Month: October 2023

Did you know that the Library offers the following bibliometric reports to evaluate your research impact:

1. Basic metrics information

This report will include the H-Index from the different databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, etc.
The information will be shared via e-mail or in Excel format.

 2. Full Researcher Impact Report

This full report will be in the format of a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow which will include the following:

• A summary page that includes all the important metrics, such as the H-Index from different databases, the M-Index, the G-Index and other indices. The total publications and citations per year, and per database. Your top article in Altmetrics. The top 2 highly cited articles in Scopus or Web of Science and a few other important metrics.
• VosViewer visualisation  – Co-authorship analysis.
• VosViewer visualisation  – Citations analysis.
• PowerBi report which includes visualisations of all the important metrics related to your research output, from a specific database such as Scopus or Web of Science, depending on where most of your articles are indexed.
• Guidance on the responsible use of metrics.
• Methodology: Explanation of the tools used as well as links to your author profiles in the different databases.
• Glossary: Explanation of all the important terms used in the report.

The information will be shared in a PowerPoint template, including the PowerBi report embedded in PowerPoint. A link to the PowerBi report will also be shared as well as an Excel document with underlying data, including your top 50 articles in Altmetrics.

3. SciVal Reports

A range of different reports could be created by means of SciVal which is based on Scopus data. A specific date range will be chosen, of which the longest period is 10 years. A wide range of metrics are available.

Request your report from your Faculty Librarian or contact Marié Roux to coordinate the request.

Visit our Research Impact library guide for more information.

Do you need to submit your thesis or dissertation? The Library’s help page on the thesis/dissertation submission procedure will help you to find all the relevant information you need.

SUNScholar repository

You will find valuable information on who does what, and when. There are specific processes to follow, and this page gives step-by-step guidance on how to complete these processes, for both supervisor and student.

There are various title page templates and declaration templates to download.  For the student using LaTeX, there is a link via TexLive or MikTeX, to download the software.

Please send your enquiries to scholar@sun.ac.za. There will also be a training session on how to submit your thesis on 20 February. Please book your space here.

SUNScholarData repository

For students who need to submit their research data along with their thesis or dissertation, the following will give guidance on the process.

1. How to Upload a Single File
2. How to Upload Multiple Files
3. How to Publish a File

Further guidance relating to the use of SUNScholarData can be found in the SUNScholarData Library Guide.

Enquiries: rdm@sun.ac.za.

The theme for this year’s OA Week “Community over Commercialisation” encourages a candid conversation about approaches to open scholarship that prioritise the best interests of the public and academic community.  According to UNESCO, by prioritising the community we can prevent the “inequitable extraction of profit from publicly funded scientific activities”.  The theme can be applied to various case scenarios you might find within the research cycle.

Stellenbosch University Library will engage in an active panel discussion that will address the aspects of transformational agreements and their impact on the publisher, author, and research-intensive institution.  The research community is hereby invited to join and actively participate in this discussion and find out how these agreements work within the SU research community.

Venue: Stellenbosch University Library, Auditorium
Date: Monday, 23 October 2023
Time: 11h00 – 12h00

Bookings: In-person or online

Should you have any questions for the panel, please send it to scholar@sun.ac.za.
Please take note that the discussion will be streamed, and the recording will be available on YouTube after the event.

Enquiries: Songezo Mpikashe

Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service is very pleased to announce that, starting January 2024, staff and students will have access to EndNote 21. The decision to acquire EndNote follows a survey we conducted earlier this year on our clients’ satisfaction with Mendeley as the supported reference management tool at Stellenbosch University. The survey indicated a large level of dissatisfaction with the reliability of Mendeley. At the same time, we conducted a benchmarking exercise to see what reference management software other institutions were using. It was notable that most of the research-intensive institutions were subscribed to EndNote. Given the overall dissatisfaction with Mendeley and what appears to be the software of choice at other institutions, the decision was made to subscribe to EndNote.

EndNote is one of the best reference management software packages available. With EndNote you can manage and format your citations with ease and its integration with cloud services and word processors are some of the best. Here is a short list of some of EndNote’s features:

EndNote’s style customisation feature is especially promising as we will be able to create custom styles according to our clients’ specific needs. In addition, EndNote offers a level of software stability that open-source reference managers unfortunately do not provide as yet. Naturally, we will offer support and training in how to migrate from Mendeley or Zotero to EndNote, if you wish to do so.

We will share further announcements regarding training and other resources as we get closer to January, so keep your eye on Library Research News for further updates. In the meantime, have a look at this video to see what some of the new features of EndNote 21 are.

Enquiries: Kirchner van Deventer

In what will hopefully be the first of many, we have made a video that gives a short overview of a tool that can be very valuable for academic research. In this video, we discuss Keenious and, specifically, how it works as a MS Word plugin. Keenious analyses pieces of text and then automatically recommends academic articles that may be relevant. The tool is free to use for individuals and it really works like a dream! Have a look at the video below:

If you have any questions or you want assistance in setting Keenious up on your computer, feel free email us!