Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service - News from research support services

Author: Marié Roux (Page 13 of 16)

Data visualisation workshops in 2022

Data visualisation is an important part of the research process. Although spreadsheets and data tables will always be present in research, new types of visualisations are emerging to make information more accessible than before.

This year the offering of workshops offered by the Library on data visualisation will include the following:

Researchers and students are also welcome to make use of the consultation service available on this topic.

Please contact Marié Roux for more information.

Did you know about the SU ORCID integration?

You might already have an ORCID ID, since it is compulsory to add your ID to any NRF application and use it when you publish a new article. But did you know that Stellenbosch University has an integration with ORCID? We would like to encourage you to connect your ORCID ID to your Stellenbosch University identity. Please follow this link and follow the steps below.

  • First sign in to the SU portal
  • You will be directed to the “Manage your researcher identities” page
  • Click on the “Connect” button under ORCID
  • If you already have an ORCID ID you will be able to sign in and authorise SU to view and update your ORCID profile
  • If you don’t have an ID yet, click on “Register now”, complete the form and authorise SU to view and update your profile, all in one step!
  • We encourage you to use your sun.ac.za email address to register.

It would be ideal to close the gap between how many researchers at Stellenbosch University have IDs versus how many have connected their IDs to the integration. See the graph below illustrating how many IDs were created and how many IDs were connected between 2013-2021.

 

If you need any assistance with creating and/or connecting your ORCID iD, please contact:

Marié Roux / Kirchner van Deventer / Your faculty librarian

Read the ORCID library guide

Register for the next ORCID workshop (10 May 2022)

Get help on all aspects of the Research Process

Do you know about this helpful Library Guide that assists you with all the aspects of the research process?  It follows all the steps involved with conducting research, from the planning phase, data collection, the writing process, archiving, publishing, and measuring your impact. Where the Library is not involved, you will be referred to the correct information elsewhere on campus.

Please contact us if you need further assistance with any of these steps.

 

 

 

Developing a plan for communicating your research

The following steps might be a good way to improve your online visibility as a researcher and assist you with communicating about your research:

  1.  Create and maintain online profiles (e.g. Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia).
  2.  Use persistent identifiers (e.g. ORCID, Researcher ID in Publons, DOIs) to disambiguate yourself as an author or to link to your work.
  3.  Publish in Open Access journals or choose Open Access options.
  4.  Use Creative Commons licenses for your work for re-use.
  5.  Self-archive pre- or post-prints to institutional repositories (SUNScholar).
  6.  Publish your data to data repositories (SUNScholarData).
  7.  Make social media engagement about your research a regular habit (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
  8.  Engage your audience in meaningful conversations about the topics that you are interested in.
  9.  Connect with other researchers by means of academic network tools (ResearchGate, Mendeley, etc)
  10.  Appeal to various audiences via multiple publication types (academic articles, news items, blog posts, magazine articles)

It will be important to check in on your goals often, at least once in six months, or when you have published a new article.

Get help:
Marié Roux
Faculty Librarians
Research Commons Librarians

Sources:
Library guide: Research Impact & Scholarly Profiles, University of California, Berkeley Library
Library guide: The Research Process: Improve your impact, Stellenbosch University 

Play the Research Data Management Adventure Game

The Library recently launched a Research Data Management Adventure Game. It is a text-based role-playing interactive serious game based on an academic research project’s data management challenges. The game takes the form of an online choose-your-own-adventure format in which game players take a simulated research project through the processes below whilst encountering data management challenges along the way.

The game focus on the following learning outcomes:

  • Data management planning
  • Designing participant information sheets and consent forms
  • Choosing appropriate equipment for research projects
  • Acquiring suitable third-party research data
  • Organising research data
  • Storing research data appropriately
  • Analysing and documenting research data
  • Preparing research data for archiving
  • Publishing research data

The game was developed as part of a collaboration between the University of Bath Library and Stellenbosch University’s Library and Information Service.

Try it out here and let us know what you think! See also more about the game on the SUNScholarData library guide.

Contact Samuel Simango if you need any assistance with Research Data Management.

How to complete your ORCID record

You have created your ORCID iD, but now what ? Which steps do you need to follow to keep your record up to date?

The following two videos might assist and guide you through this process. (See also the specific timings for each step below):

ORCID video

Contents of this video (2:10 minutes)

  • What is ORCID?
  • Who are integrating with ORCID? (00:15)
  • Examples of integrations (0:27)
  • Benefits of using an ORCID iD (00:39)
  • Where to use your iD (00:52)
  • How to create and connect your iD to SU identity (01:05)
  • Demonstration (01:18)
  • How to populate your record (01:44)
  • Help (01:59)

Populate your ORCID record

Contents of this video (about 13 minutes):

  • Add a biography (00:23)
  • Add your employment (00:53)
  • Add your education (01:29)
  • Add invited positions and distinctions (01:49)
  • Add membership and service (02:42)
  • Add funding (3:46)
  • How to add your works (publications and other works) (06:08)
  • Add works via Google Scholar (10:11)
  • How to add aliases, keywords, websites, social media links (12:05)

More help

Preprints and Research Square

Research Square has partnered with Dimensions to provide early citation data on preprints. It lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal.

About Research Square

Research Square is a division of the Research Square Company, and exists to make research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. The preprint platform, launched in 2018, is a  large, author-centric preprint server that brings transparency to the peer review process. Through the journal-integrated In Review service, innovative author dashboard, manuscript assessments, and research promotion services, they enable researchers to share their research with the broader community,and receive useful feedback much earlier in the publication process.

https://www.researchsquare.com/researchers/preprints

https://www.researchsquare.com/journals (See the list of participating journals)

Also read this blogpost and view the short recording  of a webinar on “the role of preprints in elevating trust in peer review”.

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