The Library and Information Service launched the institutional research data repository, SUNScholarData, on 12 August 2019. In the past decade, the management of research data has taken on a more prominent role in tertiary education institutions around the world. This has been primarily due to the increasingly data-centric nature that academic research has taken.
As a leading research institution, SU is helping to address this issue by taking the necessary steps to adopt appropriate data management practices. One of these steps is the establishment of an institutional research data repository. The implementation of SUNScholarData forms part of the Library and Information Service’s role regarding research data support which has been identified as a strategic objective of the Library and Information Service in terms of supporting research by providing world-class, diverse, innovative and client-oriented services.
Some of the set of services that SUNScholarData as institutional research data repository will provide is to capture, store, index, preserve and redistribute the University’s research data in digital formats. There are also two purposes for relying on an institutional research data repository. Firstly, this would create a medium through which SU’s research data can be made findable and accessible. Secondly, it would facilitate the interoperability and re-usability of the University’s research data.
The establishment of the repository is in line with SU’s vision of being “Africa’s leading research-intensive university, globally recognised as excellent, inclusive and innovative, where we advance knowledge in service of society” as well as the University’s strategy of supporting Open Science.
Pictured above at the launch, are (left to right): Prof Eugene Cloete (Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies), Prof Louise Warnich (Dean of Science), Prof Wim de Villiers (Rector & Vice-Chancellor), Ms Ellen R Tise (Senior Director: Library and Information Service), Ms Mimi Seyffert-Wirth (Deputy Director: Digital Scholarship, Library and Information Service), Prof Wikus van Niekerk (Dean of Engineering).