Research Knowledge Management can be Murder - University Research Management Systems

Use of the term knowledge management varies depending on the context. In this paper we will investigate its use in relation to research output in universities. Universities need to keep track of their research and to note what research papers have been written, the topic of the research, who collaborated in the writing and where the research was published. To collate and store this data some type of information system is needed. There are several reasons why universities need to keep track of their research output. Firstly this is necessary for accountability purposes, and in order to gain funding from Governments and other funding bodies – this is the principal reason why such systems are set up. Universities also like to publicise what they are doing and this also requires recording research output. Another possible use of this information however, relates to intellectual capital and the management of knowledge. Researchers can benefit greatly from knowing what other researchers have done, and what they are currently doing, but universities are large institutions making this difficult to achieve. In the paper we will argue that this constitutes an important but underutilised application for research