Research
Research drives innovation and discovery, empowering our university community to explore new ideas, solve real-world problems, and advance knowledge across disciplines.
Research
Research Assistance
VUT Library research librarians (subject information specialists) have a broad range of subject expertise and a deep understanding of the Library’s’ main print, digital collections. Like collections, they need to be mined. Members of the university community and researchers may request an appointment with our subject information specialists who will provide advice on defining or refining your research questions, developing a research strategy and locating and using subject specific resources.
In your research for your thesis or dissertations, our subject information specialists will:
Assist with conducting searches and delivering any information that you need in your research.
Offer individual research consultations to help with in-depth information queries and use of library resources.
Help set up alerts and RSS feeds i.e. automatic updates so researchers can receive regular information about new material and publications in their subject area/topic.
They also assist in identifying related research done in South Africa and internationally.
Keeps in contact with the postgrad students and track progress with work and encourage the client to seek and use library professional’s assistance, etc.
They bring to the process specialized skills and experience that will benefit the researcher and the supervisor.
Gives advice on repositories and open access publications in your area.
Offers guidance on the dissemination of your research i.e. publication in relevant journals based on bibliographic and bibliometric studies.
The continuously engage in partnership with various support structures to serve as the bridge between the library service, the research student, and supervisor.
Contact Your Subject Information Specialist
Postgraduate Library Training
Do you need assistance with finding information for your research? The library induction for postgraduates is designed to provide practical assistance to those new to postgraduate work.
Why Information Literacy?
The purpose is to introduce new clients to the physical library, facilities and services offered by the library and ensure that users have adequate information retrieval skills to exploit information. Subject information specialists are responsible for planning, conducting and delivering all information literacy programmes of the library to empower clients.
Training programmes offered:
Library induction session for Postgraduates
Training on utilizing library databases.
Using the Internet for Research
Advanced information retrieval skills
Research management tools
Contact: Your subject information specialist to make an appointment.
Research Tools
Research Software Training & Support
The library provides training and support to researchers to various research management software and tools such as :
RefWorks
Endnote
Turnitin
Research Directorate Resources
Several software programmes are available at the Research Directorate to support research. These programmes are available to all staff and postgraduate students: Click Here
RefWorks
In a world of e-research, there are more data sources available than ever, which means researchers need highly efficient ways to gather, digest, organize and share vast amounts of information easily.
RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic citation manager that allows you to collect, save and organize bibliographic citations for journal articles, books, web sites and other sources that you have found during your research. With it you can create correctly-formatted bibliographies in your preferred style. This service is available free of charge to all VUT students and staff and is accessible both on and off campus. To use the software, you will need to create an account.
Turnitin
Turnitin is an anti-plagiarism software or originality checking software that assist detect plagiarism before submitting your work. It compares your research work against over 12 billion web pages, and millions of other books, journals, newspapers, and other student papers.
Once your work is loaded on Turnitin, results are returned in the form of customized originality reports. Any text matches found in Turnitin database are highlighted and linked to the source. Originality reports allow the supervisor or faculty to determine of whether plagiarism has occurred or not.
Students are encouraged to check their work on Turnitin before submitting.
Should you need training on using Turnitin, RefWorks or any software kindly contact your subject information specialist
Referencing Guidelines
It is important to properly acknowledge all sources consulted for dissertation. When using viewpoints of authors to support your own arguments you must acknowledge such sources in your text
You should be honest and not pass off another person’s work as your own. If you do this, you are committing plagiarism, a serious academic offence that can lead to the rejection of your dissertation/thesis.
For more info: “VUT Postgraduate Referencing Guidelines: bibliographical referencing for theses, dissertations, and projects reports.
Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
The word “plagiarise” comes from the Latin word plagium which means “the act of kidnapping”. Kidnapping is “snatching” or “taking furtively and illicitly that which is not your own”.
Applied to intellectual property, it is the appropriation of another’s work without proper acknowledgement.
Plagiarism Definition: is the act of taking words, ideas and thoughts of others and passing them off as your own. It is dishonest and punishable to represent as your own ideas, words and academic work that belong to another person, whether unintentionally or deliberately.
Consequences: serious academic offence that can lead to the rejection of your dissertation or research project.
VUT Plagiarism Policy
- Students are reminded that they must give credit to the sources they use. The following are regarded as plagiarism:
- Copying words or ideas without giving credit.
- Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks.
- Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation.
- Turning in someone else’s work as your own.
- It involves stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterwards.
Turnitin
- Turnitin is an anti-plagiarism software or originality checking software that assist detect plagiarism before submitting your work. It compares your research work against over 12 billion web pages, and millions of other books, journals, newspapers, and other student papers.
- Once your work is loaded on Turnitin, results are returned in the form of customized originality reports. Any text matches found in Turnitin database are highlighted and linked to the source. Originality reports allow the supervisor or faculty to determine of whether plagiarism has occurred or not.
- Students are encouraged to check their work on Turnitin before submitting.
- Should you need training on using Turnitin, kindly contact your Faculty Information Librarian.
For more information consult VUT Higher Degrees Guide