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Research Support

Information and resources to assist researchers throughout their scholarly communication journey.

The Rhodes Library’s primary function is to aid in fulfilling the scholarly values and objectives of Rhodes University through its rich collection of information resources, both print and electronic, its information portal, and institutional repository. The Rhodes Digital Commons is a collection of services to support and manage institutional research outputs of the Rhodes University. It is imperative that the Library is able to meet the information needs of the university’s students and staff, to support and enhance high standards of teaching, research and scholarship.   

               Rhodes University institutional repository

This repository is the collective responsibility of the institution, the Library, the Research Office, and the academics. The primary role of the Library this endeavour is the hosting of the service, and the management and development of the repository, including content selection and marketing. The value of the Rhodes Digital Commons is that it:

  • provides access for the development of new knowledge at Rhodes University,
  • serves as a means to archive and preserve Rhodes University’s intellectual output,
  • increases Rhodes University’s research visibility,
  • allows for collaboration and interconnection through increasing the visibility of the researcher and his/her respective research outputs,
  • allows for global sharing of knowledge and learning through technology in removing barriers to access to information.

                 - Rhodes Hosted Journals

In 2016 Rhodes University Library implemented the Rhodes Hosted Journals service. This service runs on the Open Journal System(OJS), a journal management system developed by PKP (Public Knowledge Project), with the intention to improve and expand access to research, and is designed to support the scholarly journal publication processes. This service is furthermore specifically aimed at optimising article level discovery. The Rhodes Hosted Journals service complements the Rhodes Digital Commons in that these systems provide an established platform for scholarly communication at Rhodes University.

                 - Rhodes Research Data Management

The Rhodes Research Data Management service is intended to support the management of research data as part of the research processes at Rhodes University. The Rhodes University Library intends on launching this service in early 2020. This includes

  • A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data used within a researcher project. This includes:
  • the data acquired and generated during the course of the research project
  • how the data will be managed, described, analysed and stored
  • the mechanisms used to share and preserve the research data

 

Last Modified: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 09:43:30 SAST