Measuring perceived and actual e-visibility of researchers in environmental science at a South African university

Abstract

This research on e-visibility aims at enhancing research impact and encapsulates the e-visibility themes: 1) research online presence, 2) researcher discoverability, and 3) online research output accessibility. This article reports on the perceived and actual e-visibility to establish the inclusive research impact of researchers based at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of South Africa. Bibliometric and altmetric data were collected from citation resources, the Web, academic social networking tools and an online survey. The results show a preference towards utilising free information resources and websites above fee based as part of the research online presence, researcher discoverability, research output accessibility and to ascertain their inclusive research impact. In addition, the results of the e-visibility survey reported positive responses and overall positive attitude and perceptions towards the e-visibility training. This research emphasises e-visibility training as part of an e-visibility strategy to increase research online presence, researcher discoverability and online research output accessibility in an attempt to enhance the researchers’ e-visibility.