Law
FACULTY OF LAW
Introduction
This guide serves as a comprehensive and vital resource hub, specifically designed to meet the diverse research and academic needs of the Faculty of Law staff and students. It features a carefully curated collection of materials developed in close cooperation with the Faculty’s academic staff, ensuring it aligns perfectly with the Faculty’s academic objectives and comprehensive curriculum. In addition to supporting the core teaching and learning aims of staff and students, this guide also addresses the professional demands of legal education, offering learners access to essential resources that reflect current legal standards and practices. Whether you are undertaking detailed research, preparing for exams, or specialising in different areas of law, this guide provides a wide range of tools and information aimed at enhancing your academic progress and professional development within the legal sector. Explore this guide to access a wealth of legal knowledge that will support your academic journey and future practice in the legal profession.
What are the Library’s Service Standards
The Law Library at Midlands State University is dedicated to providing exceptional library services that are responsive, inclusive, and aligned with the changing needs of the legal academic community. Key to this dedication is a strong focus on user feedback, which is essential in shaping and continually enhancing our service delivery.
To guide our operations and uphold the highest standards of accountability and professionalism, the Library has developed a dedicated Library Service Charter. This Charter sets out our core values, service commitments, and the expectations that regulate our interactions with users.
It functions not only as a framework for ethical and efficient service delivery but also as evidence of our unwavering commitment to fostering a welcoming and enriching environment for all library users. Every interaction with the Law Library is crafted to be a positive, supportive, and memorable experience, embodying our belief that excellent service is essential to academic achievement and legal scholarship.
Client Expectations
Expect from us:
- Prompt and courteous service
- Helpful, well-trained staff who will treat you with respect
- Fair and equal access to our collections and services
- Collections that are well-maintained, accessible, and designed to meet your needs.
Library Expectation
Help us to help you by:
- Treating other people in the library with respect and courtesy, whether they are fellow clients or library staff.
- Caring for library spaces, equipment, collections, and property with appropriate care
- Assisting staff to understand your needs clearly
- Providing us with feedback on how we may improve our services, or help us resolve a specific service problem
Access to Library Resources
The Faculty of Law Library at Midlands State University holds a comprehensive and varied collection that supports all academic programmes and research in the legal field. Access to the Law Library is restricted to registered MSU students and staff.
Individuals who are not part of the MSU community but wish to use the library may do so by submitting a formal request for authorisation. Once approved and after paying the necessary fees, they may receive ‘Approved Readers’ status, which grants limited access to the library’s resources.
Borrowing privileges are carefully structured according to user categories, ensuring that each client receives access tailored to their academic or professional needs. This approach guarantees that students, lecturers, and researchers within the Faculty of Law can effectively engage with resources that are most relevant to their specific areas of study and legal practice. The following privileges are available:
- Academic staff – Allowed to borrow a maximum of 9 books at a time.
- Non-Academic staff – Allowed to borrow a maximum of 7 books at a time.
- PhD students – Allowed to borrow a maximum of 7 books at a time.
- Master’s students – Allowed to borrow a maximum of 5books at a time.
- Undergraduate students – Allowed to borrow a maximum of 4 books at a time.
- Approved readers – Do not have any borrowing rights. They are only allowed access to library materials within the building.
MSU Library Book Collections
Midlands State University Library has a comprehensive collection of print and electronic books. Patrons can borrow items from the print collection using their valid student or staff ID cards. Electronic books can be accessed by clicking on the ‘Electronic Resources‘ tab on the library website.
Categories of the Book Collection
Long term
These books are usually found in the Open Shelf area and can be borrowed for up to seven (7) days for students and 30 days for staff members.
Core Collection Books
The core textbook collection includes highly recommended books by lecturers from all academic departments at MSU. Students can borrow these books for up to three (3) days for undergraduates, five (5) days for Master’s students, and seven (7) days for PhD students, while staff have a borrowing period of seven (7) days.
Reference collection
Discipline-specific dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and other reference works are also available in our libraries. This category of materials can only be used within the library.
eBooks
To supplement the hard copy collection of books, the Library offers access to a vibrant range of e-books that can be reached even when off campus.
MSU Interlibrary Loan
This facility operates as a cooperative arrangement allowing MSU library patrons to borrow books or journals owned by another university library for a specified period. All active MSU staff and registered students may utilise this service by completing this form. Should you require further assistance, visit any of our libraries and ask for the Client Service Librarian, or email clientservices@library.msu.ac.zw or WhatsApp +263 0717 290 290.
How to access e-Books
- Visit www.msu.ac.zw
- On the main MSU website, select the “Libraries” link.
- You are redirected to the MSU Library webpage
- On the MSU webpage, hover your mouse over the “Electronic Resources” link, and a drop-down menu with links to various e-resources will appear.
- Click the “E-Books” link to go to a page that shows all available e-Journals.
- All e-Book collections are arranged alphabetically, and you can use the A-Z index to navigate to an e-Book collection of your choice, e.g. EBSCO Human Rights and Law.
- Select an e-Book collection of your choice by clicking on its name. You will then be directed to a page requesting your MSU email address and password.
- Input your MSU email address and password, which will lead you to the e-book collection, allowing you to search and download book chapters and sections.
Scholarly journals
A journal or periodical is an academic publication that features articles written by researchers, scholars, legal professionals, and experts in specific fields. These publications generally focus on a particular discipline or area of study, providing detailed analysis, commentary, and research results.
Journals are issued regularly, usually monthly, quarterly, or yearly, and serve as important sources for staying informed about the latest legal scholarship and practice. They are key tools for legal research, academic writing, and informed legal argumentation.
Electronic journals are online versions of the printed journals, and they are only accessible over the internet (NMSU Library, 2020).
How to access Print Journals
- Navigate to www.msu.ac.zw and hover over “Libraries’’
- Select “Catalogue”
- On the online catalogue page, click on “Advanced Search”
- Enter your keywords into the search form provided
- Under “Item Type”, choose “Journal” to filter your results to journals only.
- Click on the “Search” button to get results
- Click on a journal title of your choice to get the Call number
- Go to the correct shelf in the Special Collections section to find the journal.
How to access e-Journals
- Visit www.msu.ac.zw
- On the main MSU website, click on the “Libraries” link.
- You are directed to the MSU Library webpage.
- On the MSU webpage, hover your mouse over the “Electronic Resources” link, and a drop-down menu featuring links to various e-resources will appear.
- Select the “E-Journals” link to navigate to a page that displays all available e-Journals.
- All e-Journal collections are arranged alphabetically, and you can use the A-Z index to navigate to an e-Journal collection of your choice, e.g. “Hein Online”.
- Select an e-Journal collection of your choice by clicking on its name, and you will be directed to a page requesting your MSU email address and password.
- Input your MSU email address and password, which will lead you to the e-Journal collection, allowing you to search and download.
Research at Midlands State University
The MSU Institutional Repository (MSUIR)
The MSUIR is an online digital collection of the university’s research output. The collection includes documents such as research papers, conference papers, books, book chapters, speeches, public lectures, and seminar series presentations.
How to access MSUIR
- Open a browser and go to www.msu.ac.zw
- Click on the ‘Libraries’ link. You will be redirected to the Library homepage.
- On the library homepage, click on ‘Electronic Resources’ and select ‘Institutional Repository’. You will be redirected to the Midlands State University Institutional Repository (MSUIR) homepage.
- You can now browse collections organised by disciplines, referred to as ‘Communities’. If you scroll down, you can view recent additions to the collection.
- You may also find items by Author, Date, Title, Subject (Check on the right side of the page under ‘Browse’).
- To search the entire MSUIR, enter your search terms in the search box at the top right corner of the page under ‘Search MSUIR’, and the results for your query will be displayed on the screen.
- Click on the result of your choice and scroll down the page to view the abstract and other document information.
- To open the document, click on the ‘View/ Open’ Button.
- Depending on your browser settings, the document may open in the browser or prompt you to download.
IMPORTANT LAW JOURNAL COLLECTIONS
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REFERENCING
What is referencing ?
Referencing is giving the acknowledgement to the sources of information you have consulted in your academic work (Queens University, 3 September 2020). As you write assignments, research papers or any academic work, you must always cite your sources.
Copyright Notice
Patrons using copier or printing services are responsible for any infringements of the Zimbabwe copyright Laws.
Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research:
- Automatically generate bibliographies
- Collaborate easily with other researchers online
- Easily import papers from other research software
- Find relevant papers based on what you’re reading
- Access your papers from anywhere online
Mendeley Guides
For a comprehensive guide on how to install and use Mendeley click here, and for video tutorials click here. Alternately you can contact your Faculty Librarian
Zotero is a free, open-source referencing and research tool that helps you collect, organize, and analyse research and share it in a variety of ways. Zotero has the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and export that information as formatted references. It supports all the referencing styles such as Harvard, MLA and APA. Zotero interacts seamlessly with online resources: when it senses you are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, it can automatically extract and save complete bibliographic references. Zotero effortlessly transmits information to and from other web services and applications, and it runs both as a web service and offline on your personal devices.
With Zotero you can:
- Save citations from databases, web sites, and library catalogs
- Manage, categorize into collections, and organize
- Cite sources “in-text” as you write and create reference lists in most styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.)
- Attach PDF’s, images, web page snapshots, reading notes, and more to citations in your collection
Turnitin Anti- Plagiarism Software
Turnitin is an originality checking and plagiarism prevention service that checks your writing for citation mistakes or inappropriate copying. When you submit your paper, Turnitin compares it to text in its massive database of student work, websites, books, articles, etc (APUS, 2020).
- Turnitin Guides for Students and Staff
- How to create a Turnitin student account
- How to upload research article into Turnitin
- Interpreting Turnitin Similarity Report
- Supervisor quick start guide
- Video Tutorial on How to use Turnitin Anti-Plagiarism
- How to create a Turnitin student account
- How to upload research article into Turnitin
- Interpreting Turnitin Similarity Report
The MSU Library Research Support Section
The MSU Library Research Support section plays a crucial role in assisting students and academic staff in their research endeavours. The Research Support section facilitates access to information and supports users in navigating the vast print and electronic resources available through the library. Here are some key functions of library research support services:
- Reference and Information Services
- Assisting users in locating relevant resources, answering reference questions, and navigating library catalogues and databases.
- They provide guidance on effective search strategies and help users refine their research topics.
- Training sessions and workshops to enhance users’ information literacy skills, teaching them how to evaluate information critically, cite sources, and use library resources effectively.
- Helping users with access to a wide range of resources, including books, journals, databases, and multimedia materials.
- Research Consultations
- One-on-one research consultations to provide personalised assistance, helping users develop research strategies and find relevant sources for their projects.
- Reference Management
- Assisting students and staff in using and managing their references, including the use of citation management tools such as Zotero and Mendeley.
- Library Workshops and Training
- Organising workshops and training sessions on a range of topics related to research, academic writing, and information literacy to support users in developing their academic and research skills.
- Copyright and Fair Use Guidance
- Providing information on copyright regulations, fair use, and plagiarism, and assisting users in understanding and complying with legal and ethical standards in their research.
- Assisting Researchers With Finding the Right Publisher
- The Research Support section also assists aspiring writers with identifying the right journal and publisher for their work. It does this by using specialised online tools such as Think-Check-and-Submit and publishers’ journal finders.
- Support is also given for authors to avoid predatory publishers by publishing Beall’s List of predatory publishers.
For assistance with any of the services listed above, please contact the Library Research Support team at researchsupport@library.msu.ac.zw or utilise the Library WhatsApp number – 0717 290 290. You may also visit the Information Desk located at the Main Library for further help.
Steps in the research process
Step 1: Identifying the Problem
The first step in the process is to identify a problem or develop a research question. Choosing a topic that interests you can make the process easier.
Step 2: Review the Literature
Once the problem has been identified, it is time to gather information related to the issue or topic. Gathering literature about the subject will provide you with more insights into what has already been published by other researchers, how they studied the problem, and the results or conclusions they reached. You will need to utilise the library’s resources to access this information. These include the library catalogue, electronic books, electronic journals, and indexes.
Step 3: Research Purpose/Design
This is a practical framework for answering research questions. It involves making decisions about the type of data you will collect, how you will collect it (methods), the time scale, and the location of your research.
Step 4: Collect Data
This step involves gathering data about your research problem from the participants. Data can be collected through various methods, including interviews, questionnaires, and observations.
Step 5: Analyse and Interpret Data
All the activities that were carried out in the above steps now culminate in this step. Here, you will analyse data to answer the research questions.
Step 6: Report and Evaluate
In this stage, you are now writing about the results that you got from the research. What were the conclusions about the problem you were researching? What are your recommendations? What can be done to improve things or avoid negative things?
(Blankenship, Diane. Applied Research and Evaluation Methods in Recreation, Human Kinetics 2010)
SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATIONS TAB
Choosing where to publish
It is crucial to identify the most suitable journal for publication so that your research output receives the recognition it deserves. You should always be able to verify certain key factors when selecting a journal to publish in. Some factors to consider include:
- Scope of the journal
- Peer review process
- Journal Metrics
- Open Access options
- How to spot a predatory Journal
Where is the Journal Indexed?
It is essential to check whether the journal is indexed in major indices such as Scopus and Web of Science. These indexes evaluate a journal’s quality before indexing it, and publishing in journals listed there can make your work more discoverable.
Journal Finders
Several publishers offer tools to help aspiring authors select the most appropriate and reputable journal titles. Below are links to some of the most commonly used tools for choosing a journal.
- Elsevier Journal Finder
- Springer Link Journal Suggester
- Wiley Journal Finder
- Sage Journal Selector
- Emerald Journal Finder
- Web of Science Master List
- Check. Submit
- Scopus Journal Analyser
- Dimensions
RESEARCH IMPACT AND METRICS
Metrics assess the significance or influence of a journal or author. Several metrics can be utilised to demonstrate a journal’s importance. Author-level metrics also reflect the impact an author has on the scientific community or their field of study.
Journal Metrics
Journal Impact Factor
The Journal Impact Factor measures a journal’s significance by counting how often its articles are cited in a specific year. You can find the impact factors of journals in Clarivate Analytics’ Journal Citation Reports (JCR).
CiteScore represents the average number of citations recent articles in the journal have received. It is available for journals and book series indexed in Scopus.
The SJR aims to measure the impact of a journal’s subject area, quality, and reputation on citations. It assesses a journal’s prestige by considering the value of the sources that cite it, rather than counting all citations equally. It is useful for comparing and analysing journals within the same discipline, and forms the basis of the subject category ranking.
The SNIP (Source Normalised Impact per Paper) measures citations weighted by the subject field. It is useful for comparing journals, not just within the same field but also across disciplines. SNIP is available from Scopus.
ALTERNATIVE METRICS – ALMETRICS
Article-level metrics help researchers understand how their work is being utilised in the digital or online environment through factors like downloads, page views, and mentions on social media platforms. Many publishers such as Elsevier, Oxford University Press, PLOS, and Springer Nature now display alternative metrics on the search results page using the Altmetric bookmarklet or Plum Analytics. You can also see the attention your research receives from other researchers through mentions on Twitter, ResearchGate, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
RESEARCHER IDENTIFIERS AND DISAMBIGUATION
An important aspect of research is to monitor your research output and to identify yourself among many other researchers uniquely. There are several author identifier tools that you can use to achieve this.
ORCID – Open Researcher and Contributor ID
This provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes an author from others with a similar name. It makes it easier for researchers to compile their research output even if they change their affiliation or if their name is spelt differently in other publications. Researchers can compile their profile, research interests, educational qualifications, contact details, and other relevant information.
Similar to ORCID, this tool is also free and able to provide you with a unique identifier. You can also link your ResearcherID to ORCID so that you can enjoy the benefits of using both systems.
Scopus enables researchers to build an author profile that includes all their citations within this multidisciplinary database, even if their name or affiliation changes. Researchers can also receive email alerts when their articles are cited.
Google Scholar Profiles offer a straightforward way for authors to showcase their academic publications. You can see who is citing your articles, track citations over time, and calculate various citation metrics. You can also make your profile public, so that it may appear in Google Scholar results when people search for your name.
How to Spot a Predatory Journal or Publisher
Predatory publishers make false claims about their peer review process to charge unsuspecting researchers article processing fees. Most predatory publishers spam prospective authors’ inboxes with offers of rapid publication.
Here are some factors you may need to consider:
- Use the Think Check Submit checklist for journals
- Lookup titles in the Directory of Open Access Journals
- Lookup titles in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
- Use indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science to check if the journal is listed there
You can also follow the links below for more information on identifying predatory publishers.
Criteria for determining predatory publishers
6 Ways to Spot a Predatory Journal
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR RESEARCH VISIBILITY
Activities focused on increasing the visibility of research outputs are very important for an academic’s career. Enhancing visibility ensures that research findings are discovered by a broader range of researchers, which leads to greater attention and impact. This also contributes to the success of the researcher.
Here are some methods that can help in increasing the visibility of research:
- Register to get unique author identifiers and create your profiles:
- ORCID
- ResearcherID
- Scopus ID
- Google Scholar
- Share Outputs of Your Research Through Open Access
Evidence of your research output includes research articles, conference posters, presentations, papers, preprints, and research data. Making these publicly accessible enhances the likelihood of your work being discovered and cited. Additionally, many funding bodies and universities now require that both publications and their associated research data be made available through Open Access.
To make your work Open Access, you can use the following:
- MSU Institutional Repository
- Cite Seer– (Computer and Information Science)
- PubMed Central is a repository for US federally funded research outputs in Medicine.
Share Your Research Data
Besides publications, you can also share your research data through various platforms listed below.
- F1000Research – Useful to researchers in Life sciences
- Mendeley Data
- JSTOR Data For Research
- Open Aire
- Dryad
- SlideShare
- Keep an Updated Online Profile or Web CV
Several platforms allow you to create profiles where you can showcase your research interests, compile your list of publications, and highlight your professional achievements.
ImpactStory is a free online platform that allows you to showcase your research outputs (publications, presentations, data, code, posters, etc.) along with measures of their impact. Impactstory uses ORCID profiles to find and import scholarly works. To ensure that your Impactstory profile includes all your outputs, make sure to import them to ORCID and synchronise your ORCID profile with Impactstory.
This is a relatively new tool that helps researchers promote their research outputs. It is free to use and allows you to showcase your publications by creating links to full text. Kudos will constantly monitor:
- Number of times the publication has been downloaded from the publisher’s site
- Number of times the publication’s abstract is clicked or viewed on the publisher’s site
- Number of tweets posted by the author to promote the publication.
- Number of Facebook posts by each author to promote the publication
- Number of visits to the publication page on Kudos generated by sharing activities through email or social media.
- Number of times the author has sent emails to colleagues or friends containing the link to the publication page on Kudos or the article page on the publisher’s site.
- Total visits to the publication page on Kudos
- A score generated by Altmetric.com (which includes tweets, Mendeley and Cite Like readership)
- Engage and Participate in Social Networking Communities
Another excellent way to disseminate your research and build a reputation is through active engagement in research networking communities. Research networking allows you to create online profiles, showcase your research outputs, discover communities of interest, and participate in discussions by posting and answering questions within your network. All of these activities will also inform you about the impact of your activities in these networks, such as downloads of your publications, views of your profile, and levels of your activity compared to others in the network.
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Choosing where to publish
It is important to find the most relevant journal to publish with so that your research output gets the attention that it deserves. You should always be able to check for certain important factors when looking for a journal to publish with. Some factors to look out for include:
- Scope of the journal
- Peer review process
- Journal Metrics
- Open Access options
- How to spot a predatory Journal
Where is the Journal Indexed?
It is important that you check whether the journal is indexed in major indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science. These indexes assess a journal’s quality before indexing them and it is most likely that your work becomes more discoverable if you publish with journals indexed in them.
Journal Finders
A number of publishers offer some tools that can be used by aspiring authors to assist in choosing the most appropriate and trusted journal title. Below are some links to the most common tools used to choose a journal.
- Elsevier Journal Finder
- Springer Link Journal Suggester
- Wiley Journal Finder
- Sage Journal Selector
- Emerald Journal Finder
- Web of Science Master List
- Check. Submit
- Scopus Journal Analyzer
- Dimensions
RESEARCH IMPACT AND METRICS
Metrics are a measurement of the importance or impact of a journal or author. There are several metrics that can be used to indicate the importance of a journal. Author level metrics can also be used to show impact that an author makes on the scientific community or field of the study.
Journal Metrics
Journal Impact Factor
The Journal Impact Factor is used to measure the importance of a journal by calculating the number of times articles are cited within a particular year. You can find the impact factors of journals in Clarivate Analytics’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR).
CiteScore is the average number of citations received by articles recently published in the journal. It is available for journals and book series which are indexed in Scopus.
The SJR aims to capture the effect of subject field, quality, and reputation of a journal on citations. It calculates the prestige of a journal by considering the value of the sources that cite it, rather than counting all citations equally. It is useful for comparing and anlysing journals within the same discipline, and forms the basis of the subject category ranking.
The SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper) measures citations weighted by the subject field. It is useful for comparing journals not just within the same field but also across disciplines. SNIP is available from Scopus.
ALTERNATIVE METRICS – ALMETRICS
Article level metrics help researchers to understand how their research is being used in the digital or online environment through factors such as downloads, page views and mentions in social media platforms. Many publishers such as Elsevier, Oxford University Press, PLos and Springer Nature now provide alternative metrics on the search results page by using the Altmetric bookmarklet or Plum Analytics. You can get the attention that your research is getting from fellow researchers through mentions in Twitter, Researchgate, Facebook and Linkedin.
RESEARCHER IDENTIFIERS AND DISAMBIGUATION
An important aspect of research is to keep track of your research output and to uniquely identify your among many other researchers. There are several author identifier tools that you can use to achieve this.
ORCID – Open Researcher and Contributor ID
This provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes an author from other authors with a similar name. It makes it easier for researchers to compile their research output even if they change their affiliation or if their name is spelt differently in other publications. Researchers are able to compile their profile, research interests, educational qualifications contact details etc.
Similar to ORCID, this tool free is also able to provide you with a unique identifier. You can also link your ResearcherID to ORCID so that you can enjoy the benefits of using both systems.
Scopus allows researchers to create an author profile that includes all their citations that are included in this multi-disciplinary database, even with name and affiliation changes. Researchers are also able to get email alerts when someone cites their articles.
Google Scholar Profiles provide a simple way for authors to showcase their academic publications. You can check who is citing your articles, graph citations over time, and compute several citation metrics. You can also make your profile public, so that it may appear in Google Scholar results when people search for your name.
How to Spot a Predatory Journal or Publisher
Predatory publishers make false claims about their peer review process in order to charge unsuspecting researchers article processing fees. Most predatory publishers will spam the mailboxes of prospective authors with offers of rapid publication.
Here are some factors you may need to consider:
- Use the Think Check Submit checklist for journals
- Lookup titles in Directory of Open Access Journals
- Lookup titles in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
- Use indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science to check if journal is listed there
You can also follow the links below for more information on identifying predatory publishers.
Criteria for determining predatory publishers
6 Ways to Spot a Predatory Journal
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR RESEARCH VISIBILITY
Activities aimed at increasing the visibility of research output are very important to an academic’s career. Increasing the visibility of research ensures that research results are discovered by a wider spectrum of researchers and in turn the work gets more attention and impact. This also helps in the success of the researcher.
Here are some methods that can help in increasing the visibility of research:
- Register to get unique author identifiers and create your profiles:
- ORCID
- ResearcherID
- Scopus ID
- Google Scholar
- Share Outputs of Your Research Through Open Access
Evidence of your research output include research articles, conference, posters, presentations and papers, preprints and research data. By making these publicly accessible, you are increasing the chances of your work getting discovered and cited. Moreover, many funding institutions and universities now require that both publications and their accompanying research data be made available through Open Access.
To make your work Open Access, you can use the following:
- MSU Institutional Repository
- AgEcon(Agriculture and Applied Economics)
- ArXiv– (pre-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics)
- CiteSeer– (Computer and Information Science)
- PubMedCentral– is a repository for US federally funded research outputs in Medicine.
- Research Papers in Economics (Repec)is a collaborative effort of volunteers in 86 countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics and related sciences. It is a bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, books chapters and software components.
- Social Science Research Network(SSRN) – aims at early dissemination of social science, business, law and economics research. It allows for deposit of both abstract of working papers and upcoming publications as well as full text of published outputs.
- Share Your Research Data
Apart from publications, you can also share your research data through various platforms listed below.
- F1000Research – Useful to researchers in Life sciences
- Mendeley Data
- JSTOR Data For Research
- OpenAire
- Dryad
- Slideshare
- Keep an Updated Online Profile or Web CV
There are a number of platforms that can be used to create profiles where you can capture your research interests, make a list of your publications and highlight your professional accomplishments.
ImpactStory is a free online platform that permits you to showcase your research outputs (publications, presentations, data, code, posters, etc.) together with measures of their impact. Impact story uses ORCID profiles to find and import scholarly works. To make sure that your Impact story has all your outputs, make sure that you import them to ORCID and synchronise your ORCID profile with Impactstory.
This is a relatively new tool that helps researchers promote their research outputs. It is free to use and allows you to showcase your publications by creating links to full text. Kudos will always monitor:
- Number of times the publication is downloaded from the publisher’s site
- Number of times the publication’s abstract is clicked on or viewed on the publisher’s site
- Number of tweets posted by author to promote the publication
- Number of Facebook posts by author to promote the publication
- Number of visits to the publication page on Kudos that is generated by sharing activities via email or social media
- Number of times author has sent email to colleagues/friends with link the publication page on Kudos or with the link to the article page on the publisher’s site
- Total number of visits to publication page on Kudos
- A score generated by Altmetric.com (which includes tweets, Mendeley and CiteULike readership)
- Engage and Participate in Social Networking Communities
Another great way to disseminate your research and gain reputation is through active engagement in research networking communities. Research networking will allow you to create online profiles, showcase your research outputs, discover communities of interest and take part in discussions by posting and answering questions in your network. All of them will also let you know about impact of your activates in these networks, for instance downloads of your publications, views of your profile and levels of your activity as compared to others in the network.
HIJACKED JOURNALS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
Bogus academic journals, known as ‘hijacked journals,’ masquerade as reputable publications by mimicking their titles, ISSNs, and other identifying features. Scammers create fake websites to deceive researchers into paying for rapid online publication, exploiting their desire for swift dissemination of their work.
The creation of hijacked journals involves the unauthorised replication of legitimate academic journals’ online presence, incorporating their International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), title, and copyrighted content. The perpetrators subsequently engage in phishing tactics, targeting researchers via email to deceive them into submitting manuscripts and paying publication fees, thereby facilitating financial exploitation or intellectual property theft.
How can you find out whether a journal is fake or not?
- Before responding to email calls for papers, thoroughly research the journal online, using search engines, forums, and blogs to verify its legitimacy.
- Hijacked journals often offer minimal peer review time. Most of the time, they do not provide any review and accept papers without modifications.
- Most hijacked journals have fake editorial boards without designation, university address or contact information.
- Hijacked journals typically lack clear scope statements, accepting papers on any subject without regard for relevance or focus.
- Hijacked journals typically have basic websites with easy submission processes, often requiring authors to email their papers directly to the editor.
ONLINE TOOLS FOR CHECKING HIJACKED JOURNALS
Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker
You can use Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, an online tool for checking whether a journal has been hijacked. The tool shows the URL of the original journal and the URL of the fake journal side by side. This tool is continuously updated.
Beall’s List of Hijacked Journals
You can also use Beall’s List of Hijacked Journals (https://beallslist.net/hijacked-journals ). The list also includes links to the original and fake journals.
More on Hijacked Journals
You can find out more about hijacked journals by following the links below:
- Hijacked journals are still a threat – https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02399-1
- Hijacked journals: what they are and how to avoid them – https://clarivate.com/academia-government/blog/hijacked-journals-what-they-are-and-how-to-avoid-them/
- Predatory Publishers and Conferences – https://guides.utmb.edu/Predatory/hijacking
- How journal hijackers derail academic careers with impunity – https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20231120151519174
- Case study: Avoiding submission to a hijacked journal – https://www.editage.com/insights/case-study-avoiding-submission-to-a-hijacked-journal
Characteristics of Hijacked Journals and Predatory Publishers: Our Observations in the Academic World – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165614716300037
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Can you return a book borrowed from the Main Library to any Branch Library?
Answer: You can only return a book to the library where you borrowed it. This is being done to ensure that the home library is accountable for every item in its collection. In the OPAC, all library materials are identified by location, and returning a book to the library where it was borrowed helps other users locate the book quickly.
Question: Can a student borrow a book during vacation?
Answer: During vacation, the library will be open and serving clients. Students will be allowed access to the library but not to borrow books for use outside the library. Students are allowed to borrow books during the semester break and are encouraged to observe the due date stamped on the library books.
Question: Is the library open during Public Holidays?
Answer: The Library is closed on Public Holidays. To view the Library’s opening and closing times, click here.
Question: How do I access e-resources?
Answer: For steps on how to access e-journals, e-books, Institutional Repository, OPAC, Past Examination papers, click here
Question: What happens if I have an overdue book?
Answer: An overdue book attracts a fine, which is automatically recorded in the KOHA System. The type of material borrowed determines the fine that accrues in a client’s account. For more information on penalties, click here.
Question: What documents do one need to be allowed to gain entry into the library?
Answer: A client must present a valid student or staff ID at the Library entrance. To be eligible, students need to be registered for that semester.
