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):

• Online assistance by Faculty Librarians
  Contact Faculty Librarians by e-mail for reference service or any other assistance. They will also be able to have one-on-one meetings with clients by means of Skype or Microsoft Teams should more in-depth assistance be needed.
• For any Research Data Management queries, information on data management plans or uploading of data to SUNScholarData, please visit the RDM webpage, SUNScholarData LibGuide, or contact the Manager: Research Data Services or rdm@sun.ac.za.
• For all research queries related to Special Collections (Africana, Rare Books and Manuscript Collections), please contact the Head: Special Collections or alternatively make use of our 24-hour online reference service, Ask a Librarian.
• For assistance in accessing items in SUNScholar, such as theses and dissertations or research articles, please contact scholar@sun.ac.za.
• For assistance in terms of self-archiving your research output in SUNScholar, please contact the Digital Scholarship Librarian.
• For assistance with journal management on SUNJournals, please contact the Digital Scholarship Librarian.
• The Manager: Research Impact Services will be able to assist with generic research support such as advanced bibliometric services, unique author identification with ORCID, advice on publishing and how to increase your impact as a researcher.
• For assistance with general research support, such as referencing and reference managers, and the formatting of theses and dissertations, you can contact the Head: Research Commons.
• #SmartResearcher Workshops
  Scheduled Library workshops are continuing in the form of online webinars (by means of Adobe Connect or Microsoft Teams) or recordings where a webinar is not possible. Clients may continue to register for these workshops and relevant staff will distribute information on how to connect to the webinars.

Stay safe and see you soon in the Library!

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:

1. It creates a medium through which our university’s research data can be made findable and accessible.
2. It facilitates the interoperability and re-usability of the university’s research data.

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:

• Research Data Management:

Private, controlled storage and collaborative spaces for every user within the agency.

• Research Data Dissemination:

A customisable public portal with all digital files made public at an institutional, departmental and group level.

• Administrative Workflow Management:

A portal where administrators can manage curation of files to be made public, storage space allocation and user rights.

• Reporting dashboard:

Impact and usage reporting.

Author: Samuel Simango

Wanting to take the pain out of collaboration? Here are some useful tools that will help you – with some basics about them:

Megan Bruwer from the Stellenbosch Smart Mobility Lab will talk on how big data and its visualisation is being used to alleviate traffic problems in Stellenbosch. Please attend this very interesting session at Library Research Week! (Thursday, 16 May, 12:30-13:30)

Please register here.

Please see the full Research Week programme here.