The word eSango, which means gateway or portal in both isiXhosa and isiZulu, was the winning entry in a competition to name the gateway to CPUT’s Research Management platforms Figshare and MediaTUM.
CPUT Libraries Director Dr Elisha Chiware says eSango will eventually become the gateway to many kinds of research data management platforms in addition to those already available in order to accommodate different disciplinary practices in research data management.
“One important reason we are insisting on good data management is because a lot of funding agencies are saying ‘if you are publically funded you must manage your data properly, from the time you apply for the grant until you publish your results’”.
“This will benefit not only the researchers, but the public at large and contribute to the advancement of knowledge production at CPUT and the country,” Chiware explained.
At a recent showcase librarians reminded CPUT staff of the services that are available to enable good practices in data management.
“The showcase was to remind people these platforms are available and to encourage uptake. It was also to remind them that librarians are not around just for students, but for staff too,” he added.
Librarians can assist researchers and lecturers to set up their ORCID IDs, access the Data Management Plan and teach them how to use Primo – the discovery platform to all information resources kept by the libraries.
ORCID stands for Open Research and Contributor ID and provides a unique number that is linked to all of a particular person’s research activities.
“A lot of funders are insisting on ORCID IDs and the take-up is growing. The NRF also is insisting that if you are going to apply for funding you must have an ORCID ID,” said Chiware.
The Data Management Plan is a tool for setting out your strategy to manage data collection, analysis, storage, curation and preservation for long-term use. Many international funding agencies now require the submission of a Data Management Plan with all grant applications.
Primo is a gateway to explore the library catalogue, all of the university’s subscriptions and electronic books as well as the institutional repository (Digital Knowledge) which contains research published by CPUT researchers and the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) platform of full-text theses and dissertations submitted at CPUT: “Anybody can search for those research outputs and use them accordingly,” said Chiware.
“Visibility is very important. It means other researchers out there can identify potential collaborators with CPUT researchers.”
In support of the concept of Open Access, CPUT makes use of Open Journal Systems. This journal management and publishing system currently contains three journals but Chiware says they hope to expand this considerably.
Written by Theresa Smith
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