So we all have realized how big data and the digital world is
transforming everything in our lives. Data has quickly changed this analog
world we used to know, into a digital one. It has disrupted the way in which we
live our daily lives. We have moved on from sending a letter via the postal
service, to simply sending an email; from typewriters to keyboards, and from
skimming through books of literature to accessing information through network
technologies, what we now know as e-Research.
e-Research is
the new game changer in the research world. In this world of big data, e-Research
allows researchers to explore new opportunities by supporting, sharing and
collaborating their research in a global context. This is made possible due to
the use of the virtual environment and advanced computer networks.
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Meet Ru. Ru is a potential researcher but is a late adopter (laggard)
when it comes to technology. He is still using “manual” means of research which
is paper heavy, harming the environment. Ru’s main aim is to make his research
discoverable. However, he finds
this process exhausting in terms of cost and closed access.
Meet Nelly. Nelly
is also a potential researcher who is more advanced (innovator) in her digital
approach. She wants to make her research accessible and transparent globally so
that her research can be shared and cited. Nelly is also hoping the results of
her research can be reused by another researcher to make new discoveries.
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She finds the
process of accessing research articles a pleasure as it involves very little
cost and she can choose from millions of research papers globally, at the touch
of a key.
What is e-Research?
e-Research refers to the extensive and intelligent use of technology to
support research, making research more efficient and allowing research to be
more collaborative across geographical limitations. “e-Research technologies enable
researchers to create and collect, analyze, preserve and publish digital research data, and to work collaboratively in virtual teams
that cross disciplinary, institutional and national borders by using Virtual Research Environments
(VREs)” (Aims.fao.org, 2018).
Why is e-Research important?
Researchers, authors, publishers and scholars are now
collaborating and engaging at unprecedented levels. This
is made possible with super highly advanced networks, transferring and sharing
of scientific knowledge and extensive data storage that allows researchers from
different areas to collaborate on one common world playground. “In e-research,
it is the primary research data that must often be managed, made accessible and
curated” (O'Brien,
2005).
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Why is it important for the UKZN Research Community to
engage with e-Research?
• To increase research effectiveness
• To support open access allowing researchers to publish their
articles for free in the digital environment
• To preserve and manage data through UKZN data repositories such
as Research Space and Open Journal Systems
(OJS).
Data repositories sponsored by UKZN
ResearchSpace – is the
UKZN institutional repository established to upload and preserve all UKZN
research that is digitally accessible. Click on research
space to open the link. Open access publishing has a critical role in e-research as
it allows peer reviewed scholarly research to be freely available to anyone. Researchers from UKZN using the open access
platform can possibly, with the aid of the Research Data Management tool, collaborate with international researchers in
multi-disciplinary fields and publish papers thereby helping UKZN to accelerate
its research output.
OJS (open journal systems) – is UKZN’s
recently launched open access system which allows UKZN researchers to openly publish
their data. Using Google
analytics on user traffic to the Open Journal Systems website (OJS), it can be
seen that the number of users has grown since the launch of the site. The site has had 72% new visitors so far and on average each new
user had two sessions on the site. It has
also had its first submissions since the launch on 22nd October 2018.
Figshare -
is a Research Data Management tool that allows researchers to publish, share
and get credit for their research data, including hosting videos and images in
a cost-effective way. UKZN is employing Figshare to manage all data from its
repositories and from individual researchers and to make some research private,
while allowing the Institution to meet funder requirements for open access
content (Researchdata.berkeley.edu,
2018). By creating a public
portal and assigning digital object identifiers (DOIs), Figshare can make
UKZN's research products searchable, discoverable, and citable, and their
impact can be captured through detailed statistical reporting.
Please
click on open journal systems to access
OJS.
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A
review by Zhang (2014, 11) concludes that “current literature has been
overshadowed by research with a strong technical emphasis, focusing on
large-scale collaboration, and takes a quantitative approach to studying the
quantitative impact of technology use in the distributed research of sciences.”
With this digital world exponentially growing, a byproduct of that is data, and
data has the power to unlock true wisdom.
e-Research without a doubt forms that fundamental foundation to help us
collaborate research to achieve that stage of knowledge in our academic endeavours. Research together with high-end computer
software helps set the stage for collaboration at UKZN to be discoverable and
create synergies. So, be like Nelly and
adopt the new ways of working with e-Research via UKZN’s data repositories and
any other free open source systems globally.
References
Aims.fao.org.
(2018). Göttingen
eResearch Alliance about eResearch related questions and Data Management issues
| Agricultural Information Management Standards (AIMS). [online] Available at:
http://aims.fao.org/activity/blog/g%C3%B6ttingen-eresearch-alliance-about-eresearch-related-questions-and-data-management
[Accessed 2 Nov. 2018].
O'Brien,
L. (2005). E-Research: An imperative for
strengthening institutional partnerships. [online] EDUCAUSE Review. Available at:
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2005/1/eresearch-an-imperative-for-strengthening-institutional-partnerships
[Accessed 2 Nov. 2018].
Powtoon.com.
(2018). [online] Available at: https://www.powtoon.com/index/ [Accessed 2 Nov.
2018].
Researchdata.berkeley.edu. (2018). Figshare Research Data Management. [online] Available
at: https://researchdata.berkeley.edu/tools/figshare [Accessed 8 Nov. 2018].
Research Data Alliance (2014) The Data Harvest: How sharing
research data can yield knowledge, jobs and growth, An RDA Europe Report,
December 2014, available at: https://europe.rd-alliance.org/documents/publications‐reports/data‐harvest‐how‐sharing‐research‐data-can‐yield‐knowledge‐jobs‐and
growth [accessed 01/11/18].
Van den Eynden, V. and Bishop, L. (2014) Incentives and
motivations for sharing research data, a researcher’s perspective. A Knowledge
Exchange Report, available at: http://knowledge--‐exchange.info/Default.aspx?ID=733 [Accessed 2/11/18].
Zhang, J. (2014) Scholarship before technology: Re-thinking the relationship
between technology and scholars. Journal
of Communication and Education, 1(1), 3-15.
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