Research Tools for Graduate Students Workshop Series: Upcoming Workshops

Tuesday, March 2, 3:30-4:45 pm, Zoom

Instructor: Lisa Becksford

Citation managers like EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero are powerful tools that can help you save, organize, and cite your references. Their use can also help improve your workflow and make the research process easier and less stressful. This session will focus on ways to incorporate citation managers into your workflow. By the end of the session, you’ll be able to

• Integrate citation managers into your existing workflow 

• Identify personal best practices for using citation managers 

• Use advanced features of the citation manager of your choice to streamline your research workflow

This session will assume that you are already using and are familiar with a citation manager like EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley. If you’re not, you should familiarize yourself with a citation manager via one of the tutorials on this guide: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/citationmanagers

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7336681. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2:30-3:45 pm, Zoom

Instructor: Rachel Miles

You’ve probably heard of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and perhaps even the h-index. You know that citations are important to a scholar’s career and impact. However, there are many purposes and interpretations of these metrics, and deciphering their meaning can be a headache if you don’t have a general understanding of research impact metrics and research assessment. In this workshop, you will learn the differences between the many types of citation metrics, usage statistics, and altmetrics. You’ll learn where to find them, how to use them to your advantage, and how to avoid making common mistakes and/or unintentionally misusing these metrics. 

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7336670. 

Wednesday, March 10, 2:30-3:45 pm, Zoom 

Instructor: Kiri DeBose

You’ve been assigned to write a literature review...but how do you get started? What kinds of literature reviews are there? Where should you search? How do you know what search terms to use? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this interactive workshop. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to 

• Identify the type of literature review to be conducted
• Find relevant databases to search in the life sciences
• Create effective search strategies

This workshop will focus on research in the life sciences. Other discipline-specific workshops will be offered; see other options above.

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7424723