Visibility of University of Zululand and Moi University Researchers in Web of Science and Scopus from 2003 to 2013

This paper reflects on the representation of the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) and Moi University (MU)’s research publications in WoS (Web of Science) and Scopus between 2003 and 2013 as an indicator of active research engagement, quality, and international visibility. Research quality, visibility and collaboration theories were interrogated to inform this study. The research questions posed in this paper were: Do the researchers’ publications appear in the databases and to what extent? How has the publication trend of the universities changed from 2003 to 2013? In which subject areas/domains did they publish? What is the citation impact of their publications? What is the subject coverage of the publications? The study employed descriptive and analytical bibliometrics through content analysis as a research method. Data for the duration of 2003 - 2013 was downloaded from the two databases by author affiliation and captured in Excel by author, rank, discipline, title of paper, and source/type of the publication, and they were analysed by using relevant quantitative techniques. The results reveal that the publications of most of the researchers (approximately 70%) were not indexed in the databases. The publication subject coverage at MU was largely in the Health Sciences/Medicine, while Physical Sciences coverage was stronger at the University of Zululand. A strong research niche area emerged in the area of Medicine at Moi University. Citations and the h-index for both universities in the databases were largely low, but some impressive impact seemed to occur in the medical and biochemical research domain. There are possibilities for research collaboration and evidence of quality research emerging from the two institutions. A niche research area and collaboration in Medicine/Health Sciences is feasible