Durban University of Technology selects Elements

Symplectic is very happy to announce that Durban University of Technology, South Africa, have selected Symplectic Elements as their research information management system.

This forward-thinking university now becomes Symplectic’s first institutional client in Africa. Durban is a great place to begin – the largest city in the KwaZulu-Natal province, a major centre of trade, tourism, finance and manufacturing, with rich cultural diversity and beautiful golden beaches.

Durban University of Technology (DUT) is an ambitious modern research institution, established in 2002 through the merger of two much older institutions, the ML Sultan Technikon , and Natal Technikon, now operating on seven campuses throughout Durban and Pietermaritzburg.  A pioneer in Open Access leadership, DUT’s research mostly comprises of science, engineering and technology, with specialised institutes for Water & Wastewater Technology and Systems Science.


Top 5 cited DUT research areas, 2010‐2015*

Name Rank Web of Science Documents Category normalised Citation impact Times Cited Docs Cited
Energy & Fuels 1 32 3.02 692 66.63 %
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology 2 49 1.38 606 73.47 %
Engineering, Chemical 3 36 1.83 506 61.11 %
Chemistry, Physical 4 35 1.07 299 80 %
Agricultural Engineering 5 12 2.02 242 91.67 %

*Data provided by DUT citing Web of Science 


DUT will be making use of a cloud-hosted Elements installation to manage researchers’ publications and create academic profiles, potentially making use of Elements’ Open Access functionality in future.

DUT’s pioneering use of research information management technology reflects their ethos of innovation; this also suggests the exciting potential for Symplectic to work with other institutions within South Africa and across the continent. We’re looking forward to working with the project team at DUT to start their Elements journey.

With this partnership, we have the opportunity to position ourselves as
a world leader in the development of the scholarly ecosystem.

Keith Webster, Dean of University Libraries, Carnegie Mellon

I cannot overstate how pleased we have been.
We have to have confidence to work with a partner
for at least 5 years on a project of this size.

Caleb Smith, Senior Strategy Manager for Research Intelligence & Analytics, University of Michigan

“Faculty need only spend perhaps less than an hour a year to prepare and submit their annual reports.”

Associate Dean, Carnegie Mellon University at Qatar

"Leveraging the interoperability between Symplectic Elements and DSpace has increased policy-driven institutional repository deposits by over 350%."

Ellen Phillips, Open Access Specialist, Boston University

Elements elegantly connected our multi-university system providing a
single source of truth throughout OIEx.

Tim Cain, The Ohio Innovation Exchange (OIEx)

The University measures the individual research activity of academic staff. This Measure of Research Activity (MoRA) requires the collection of publication data from faculty. Symplectic Elements supports this beautifully.

Floris van der Leest, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

[Elements] will help to bring transparency to the richness of thought showcased within non-traditional publications, providing a more holistic representation of faculties’ scholarly work.

Caleb Smith, University of Michigan

Feedback to date has been extremely positive from all levels across the University, with individual academics and colleagues actively promoting the ease of use of the system.

Rachel Baird, Research Policy Analyst, University of Liverpool