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Research Support Guide: Research support services

Research Information Support Centre

Steps in the research process

Find information about funding opportunities via the research Directorate website or visit staff page.

Refresh  your literature search skills using information literacy tutorial that covers these topics: 

  • Search strategy
  • Information sources and Tools
  • Evaluating information
  • Bibliographic referencing
  • Legal social and economic issues
  • Find and search literature review resources 

For one on one consultation on Information Literacy contact your Faculty Librarian, or contact your  Branch Library

Use Library research  tools for pre-searching/reading around your topic

Find local, national and international Theses and Dissertations

How can I request an article or a book from my library when there is not full text available?  

  • The Interlibrary loan service allows you to place requests for materials not available at CPUT libraries. Please note that this service is only available to postgraduate students. 

  • Get answers and advice from your Faculty Librarians, or contact your  Branch Library

Partners and collaborations at CPUT

Proposal Writing Resources

The following resources can be useful in the research proposal writing process: 

 

Literature review resources

Use Library research  tools for pre-searching/reading around your topic

Manage your information using Reference Management Tools

  • Reference management tools help researchers to cite sources, organize documents, create in-text citations and bibliographies using free citation and information management tool known as Mendeley. Other free reference management tools include Cite This For Me, Zotero, RefME …

Support, facilities, equipment and software tools

 CPUT support researchers with  facilities, equipments and software like SPSS software, statistica software, atlas.ti software, turnitin, plagiarism software, academic and information support.

Data Management Plan

CPUT Data Management Plan (DMP) is the university’s data management planning tool. It provides tailored guidance and examples to help researchers write data management plans. Funders require Data Management Plan (DMP) and data sharing. Create your own data management plan using CPUT Data Management Plan Template.

Learn more about support and advice for managing your Research Data  

 

Research data management / Finding, Creating, and Using Data

Research Data Management governs the process of research data creation, organisation, discovery, storage, sharing and security. Manage data more effectively following these steps:

  • Step 1: Development of a research plan
  • Step 2: Review of data sets
  • Step 3: Data collection and storage
  • Step 4: Publication of research data
  • Step 5: Training and support

 

Publish Your Data

The CPUT Digital Knowledge is the most secured space for your research data where you can store, share, making it easy for your research data accessible and cited.  Share, save and publish research output in the University's open access institutional repository

  • Open Access and DHET accredited Journal list might be your start point or Browse the Directory of Open Access journals (DOAJ)
  • Learn how to share and promote your work openly through Open Access
  • Consult about publishing options and access to publishing platforms to start a new publication with the University Libraries to support University affiliates’ creation of scholarly publications
  • Learn about copyright in publishing, teaching and research: Copyright Services and Licenses

Researchers can also browse through a list of research data repositories by re3data.org  as well as Data Cite registry to find datasets, software, images, and more research material.

Where to Publish?

  

Where to Publish?

The list contain titles from:

  • DHET
  • IBSS
  • ISI
  • Norwegian
  • SciELO SA, and
  • Scopus

 

Publishing in these accredited  journals will attract a subsidy for the university. These lists might be your starting point or researchers can browse through:  

  • Directory of Open Access journals (DOAJ) platform 
  • Share, save and publish research output in the University's open access institutional repository, the PUT Digital Knowledge. Check publisher guidelines  on SHERPA/RoMEO for Terms of use, archiving policies, posting, sharing of your work. 
  • CPUT Research Reports outline an impressive array of research activities and achievements done by faculties, research groups, centres and units

Open Access Publishing

Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles combined with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment (SPARC, 2017). 

 

There are two routes to get your work into the Open Access domain:

Gold Route

If you publish your article in a journal that is not an Open Access journal, then you could still make your article freely available in the CPUT Repository. Sometimes this means publishing the author's final copy, or having to embargo your article. The publisher determines these restrictions. 

Green Route

Publishing your article in an Open Access journal is known as the green route. If you do this, you can still make your article available in the CPUT Repository. Below this video find the list of accredited journals that are also Open Access. 

 Elseviers': Understanding the publishing process

This link provides helpful and informative insight into journal article publishing. 

http://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/181250/author_info_pack_2014_A4_WEB_Final.pdf

 

Open Access and DHET accredited Journal list  This list contain Open Access Journals from DHET accredited journal list checked via Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) platform

Increase your research visibility and discoverability using Bibliometrics and Altmetrics tools

To maximize visibility and impact of your research CPUT Libraries recommend the following platforms.

  • REGISTER  for free for an ORCID iD.  Let the world discover you:  This unique persistent digital identifier helps millions of researchers to connect all kinds of research outputs using the ORCID iD.

  • Sign in if you already have an account
  • Add your publications on ORCID - view step-by-step process in this Guide or watch this video and Learn more about ORCID
  • Share outputs of your research via CPUT institutional repository (Digital Knowledge) containing the research output published by CPUT researchers. Publications loaded in the Institutional Repository are filed, searchable and anaysed through the Scopus interface.
  • Scopus, an accredited citation analysis tool provides bibliometric data for university rankings in the research excellence exercise.  If your publications are not listed on Scopus, load them in the institutional repository 
  • Track research impact using Impact measures like Scopus, Publish or Perish (PoP) and more by generating citation analysis reports of:

- Citation Counts

- Article Download Counts

- h-index  

CPUT Faculty Librarians are available to help staff and students in finding information resources or contact your branch 

 

Applied Sciences

  Mbali Zulu

  Christel Oosthuizen (Agriculture)

  Joanne Arendse (Agriculture)

Business and Management Sciences

  Zulaiga Davids

  Patricia Mothopeng

  Edene Du Toit

  Christel Oosthuizen

  Pippa Campbell

  Hillary Hartle (Business part-time, Bellville)

Education

  Christel Oosthuizen

  Joanne Arendse

  Sharon Panayiotou

  Pippa Campbell

Engineering

  Nomambulu Dolo

  Nyameka Mila

  Edene Du Toit

Health and Wellness Sciences

  Nazma Vajat

  Michelle Snyders

  Sipho Hlongwane

Informatics and Design

  Thundeza Mafungwa

  Cavall Barends

Research Librarian

Veliswa Tshetsha

 

How to load your research

1. Start at the DK home page (http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/xmlui/)

  • Sign in / Log in with username and password
  • Select a Community:             “Theses and Dissertations”
  • Select a Sub-community:      “Faculty of Applied Sciences”
  • Select a Sub-community:       “Agriculture”
  • Select a Collection:                “Doctoral Degrees” / “Masters Degrees”
  • Select Submit a new item to this collection
  • Select “Next”  to move on to the next screen

 

You may also begin as follows:

  • Select Submissions:               from the right hand directory on the screen
  • Select Start a new submission:         under the Submissions paragraph at the top of the screen
  • Select a Collection:                from the drop-down menu
  • Select “Next” to move on to the next screen

Note:

It is essential to have the document on screen as you may need to copy and paste information from the document (especially the abstract).  Also keep Aleph open as you may need to copy metadata to match the Aleph record

 

 

Step 2 & 3 _How to load your research

2. Item Submission: Describe Item (I)

Field Note
Authors  

Surname; full first names when available.  “Add” to add additional authors. 

For single authors you do not need to use the “Add” button
Title

Include the full title including sub-titles. 

For multiple titles or titles in multiple languages use the “Add” button

For consistency titles should be in natural language i.e. capital letters to start with and capitalisation of proper nouns (names of places / institutes / people, etc)
Embargo Use the date format (e.g. on the page) if an embargo period is applicable
Publisher

Where the publisher is clearly identified

Note the journal is not necessarily the publisher
Date Year / month / day (where available, in the field provided)
Citation

Journal title, volume number, issue number, page number

Page number (as used in the journal article)
Series / Report no. Series name and report number where applicable
ISSN / ISBN

Select the relevant type of number from the drop-down menu

Insert the number as it appears in the field provided (if available)
Type Scroll through the menu and select the most appropriate description for the document
Language

select the language the document is written in

For an unlisted language use the description field

Select

  • “Previous”          to correct metadata on the previous submission page
  • “Save & Exit”      to save the submission in order to complete the submission at a later stage
  • “Next”                  proceed to the next page of the submission process

 

3. Item Submission: Describe Item (II)

Field  Note
Subject keywords

Copy and paste subject headings from Aleph / For articles use keywords when provided

 Select “Add” button to add multiple subject headings

Capitalise the first letter of proper nouns
Abstract        Copy and paste the abstract from the document where possible
Sponsors Add the sponsor’s details if available
Description

For theses select the paragraph beginning with “theses submitted in fulfilment for the degree …” and add the year at the end of this description

Insert multiple and unlisted languages have been used write the language

Include any relevant information for accessing the document

Select

  • “Previous”          to correct metadata on the previous submission page
  • “Save & Exit”      to save the submission in order to complete the submission at a later stage
  • “Next”                  proceed to the next page of the submission process

Step 4-7 _How to load your research

4. Upload file(s)

Field  Note
Files Select “Browse” and identify relevant file from the directory where it is stored
File Description  Briefly describe the file (thesis / article / presentation / etc.). For a thesis use "Thesis"

Note: If the item needs to be embargoed, click "edit" once the file has been uploaded.

Select

  • “Previous”          to correct metadata on the previous submission page
  • “Save & Exit”      to save the submission in order to complete the submission at a later stage
  • “Next”                  proceed to the next page of the submission process

 

5. Item Submission I

Field  Note
Review Submission at this stage review the metadata and select “correct one of these” when necessary

Select

  • “Previous”          to correct metadata on the previous submission page
  • “Save & Exit”      to save the submission in order to complete the submission at a later stage
  • “Next”                  proceed to the next page of the submission process

 

6. Item Submission II

Field  Note
Distribution License grant the distribution license by checking the checkbox toward the end of the page “I grant the license”
 

 

7. Submission Complete

Once complete the submission will be forwarded to the DK Administrator for approval / rejection / editing

 

Note: Theses and dissertations do need a CC licence

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