Information Skills & Using Research Materials
Developing your search strategies to choose and use source materials effectively.
Our information specialists, librarians and archivists are available for one-to-one support at all stages of your research projects. We offer expert advice to save you time, from planning where to look for information, to building complex searches in a range of databases and platforms, to using archival materials. We have designed a suite of self-directed Canvas courses for each of the Faculty Postgraduate Researcher Development Programmes, each tailored to your subject-specific and interdisciplinary needs.
What topics do we cover and how can we advise you?
Our training and development offer is mapped to the Vitae Researcher Development Framework and designed to support you in building relevant digital and information literacies for your research needs.
You might:
- be writing your literature review, report, presentation or other output and struggling to find relevant source material, evidence or data.
- be moving into an area of interdisciplinary research or a new team and you need to identify relevant resources for a new area.
- be writing your research funding bid and want to know which resources are available. You might be looking to investigate the economic leverage of your research, express its novelty, identify the legal landscape, or consider its potential reach and impact. You will need to know which resources are already available through the Library to support the aims of your project and can factor in any potential gaps.
- want to use published or shared research for other purposes and have copyright and reuse queries.
You might be:
- conducting a systematic review or evidence synthesis and need expert advice on your search strategies.
- seeking strategies to help you manage your references and data and keep up-to-date in your research area.
You might be looking for:
- shared methods, protocols, data, papers or other outputs available Open Access.
- guidance on adopting open research practices including creating and maintaining your researcher profile, open data, research data management, copyright literacy, Open Access publishing routes and research metrics tools, including their responsible use.
