Web presence and impact of South African Universities: a Cybermetric study

Use was made of Link Analysis to analyze South African universities according to several Web-based indicators, some of which include the number of pages, and the number of in and out-links. The study further examined external out-links so as to determine which institutions are targeted by South African universities. Also investigated were the links or connectivity between universities. Web Impact Factors (WIFs) were calculated and reported in order to compare the universities’ web influence. Results indicate that South African universities have made remarkable progress in their web presence, which is at an advanced stage of development, and compares well with those found in developed countries. Noted that the World Wide Web (WWW) enables universities to: provide online library catalogues; announce the existence and promote the achievements of individuals, research groups, institutes and departments; disseminate findings, either by hosting online articles or by publishing summaries, data sets or tools; provide a platform for knowledge sharing of local content through the creation of institutional depositories; and provide scholars with a tool to evaluate universities. The authors observed that the evaluation of universities, which was previously limited to the use of bibliometric analyses (publications and citations analysis), expert review (peer-review), economic rate of return, case studies, surveys, analysis of competition for funds and retrospective analysis, can now also be conducted webometrically. The study concludes that South African Universities provide a sufficient platform for webometric evaluation. This study provides an agenda for further research involving web-related developments of African universities.