​The latest results of the Webometric Ranking of World Universities, announced on 6 February this year, placed Stellenbosch University in the top position on the continent.

Founded in 2004, the Webometric Ranking of World Universities is published bi-annually by the Cybermetrics lab, a research group of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).  The Ranking evaluates more than 20 000 universities worldwide using various web indicators.

The Ranking aims to promote Web publication and to improve the presence of academic and research institutions on the Web.  It strongly supports Open Access initiatives and electronic access to scientific publications and other academic material. The underlying premise is that a university’s web presence can be regarded as an indicator of its performance and prestige.

Based on a composite indicator, the Ranking is determined by factors such as web content (number of web pages and files), web visibility and web impact.  Elements which contribute to the calculation of the indicator are: number of links and number of pages on the site domain; the number of files in online formats such as pdf, doc, docxa and ppt. Number of articles, papers and citations in the academic domain, as well as articles published in high impact, international journals are also taken into account. 

While Stellenbosch University leads universities on the continent, other South African universities have done equally well, occupying all of the top eight slots. University of Cape Town is listed second and  University of Pretoria third. 

According to Ms Ellen Tise, Senior Director of the Library and Information Service, the Stellenbosch University’s Open Access initiatives and institutional repository play an instrumental role in the transfer of the  scientific and cultural knowledge between the University and society and increases the visibility of the University substantially.

The need for the radical improvement in visibility of the research output is embedded in the University’s HOPE Project. The Project strives to find solutions for international developmental issues. Hence, the commitment to sharing new knowledge with Africa and the rest of the world. A significant conduit for sharing new knowledge has been established via Open Access initiatives.

During the past few years, Stellenbosch University has made great progress in terms of Open Access. The digital research repository SUNScholar, which houses the University’s theses, dissertations and research articles has grown significantly. It already contains more than 14 000 full text records and approximately 32 000 bibliographic references of research output. The University also publishes 16 Open Access journals on SUNJournals. These initiatives are based on the aspiration of making optimal use of the internet to provide unimpeded access to scientific information.

In the latest release of “The Ranking Web of World repositories”, SUNScholar was listed in the 96th place out of 1654 international repositories.  This is a significant improvement from the 157th position it occupied in 2012 and further confirmation of the important role SUNScholar plays to enhance the visibility of the University’s research.

Ms Ina Smith, manager of SUNScholar, explains “Research freely available on the internet has increased discoverability which leads to increased citations and ultimately enhances the profile of both the researcher and his or her university.  In other words, with research freely available, scientific advancement and production is enhanced.”

“Stellenbosch University’s achievement in the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities bears evidence of the success achieved by the University’s Open Access initiatives.  Indeed these initiatives contribute substantially to the visibility of the University’s research products on the internet and its usage, contributing to the University’s reputation of excellence” says Ms Tise.

More information and the complete ranking is available at: http://webmetrics.info/index.html.