Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service - News from research support services
CREST compiled a list of resources related to evaluation in the time of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is a valuable resource which includes advice on continuing with your research and evaluation in this time, for example how to conduct remote surveys and qualitative data collection and how to evaluate impact in a post-Covid-19 world.
“Thanks to the internet, we all have our Gutenberg presses and the privileges they accord. For academic institutions, the internet is a largely untapped resource for shaping and sharing scholarly research.” This quote by Amanda Alampi (in an article in the Guardian) highlight the transformative influence of social media and the internet, which allows researchers “to reach new audiences that previously couldn’t be accessed”.
A great tool to assist you in using researcher profiles and social media to share your research to a wider audience is this “peddle pad” created by the La Trobe Graduate Research School.
Next week the Library will present two ONLINE WORKSHOPS on how to increase your visibility as a researcher (follow the links to register):
Increase the visibility of your research (Tuesday 21 April, 14:00-16:00)
Learn the following:
Enhancing the visibility of your research output through self-archiving (Thursday 23 April, 12:30-13:30)
Learn the following:
You are welcome to contact your librarians if you need any assistance on these topics:
Faculty Librarians / Research Impact Services / Digital Scholarship (self-archiving)
You are welcome to view freely available electronic resources in a library guide. Some publishers have lifted restrictions on the use of their material during this period, which are updated regularly in the guide. You will also find links to open access journals and university presses who opened access to their digital books, such as Wits University Press and African Sun Media. The guide also provides links to research related to COVID-19, according to the different publishers who made it available.
Do you want to increase the visibility of your research? Do you want to spend your time on research and not on reporting? Do you have a common name and have problems with distinguishing your research from another with the same name? A persistent name identifier could address these challenges. ORCID is a persistent, unique, numeric identifier for individual researchers and creators.
The Library will host another online workshop next Wednesday, 15 April (12:30-13:30), to show you how to create your ORCID iD, how to connect it to the Stellenbosch University integration and how to populate it with your publications and other works.
Please register here and the presenter will forward you the information on how to connect to this presentation .
The following arrangements are in place for all research support services during the lockdown (27 March- 16 April):
Stay safe and see you soon in the Library!
Have a look at this infographic for an overview of the Library’s research data services! (Click on the picture to view)
International Open Access week is celebrated every year globally during the last week of October. The theme this year is “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge”.
In celebration of Open Access week the Academy Science of South Africa in partnership with the Library and Information Service will be hosting a dialogue on Open Access publishing lead by Prof Jonathan Jansen. More information on the event is available here.
During Open Access week the Library also uses the opportunity to draw attention to our own Open Access initiatives, which are the following:
Article by : Mimi Seyffert-Wirth
This week was Peer Review Week, with the theme “Quality in Peer Review”. Herewith important information about how to get help on improving your peer review skills.
Prof Christopher Jackson explains in this video what quality peer review looks like.
The Peer Review Week channel on YouTube features short videos by researchers, editors, publishers, and others on the theme of quality in peer review.
With Publons you can track more of your research impact all in one place, your publications, citation metrics, peer reviews and journal editing work. It is a product of Clarivate Analytics and therefore integrated with Web of Science citation metrics. It is also fully integrated with ORCID.
A very useful feature is the Publons Academy, a practical peer review training course developed together with expert reviewers and editors in order to give you the core competencies and skills needed of a peer reviewer. Please have a look at this if you are new at peer reviewing. It is a free online course which you can complete in your own time.
For more information or any assistance please contact your Faculty Librarian, Research Impact Services or Research Commons staff.
SUNScholarData is an institutional research data repository which can be used for the registration, archival storage, sharing and dissemination of research data produced or collected in relation to research conducted under the auspices of Stellenbosch University. An institutional research data repository is defined in this sense as a database with a set of services to capture, store, index, preserve and redistribute a university’s research data in digital formats.
There are two purposes for relying on SUNScholarData:
SUNScholarData has a public interface which can be used for finding content as well as a private user accounts which can be used by Stellenbosch University users in order to upload, share or publish their research data. In addition to this Stellenbosch University researchers can also use SUNScholarData in order to collaborate with researchers from other institutions whilst working on their research projects.
SUNScholarData is powered by Figshare which is a web-based interface designed for research data management and research data dissemination. The repository provides the following functionality:
Private, controlled storage and collaborative spaces for every user within the agency.
A customisable public portal with all digital files made public at an institutional, departmental and group level.
A portal where administrators can manage curation of files to be made public, storage space allocation and user rights.
Impact and usage reporting.
Author: Samuel Simango
© 2025 Library Research News
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
