About this Course

Welcome to the Scientific Writing Course

The Academy hosted a workshop on “science writing” in early 2008 for selected individuals in the SADC countries, including South Africa. From that experience, a decision was made to explore a higher-impact and more sustainably beneficial approach to meeting needs in this area, possibly through the setting up of a free-online training course system, offering training via the internet at a number of levels. This could be hosted either by the Academy or by a consortium of institutions in partnership with the Academy.

Many South African institutions already offer a variety of short courses or services in scientific or scholarly writing for publication, not only to their own postgraduate students/staff, but also to interested (fee-paying) professionals from other organisations and institutions. Some of these offerings are based on continuous or periodic contact instruction, others are online, and yet others combine these modalities. While these efforts to satisfy a large perceived demand are undoubtedly valuable and effective, it is possible that a nationally coordinated, low cost-to-user online course system may greatly widen the scope of benefits, and permit over-stretched  researchers at institutions to concentrate more on content than on enskilling issues, at least as far as writing for publication is concerned. It is possible that a cross-institutional “faculty of mentors”, including retirees, could be assembled to participate in the training programmes.

By providing some kind of certification, the proposed system may facilitate the (external) acquisition by  postgraduates of various levels of science writing skills, and assist institutions in terms of project planning/execution and especially the benefit of students “taking personal responsibility” for aspects of their professional growth that seem often to be based operationally on tacit assumptions and short-term solutions. Certainly, many employers may welcome more concrete indications of the existence of such skills, which are often considered implicit in dissertation-based qualifications, but found in subsequent practice to be wanting.

A workshop was accordingly held in August 2008 involving subject specialists (drawn from many South African higher education institutions) most of whom were engaged in one way or the other with writing support for graduate students and young staff. There was strong support for the pursuit of the idea of a free-online course system in scholarly/scientific writing for formal publication that was built on 4 tiers, respectively:

Tier One:
Details of resources in the field, continuously updated and improved through feedback and effective intellectual oversight.

Tier Two:
An interactive self-study lecture series on key topics in this area, drafted communally by experts and likewise kept up-to-date on the basis of feedback and oversight. The model for this is the free-online course offered by the World Federation of Science Journalists for its online course in science journalism accessible at: www.wfsj.org/course/

Tier Three:
A system of enrolled mentors able to be linked by email or telephone to individual young scholars struggling to master specific publication-drafting tasks.

Tier Four:
Occasional block short courses to enable face-to-face mentoring of groups of aspiring scholars/scientists to take place. 

Supported by:

 

Emeritus Prof JAMES BULL – SUB-COMMITTEE MEMBER

He is currently the Scientific Editor for Pure & Applied Chemistry, the official monthly journal of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), having served as Editor of the South African Journal of Chemistry for over 20 years and on various Editorial Advisory Boards and international Commissions on Nomenclature and Terminology.

He completed an MSc degree at the University of Natal, Durban then proceeded to Oxford University as a Commonwealth Scholar in 1961, to further his studies at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory. He completed his DPhil degree in 1964 and following a post-doctoral period year under William S Johnson at Stanford University he returned to South Africa in 1965, taking up a position as researcher at the National Chemical Research Laboratory (NCRL) in Pretoria. During his NCRL career, James progressed through the ranks and, after serving as Head of the Organic Division for 10 years, was appointed as Chief Director. He later took up an appointment (Mally Chair of Organic Chemistry) at the University of Cape Town in 1988, a position which he retained until statutory retirement at the end of 2002. Has supervised 26 graduate student studies at MSc and PhD level and contributed to promoting a strong research culture at UCT. He undertook the Editorship of the Journal of the South African Chemical Institute in 1972, and played a central role in negotiations that culminated in the formation of a statutory body responsible for supporting publication of national scientific journals. The Institute Journal thus assumed a new identity as the South African Journal of Chemistry in 1976, whereupon he continued as Scientific Editor until 1992, and Chairman of the Editorial Board until 1996, whilst also serving on the National Council for Scientific Publications. He has served as Chairman of the SA National Committee for IUPAC, the SA National Board for International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), the Chemistry Committee of Foundation for Research Development, and as a member of the Council of the Royal Society of South Africa. He has received numerous awards including the Gold Medal of the SA Chemical Institute for scientific contributions, and was inducted as Honorary Member of the Institute in 1993 in recognition of professional and community service. In 1992, he received the AECI Medal for published works, and was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of South Africa in 1993 and Founder Membership of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

Dr GEORGE CLAASSEN – SUB-COMMITTEE MEMBER

He teaches science journalism at Stellenbosch University and he also presents an annual course in Science Communication to scientists.

He studied at the University of Pretoria (B.Hons, MA) and at (UNISA) for his PhD. From 1974 he worked as a journalist at Beeld in various positions as general, political, science and sports reporter. After four years as senior researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), he joined the Department of Journalism at the Pretoria Technikon (now the Tshwane University of Technology), where he was Head of the Department from 1989 until 1992. Between October 1993 and the end of January 2001 he was Professor and Head of the postgraduate Department of Journalism at Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape and it is here that he established the first course in science and technology journalism at an African university. Until August 2006, he was the Science editor at the Afrikaans daily paper Die Burger, published in Cape Town. In 2003 Claassen became the ombudsman of the Afrikaans daily newspaper published in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, Die Burger and served as a board member of the international Organisation of Newsombudsmen. In May 2007 Claassen was the first winner of the SAASTA South African Science Communicator of the Year Award, presented by the National Science and Technology Forum. In July 2008, Claassen left the newspaper, now following a career as science journalist. He still teaches science journalism at Stellenbosch University, and presents an annual course in Science Communication to scientists at the University of Cape Town. He has author and co-author of five books and numerous peer reviewed scientific articles in various peer reviewed science journals.

Emeritus Prof WIELAND GEVERS – SUB-COMMITTEE MEMBER

He is Professor Emeritus in Medical Biochemistry at UCT after a long career as teacher, researcher Supervisor, and administrator at that and other institutions; he was President of the Academy of Science of South Africa, chaired its ‘Consensus Panels’ on South African scholarly publishing in both journals (2006) and books (2009), and is currently the chair of the Academy’s ‘Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa’.  He is an Associate Editor of the South African Journal of Science.  

Professor Gevers qualified in medicine in 1960, and proceeded as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University where he obtained the DPhil degree in 1966 under Sir Hans Krebs (regulation of liver metabolism). He subsequently spent 4 postdoctoral years in the laboratory of another Nobel Prize winner, Dr Fritz Lipmann, at the Rockefeller University in New York (biosynthesis of peptide antibiotics) before returning to South Africa in 1970. He was Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for planning and academic process at the University of Cape Town from 1992 to 2002, and Professor of Medical Biochemistry since 1978. He was (founder) President of the South African Biochemical Society from 1975 to 1976, and again President from 1981 to 1982. He was President of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) from 1998 to 2004. He is a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences (elected 2002). He holds a Distinguished Teacher’s Award from the University of Cape Town. Prof Gevers directed MRC Research Units at both Stellenbosch University (1970–1977) and University of Cape Town (1979–1994), using biochemical, cell-biological and molecular genetic approaches to heart contractility, intracellular protein turnover and cholesterol metabolism. He was awarded the Wellcome Gold Medal for Medical Research and the Gold Medals of both the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the South African MRC. After his formal retirement from UCT at the end of 2002, Prof Gevers took up an appointment until 31 March 2005 as the Interim Director of UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM). He was the Executive Officer for ASSAf (until 2008) and was the General Secretary of the Academy.

Mrs DENISE NICHOLSON – SUB-COMMITTEE MEMBER

She has been the Copyright Services Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, since 1996. She is very active in South Africaand in other parts of Africain addressing copyright and issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K).

She has been the Copyright Services Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, since 1996. She has a BA degree and Higher Diploma in Library Science from the University of South Africa (UNISA). She is currently registered for a Masters of Law (Dissertation) with the University of the Witwatersrand addressing copyright issues affecting persons with sensory-disabilities in South Africa. She is a member of numerous international, regional and local copyright committees and/or access to knowledge projects. She is also very active in South Africa and in other parts of Africa in addressing copyright and issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K). She received the LIASA/SABINET Online Academic Librarian of the Year Award in 2001 for her efforts as Convenor of two Copyright Task Teams, mandated by the SA Vice-Chancellors’ Association and the Committee of Technikon Principals, in 1998 and 2000, which successfully challenged restrictive Government proposals to amend the SA Copyright law. She promotes open access. She spearheaded the establishment of the African Access to Knowledge Alliance, which was a key partner in the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge Project (ACA2K). She was Policy and Dissemination Advisor for this Project, which involved research and a comparative study of copyright laws in 8 African countries, including South Africa. She has presented at many conferences, has a number of publications and has contributed to various international and local research reports, position papers, WIPO Studies on copyright limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives, and for education in Africa; and policy documents on copyright. She provides an international free online information service called “Copyright & A2K Issues”. She also regularly provides documents and information on copyright and related issues to various departments of the SA Government, including DTI, DAC, DOC, DOE, Foreign Office, etc., as well as to the Africa Group. 
In 2006, she was the first librarian from a developing country to attend a WIPO General Assembly in Geneva, where she presented a joint IFLA/eIFL statement on “Libraries and the Development Agenda”. For her work in copyright and access to knowledge issues, she received the University of South Africa’s Dept. of Information Science’s “Alumnus of the Year Award for 2009”. She also received the LIASA Gauteng South Branch Librarian of the Year for 2010 in August 2010 and in September 2010 she received the LIASA National Librarian of the Year Award for 2010.

Dr HESTER E OOSTHUIZEN – SUB-COMMITTEE MEMBER

Since 2008 she has been working at the South African Nuclear Energy Cooperation (Necsa) helping young researchers (chemists), on a one-to-one basis, with the writing of publications and dissertations. She has been prepared scientifically for this stimulating career by first being a researcher herself, obtaining a PhD in organometallic chemistry.

Since 2008 she has been working at the South African Nuclear Energy Cooperation (Necsa) helping young researchers (chemists), on a one-to-one basis, with the writing of publications and dissertations. She was prepared scientifically for this stimulating career by first being a researcher herself. She obtained her B.Sc, B.Sc(Hons), M.Sc, and PhD degrees in chemistry at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU, now the University of Johannesburg). She worked for seven years at the National Chemical Research Laboratory (NCRL) at the CSIR where she carried out research on isocyanide complexes of ruthenium resulting in 23 publications between 1978 and 1985. Her career between 1984 and 2008 comprised of teaching, lecturing and being a researcher. She obtained a Higher Education Diploma (HED, Postgraduate) at UNISA in 1989 and was a lecturer in chemistry at the College of Education for Further Training (CEFT, later SACTE), the Centre for the Improvement of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, UNISA, and TUT (Technology Access Program). As a lecturer she was not only involved in teaching but was also responsible for writing study material. She also taught Physical Science at Kentron College and Cornerstone College. She has also successfully completed a course as an Assessor in 2004, did a Basic Accounting and Pastel course in 2002.