Advanced Literature Searching

Receive expert guidance on crafting effective search strategies, using Boolean operators, and accessing a wide range of academic databases to find high-quality, relevant literature for your research.

Theses and Dissertations

All North-West University Electronic Theses and Dissertations are accessible through Boloka, the NWU Institutional Repository.
Boloka provides open access to a wide range of NWU research outputs, including postgraduate research, published articles, conference papers, and other scholarly resources. This platform supports the visibility and discoverability of NWU's academic contributions both nationally and internationally

• Researchers can search Boloka for NWU Theses/Dissertations and other research output
• Access international ETDs through
  • Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
  • ProQuest: Dissertations & Theses Global
  • DADAD-R: Database of African Theses and Dissertations including Research
  • DART - Europe
  • Ethos (UK)

Reference Management (EndNote)

Learn to manage citations and bibliographies with powerful tools like EndNote to help you organise your sources, insert citations seamlessly into your work, and adhere to citation styles effortlessly.

Ethical Clearance and Research Data Management Planning

Research conducted at NWU requires ethics clearance; postgraduates and researchers are encouraged to seek support in developing robust Data Management Plans (DMPs). These plans are essential for meeting the requirements of the institutional Research Ethics Committee and external funders, ensuring the responsible collection, handling, storage, and sharing of research data throughout the project's lifecycle.

Research Data Management (RDM) Guidance

Responsible management of research data, including data underlying theses, dissertations, and scholarly publications, in accordance with NWU's open access policies, national policies, and global mandates, is essential for ensuring research integrity, accessibility, and long-term preservation.

NWU Libraries offer assistance with storing and accessing existing research data from trusted repositories and databases. By using existing data, researchers can save time, enhance their study with credible data, and build upon previous research. 
Research data repositories provide valuable resources for researchers to discover, store and reuse existing research data, facilitating transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration across various disciplines. Not all research requires primary data collection; existing, credible datasets may be leveraged to support new research questions. Examples of research data repositories include:

• NWU Research Data Repository (DaYta Ya Rona / Figshare)
• South African Research Data Repository
• International Research Data Repository (Figshare)
• Registry of Research Data Repositories
• Mendeley Data (Elsevier)

ORCID Registration

Boost your research profile by registering for an ORCID iD, a persistent digital identifier that connects research activities and outputs such as theses, articles, books, chapters and other scholarly work to your ORCID record to enhance visibility and track your academic contributions. ORCID ensures proper attribution of your work and enhances your global recognition by uniquely linking your identity to your scholarly contributions across platforms and institutions.

Subject-specific Databases

Discover and access subject-specific databases curated for your field of study, with tools and guides to help you search efficiently, find authoritative sources, and stay up to date with the latest research.

• Access tailored databases relevant to your field, ensuring you find the most authoritative sources and up-to-date research in your area of study. 
• Search across several databases
• Or browse through the alphabetical list of databases or individual database search, i.e. Scopus (Elsevier).
• Find databases through Faculty LibGuides.
• Find databases through the Research LibGuides.
•  Use the LibKey Nomad browser extension to connect to our library's content from the open web.

Research Visibility & Impact

Learn strategies to increase the discoverability and citation of your research through profiling platforms, metrics, and dissemination strategies.

Support for Systematic Reviews (e.g., Covidence)

Get hands-on support for conducting systematic reviews, including training in tools like Covidence, protocol development, and database searching.

Open Access Publishing

Receive expert guidance on selecting reputable journals, understanding open access publishing models, and avoiding predatory publishers. The NWU research community, including postgraduate students, can publish articles in selected open-access journals without paying Article Processing Charges (APCs), through NWU's transformative agreements with participating publishers

Journal Publishing Services

As part of our publishing support services, NWU Libraries offer access to the NWU Open Journal System (OJS), a powerful platform that streamlines the academic publishing process by offering tools for submission, peer review, and publishing workflows, empowering editors and authors with an efficient, transparent platform.

Copyright & Licensing Consultation

Understand your rights as an author, learn how to legally share your work, and get help with Creative Commons licensing and permissions.

Academic Writing Tools (Writefull)

Enhance your academic writing with AI-powered tools like Writefull, designed to improve grammar, structure, and fluency in scholarly documents.

• Writefull Paraphrasing Tool gives you alternative phrasing suggestions to help you express your ideas more clearly and academically
• Writefull Add-in for Word - Download the plug-in for Word to get language feedback, automatically paraphrase text, and auto-generate your title
• Writefull Cite uses an AI model that evaluates the meaning of all sentences in a text and assesses for each whether it presents the non-general knowledge that a reference should support
• Writefull Revise quickly proofreads your text and gets language corrections from the best AI