#SmartResearcher workshops 7 April - 7 May 2026
Contact information
The Library invites postgraduate students, emerging researchers and academic staff to participate in the #SmartResearcher Workshops taking place during February 2026. The programme is designed to support researchers across the full research lifecycle, from navigating library resources, conducting literature reviews to managing references. Whether you are starting your postgraduate journey or refining advanced research practices, the #SmartResearcher Workshops aim to strengthen your research and its visibility and impact. The sessions vary in length depending on the subject matter, but cover a wide range of subjects related to the postgraduate research journey.
If you attend three or more of the webinars, you are eligible for a certificate of attendance. Please e-mail Letlao Seloma to request a certificate. The certificates are issued at the end of every semester.
Please note that staff who register via SUN-e-HR, will receive the link to the webinar on the day of the event. If you experience any problems while registering via SUN-e-HR, please contact Mandy Oliver, at [email protected].
Introduction to EndNote for reference management (Classroom Based) EndNote offers various services, including reference management, and adding citations to your research paper. In this session, we will show you how to download and install EndNote and set-up your account. Date: 7 April 2026 Time: 14:00 – 16:00 |
Overview of software for effective data analysis and data visualisation An overview of tools and free software for data analysis and data visualisation will be presented. These programmes are helpful for statistical analysis, visualisations, mapping and for the cleaning of data. Date: 8 April 2026 Time: 14:00 – 16:00 |
How to conduct a Literature Review This workshop aims to provide researchers with an overview of how to efficiently structure and develop a literature review. Date: 9 April 2026 Time: 11:00 – 12:00 |
Managing your unique author identity with ORCID ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. This workshop will explain what ORCID is, how to register and populate your profiles. Date: 14 April 2026 Time: 11:00 – 12:00 |
Tips on how to format your thesis (MS Word) This workshop will help you work around some of the common formatting glitches most postgraduate students experience, whilst getting their document ready for submission. Date: 14 April 2026 Time: 14:00 – 16:00 |
Increasing the visibility of your research output through self-archiving This workshop will teach participants more about the policy and how to comply with it in order to improve access to and visibility of their research outputs. Date: 15 April 2026 Time: 14:00 – 15:30 |
Introduction to Microsoft Power BI The workshop will be a hands-on introduction to Microsoft Power BI, which forms part of the SU Microsoft subscription. Date: 16 April 2026 Time: 11:00 – 13:00 |
EndNote: The Advanced Features EndNote offers various services, including reference management, organising and annotation of PDF documents and collaboration. In this session, we will show you how to use the advanced features in EndNote. Date: 21 April 2026 Time: 14:00 – 16:00 |
Introduction to Tableau Desktop and Flourish for data visualisation This workshop will be an introductory course to visualise your data with Tableau Desktop and Flourish. Both tools are free for students and academics and fairly user-friendly. Date: 29 April 2026 Time: 11:00 – 13:00 |
An overview of SUNScholarData – the SU institutional data repository Many funders mandate that data collected in the process of conducting research that was funded by them be deposited in reputable repositories. This workshop will provide an overview of research data repositories and demonstrate the manner in which SU’s Institutional Research Data Repository, SUNScholarData, functions. Date: 30 April 2026 Time: 11:00 – 13:00 |
Maximise your research impact This workshop will show how to improve your impact as a researcher. It consist of two sessions. The first session will show the steps which you can take to improve your impact, while the second session will be about how to monitor your impact with the help of different databases. Date: 30 April 2026 Time: 14:00 – 16:00 |
Making important decisions about publishing your research This hands-on session covers important factors to help you decide where to publish your research. Making the right choices can increase readership and citations, diminish publication lag and ensure that your publication is eligible for government subsidy. Date: 5 May 2026 Time: 10:00 – 13:00 |
Introduction to EndNote for reference management (Webinar) EndNote offers various services, including reference management, and adding citations to your research paper. In this session, we will show you how to download and install EndNote and set-up your account. Date: 6 May 2026 Time: 14:00 – 16:00 |
Introduction to SciVal for research evaluation This workshop will include an overview of SciVal’s features as well as a hands-on demonstration on how to evaluate performance of researchers and groups. Date: 7 May 2026 Time: 14:00 – 16:00 |