside—or even inside—the country.

A six-member panel of the academy in 2004 launched the investigation at the request of the government's Department of Science and Technology.

South Africa is considered the leading research publisher in Africa, but the Pretoria-based academy found that nine of ten journals are virtually invisible internationally. Fewer than 25 are mentioned in the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) databases that rank journals.

Many journals are written, edited and peer-reviewed by colleagues from within the same university. Johann Mouton, University of Stellenbosch

The report singled out institutions such as the University of Potchefstroom, which until a decade ago was an Afrikaans-language, whites-only campus under South Africa's apartheid policy of racial segregation, for particular criticism. “Many journals are written, edited and peer-reviewed by colleagues from within the same university and sometimes from within the same department,” says study co-author Johann Mouton, director of the Centre for Research on Science and Technology at the University of Stellenbosch.

Frans du Preez, a spokesperson for the University of Potchefstroom, which has since merged with a predominantly black university to form the North-West University, concedes that the complaint has merit. It was difficult for researchers working “in the isolation years,” du Preez says, when academic sanctions in opposition to apartheid banned them from international conferences and collaborations.

“Alternative ways had to be created because South African academics were not recognized,” he says. “Perhaps that was the reason why we went that way to create our own publications.”

But neither perceptions of an outsider status nor difficulties with the English language are an excuse for inferior quality, says Dan Ncayiyana, the Durban-based editor of the South African Medical Journal, one of the few listed in the ISI.

Not everything in the report is negative. Co-author Anastassios Pouris of the University of Pretoria cites immunology and microbiology, including HIV/AIDS research, as areas in which South African scientists are increasingly producing world-class research.

The academy has asked the department of education to cede some of its control over funding research publications, revamp the system and promote international collaborations.

The report also encourages journal editors to push for open-access online publication in addition to print versions so that scientists worldwide can assess whether their African colleagues' research is—to use a common South African word for excellent—'lekker.'