Research Tools for Graduate Students Workshop Series: Upcoming Workshops

Thursday, January 28, 3:30-4:45 pm, Zoom 

Instructor: Lisa Becksford

You’ve been assigned to write a literature review in the social sciences...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 different types of literature reviews

• Find relevant databases

• Create effective search terms 

This workshop will focus on research in the social and behavioral sciences, such as education, communication, human development, psychology, and sociology. 

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7334461. 

Thursday, February 3, 2:30-3:45 pm, Zoom

Instructor: Rachel Miles

Are you ready to publish? Are you wanting to publish but uneasy about the process? Are you uncertain about all the different types of publishing and copyright policies? Are you wary about how to select a journal? Are you confused about author rights?

This introductory workshop will take you step-by-step through the scholarly pre-publishing process to help you identify “predatory journals,” understand author rights, find journal copyright policies, negotiate your rights during submission and acceptance, understand the different Open Access (OA) types, learn how OA benefits you, find high quality journals in your field (OA or subscription), and potentially secure funding when publishing in an OA journal. 

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Lisa Becksford at lisab5@vt.edu at least 10 business days prior to the workshop. 

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7334798 

Thursday, February 11, 3:30-4:45 pm, Zoom 

Instructor: Rachel Miles

LinkedIn, ORCID, ResearcherID, ResearchGate, Google Scholar Profile...how do you choose which sites you should create professional and scholarly profiles for? This workshop will provide an introduction to creating an online scholarly presence. Learn how to create and maintain your unique author identifier to ensure you get credit for your work, link your profiles together for ease of use, and track research impact metrics and online engagement of your research.

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7334874. 



Monday, February 15, 2:00-3:30 pm, Zoom

Instructors: Cozette Comer and Ginny Pannabecker

Evidence synthesis (ES) reviews are comprehensive, rigorous reviews of information and often serve as the foundation of evidence-based decision making. ES review approaches include systematic, rapid, restricted, and scoping reviews. By the end of this 1.5 hour session, you’ll be able to describe the different types of evidence synthesis reviews, describe the general steps required in an evidence synthesis review, be familiar with guidelines and tools, and consider whether these approaches are appropriate for your research goals and / or question(s).

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7345526. 

Monday, February 22, 2:30-3:45 pm, Zoom 

Instructor: Lisa Becksford

EndNote is one of the most powerful citation managers available today. In this workshop, you will learn the basics of EndNote, including adding references to your library, organizing your library, and using EndNote to cite references within a document. To get the most out of the session, you should have the most recent version of EndNote (X9) already downloaded from VT Software Distribution. More information and a link to download it is available at guides.lib.vt.edu/citationmanagers/EndNote. 

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7336665. 

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. 

Tuesday, February 2, 3:30-4:30 pm, Zoom

Instructor: Jon Petters 

You're about to collect or already have data for your research project...now what? How do you manage it? What do you name the files? How do you share it? Learn the answers to all of these questions and more in this workshop, which will present an introduction to research data management, including the following topics: 

• Data management planning

• File naming conventions/organization

• Backing-up research data

• Documentation (metadata)

• Data sharing

• Data security 

• How the library can help 

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7334517. 

Monday, February 8, 4-5:15 pm, Zoom 

Instructor: Lisa Becksford

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use citation manager that can help researchers save time and frustration. In this workshop, you will learn the basics of Zotero, including adding references to your library, organizing your library, and using Zotero to cite references within a document (both Word and Google Docs). To get the most out of the session, you should have Zotero downloaded to your computer already. Information on how to download the software is available at guides.lib.vt.edu/citationmanagers/Zotero.

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7334856. 

Monday, February 15, 2:30-3:45 pm, Zoom

Instructor: Rachel Miles

You’ve published an article...now what? How do you share your scholarly work with others online? This workshop will cover best practices for scholars to promote their work online. Learn how to use the emerging science communication tool, Grow Kudos, to write nontechnical titles and summaries of your research in order to engage broader audiences; learn how to effectively use Twitter and other social media channels to promote your work; and finally, learn how to track usage statistics and metrics to assess and improve your promotional efforts.

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7336624. 

Thursday, February 18, 3:30-4:45 pm, Zoom 

Instructor: Lisa Becksford

Mendeley is a free, easy-to-use citation manager that can help researchers save time and frustration. In this interactive workshop, you will learn the basics of Mendeley, including adding references to your library, organizing your library, and using Mendeley to cite references within a document. To get the most out of the session, you should have Mendeley downloaded to your computer already.. Information on how to download the software is available at guides.lib.vt.edu/citationmanagers/Mendeley.

Register for the session here: https://calendar.lib.vt.edu/event/7336649. 

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