PGR Research Survival Guide
Some handy links to help you navigate open research!
The University of Aberdeen is committed to open research, ensuring there are no barriers to sharing knowledge.
Contact the Open Research Team to arrange a one-to-one chat or a tailored session for your school on the open research issues you are most interested in.
On this page you can find our current and past training and events and other useful e-resources.
Follow us on Twitter @OpenResearchUoA to keep up to date.
Join the Open Research Team for our ExplORe: Open Research Essentials training series. To view information on and sign up to future sessions (internal only) please see the course booking system.
ExplORe: Open Research Essentials is a new series of training sessions from the Open Research Team
Join us for an overview of the open access agreements accessible to UoA researchers. This session will cover:
the fundamentals of open access
the publisher agreements at your disposal
the mechanics of these agreements
how the agreements help you fulfil funder and REF open access requirements
Whether you're a seasoned researcher or new to the field, this session offers valuable insights into enhancing your research impact through open access.
View the presentation on our YouTube playlist
ExplORe: Open Research Essentials is a new series of training sessions from the Open Research Team.
Unlock the world of open access for your research publications and gain valuable insights into the following:
Understanding the routes to open access: publisher and repository-based options
Navigating funder open access policies effectively
Meeting REF open access criteria
Securing your rights: Exploring rights retention
Publishing open access through our publisher agreements
How to get your work into Pure/AURA
This session is designed for all researchers contemplating their next publication. Don't miss out on maximizing the reach of your research findings!
View the presentation on our YouTube playlist.
Join our Library colleagues who will offer advice on formatting your thesis and how to submit. We'll also give some tips on copyright.
Suitable for all students submitting thesis as part of their degree.
Metrics: there seems to be no escaping them in academia. But what do they measure? Are they good indicators of scholarly worth? Can they be useful, or should we avoid them altogether?
This session will introduce and demystify the most common research metrics used to assess the impact of authors and research publications. These include metrics such as the h-index, citation counts, journal impact factors, and Altmetrics. We’ll explore what they measure, their usefulness and their limitations. We’ll also consider the responsible use of metrics, as advocated for by initiatives such as DORA - The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment.
Join Ewan Grant, one of the Library’s Information Consultants, for a session on the evolving landscape of publishing. Explore the rise of open access books and how they fit into our library collections. Ewan will spill the beans on finding and utilizing open access books, sharing insights on how the library supports these collections.
Joanna Adams and Lesley Macrae from the Open Research Team gives an overview of the Open Research and how the Team can help University of Aberdeen Researchers.
The UKRI open access policy extended to include long form publications published from 1st January 2024. This session will provide an overview of the open access requirements for long form publications, including monographs, chapters and edited collections.
You’ve begun a research project and have now been tasked with writing a data management plan, or a DMP for short. But where to start? What is a DMP and what do you need to know?
This session is an introduction to data management, governance, DMPs, and DMPonline. Here, we will look at what you need to know before you start, where to start building your DMP, and what information to include. The session will also go over what support is available for you at the University of Aberdeen. There will also be time for questions at the end of the session.
Peer review acts as the gateway and quality control for academic publication and research grants. Knowing how to write, receive and respond to peer reviews is an essential academic skill in every discipline and at every stage of the research process.
In this webinar, we will discuss:
· The changing nature of peer review in open access publishing
· How panels read and review grant applications
· How peer reviewers assess an article or monograph
· How to receive and respond to a peer review of your work
· How peer reviewing can help to develop your academic career.
Whether you're a new PGR or an established academic, this session offers a valuable overview of the process.
Book your place on course booking now.
Tuesday 6th February 2024 2pm-2.45pm
ORCID is a unique digital identifier that distinguishes researchers and scholars across disciplines.
This session is a quick guide through the straightforward process of creating and managing your ORCID profiles, emphasizing the significance of this identifier in streamlining academic workflows. You will gain insights into how ORCID enhances visibility, ensuring accurate attribution of your scholarly contributions and fostering collaboration within the global research community.
The session will look at the benefits of maintaining an ORCID profile, along with practical tips on linking it to different systems to keep your information up to date with minimal effort.
Tuesday 23rd January 2024 9:15-10am
View the presentation on our YouTube playlist.
ExplORe: Open Research Essentials is a new series of training sessions from the Open Research Team
In this session, we put the spotlight on preprints and their potential advantages for researchers. Join us as we delve into the various ways you can harness the power of preprints to enhance your research journey.
ExplORe: Open Research Essentials is a new series of training sessions from the Open Research Team
Conducting research takes much effort and once it is ready to be published, it becomes crucial for researchers to have the ability to choose a suitable journal, as this choice might affect the integrity, visibility, and impact of their research.
In this webinar, we will discuss:
The importance of making an informed decision when selecting a journal.
Journal metrics, what information do they give us?
Identifying and avoiding predatory journals
Resources available for journal selection
View the presentation on our YouTube Playlist
ExplORe: Open Research Essentials is a new series of training sessions from the Open Research Team.
We will look at the benefits and process of making data open. We will also cover reproducibility and show how data sharing can safeguard research integrity.
In this webinar we will explore:
Funder requirements and benefits of data sharing
How to share data
Where to share data
Data licensing
Research integrity
View the presentation on our YouTube Playlist
ExplORe: Open Research Essentials is a new series of training sessions from the Open Research Team
InCites benchmarking & analytics is a research analytics tool from Clarivate, the company that owns Web Of Science.
In this webinar, we are going to explore InCites' main functionalities by conducting a live demonstration of the platform and step-by-step guidance on using its features. The session includes:
Overview of Research Performance Metrics
Collaboration analysis
Research areas and emerging topics
Benchmarking against peers
ExplORe: Open Research Essentials is a new series of training sessions from the Open Research Team.
Discover why it’s important to retain the rights to your accepted manuscripts. Join our short session to learn why rights retention matters for authors and how to practically implement it in your own research journey.
An introduction to the Open Research Team delivered by Susan Halfpenny (Head of Research & Learning Information Services).
Learn about citations, how they are measured and where they are counted. This session will give an overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of citations, including:
The session will cover:
This session is aimed at all levels of researchers interested in learning more about open data
Find out more about Creative Commons and open licences. Tim Riley, copyright and licensing advisor, and the Open Research team will give an overview of open licences and copyright for publications and datasets.
Research collaborators play a crucial role in the advancement of research. Through collaborations, researchers bring together their diverse skills and perspectives to tackle complex problems and develop innovative ideas, while enhancing the quality and impact of research.
This session will show how to use different tools, with a particular emphasis on Web of Science, to identify potential research collaborators.
In this ExplORe session our colleague Nykohla Strong from Research & Innovation gives an overview of how to get the best out of your Pure research profile. Including the different ways to add information to your Pure profile and connect with the research portal and other public facing webpages.
View the presentation on our You Tube playlist
This session will give a brief overview of funder open access policies.
We will cover;
Digital technologies enable us to form a global network to further our research, analyse large data sets and communicate research in new interactive and engaging formats. However, they also blur the boundaries between our personal and professional lives, with many of us juggling multiple social media profiles, working on and off campus and connecting to work activities via personal mobile devices. This digital ubiquity is both a blessing and curse: it's great to be able to connect on a global scale but it can also feel like we are 'always on'.
In this ExplORe seminar, we will consider the impact of digital technologies on our wellbeing. We'll reflect on some of the positive and negative impacts of technology, identify strategies for balancing online/offline activities and discuss approaches to dealing with information overload.
Our PGR Research Survival Guide directs you to some useful resources to help you find out more about good practice in open research and publishing.
The first Open Research Enlightening Forum was held at the Foresterhill Campus on 29th November 2022.
Aimed at all researchers at the Foresterhill campus but of particular interest to Postgrad Research Students and ECRs; arranged by the Library's Open Research Team. This event was an opportunity to hear about on the ground research and the benefits and problems encountered by researchers in the pursuit of Open Research.
Speakers were:
Prof. Abbe Brown, Dean for Student Support, Vice Principals and Professor in Intellectual Property, Law - slide pack
Dr. Jess Butler, Analytical Lead/Research Fellow, Other Applied Health Sciences - slide pack
Prof. Jonathan Pettitt, Personal Chair, Medical Sciences - slide pack
Also featured were lightning talks by our Open Research experts on open data:
Lesley Macrae & Francesca Soldati, Open Research, Library Services - slide pack
Katie Wilde, Head of Digital Research, Research & Data Management - slide pack
If you are unable to access an article you want to read you could always send a request to the corresponding author – many authors are open to receiving requests for articles via social networking sites or their personal website.
See Open Knowledge International's The Open Data Handbook for guidance, case studies and other relevant resources.