Author Archives: Miggie Pickton
Research Support Hub: how did we do?
The Research Support Hub annual activity report has just been published.
You may be interested to know that the ever-popular Hub was viewed 36,000 times in 2014; we had visitors from 133 countries; and November 5th was the busiest day of the year (with 342 views).
At the same time, your enthusiastic research support bloggers managed to post 258 posts between them, and, curiously, it appears that Tuesday is their most popular day for posting.
If you’d like to know more then please do check out the full report here.
Image credit: By Zekelhuter (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Easier access to resources off campus
Scholarly Systems Manager Mike Aynsworth explains the work his team has been doing to improve access to library resources:
Work has been carried out to make off campus access to the major library databases the same as on campus access. This has been achieved by using Ezproxy, an authentication service which mimics on campus access for those using resources off campus. Read the rest of this entry
Doctoral Open Days at the British Library
The British Library are now advertising the latest round of open days for PhD students. Full details are on the British Library website, but dates are as follows:
- English and Drama – Monday 19th January 2015
- Digital Scholarship – Friday 23rd January
- Music – Friday 30th January
- Art and Design – Friday 6th February
- Media, Cultural Studies and Journalism – Friday 6th February
- History 1 – Monday 16th February
- History 2 – Friday 20th February
- Social Sciences – Monday 23rd February
- African and Asian Studies – Friday 27th February
It costs £5 to attend each open day but for that you will also get lunch.
Photo credit: HeppDesigns
Should you trust that publisher?
It has been a bit of a week (already) for publishers of dubious intent to clutter my Inbox.
I must clearly be a researcher of world leading renown (not) to be so sought after. SciencePG has this very morning invited me not only to propose a special issue of a journal but to guest edit it too! Yesterday it was a different publisher and I have no doubt there will be further invitations coming along soon.
Some of these publishers appear to be very plausible. They offer open access, short lead times, ‘free’ submission and they may even allow me to retain my own copyright. So far so good. The sting in the tail comes from the large fees demanded on publication, the absence of any rigorous peer review process and the poor quality of the dissemination. Read the rest of this entry
Research data management principles and responsibilities
This morning the University’s Research and Enterprise Committee approved several recommendations put forward by its Research Data Working Group. Among these was the adoption of a new set of research data management (RDM) principles and responsibilities.
The principles are designed to support the University’s research data policy and roadmap, and follow a similar pattern to those in use at a number of other universities. The group hope that these will clarify the university’s expectations of good practice in research data management as well as enabling those bidding for external funding to demonstrate their compliance with funders’ requirements.
The principles and responsibilities are outlined in this document and replicated below.
Access to Understanding science writing competition 2015
The British Library, eLife and Europe PMC have just announced the latest round of ‘Access to Understanding’, a science writing competition for PhD students and early career post-doctoral researchers who are interested in promoting understanding of biomedical research.
New research students: getting started
FAQ: I am a new research student and the next induction week is some time away. What do I need to know now?
First of all – welcome to the University of Northampton! There are plenty of people here to help you get started with your research – your supervisor of course, but also a number of people in the Graduate School and the Library. If you have any questions, please don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Your top priority will be to make sure that you can access the university computer network and the various services that it offers. The checklist for new research students elsewhere on the Research Support Hub (this blog) describes what you need to do to achieve this.
Now that you have all the right login details you should be able to find all the key information you need about being a research student at Northampton.
University ISBNs
Did you know that the University of Northampton is registered as a publisher for the purposes of allocating ISBNs to monographs produced by members of the University?
Some of the books we have published include:
- From Priory Cottage to Park Campus: The story of occupational therapy education in Northampton by Jane Evans
- Look at me and Smile: Short stories and personal reflections from patients, service users and carers by Linda Lilley and Sue Allen
- Love British Books 2013 by Paul Middleton and Carolyn Puzzovio
- Winter growing fields: landscape and estrangement by Andrew Langford
Read on to find out how you can apply for an ISBN for your work.
PGR student induction: Making the most of the library
Thank you to all the new research students who worked so hard in today’s session in the library.
Given how many tools we covered in the morning, I thought it might be helpful to provide a list of these, with links, so you can revisit them later at your leisure. You’ll see that there are a few extra tools that were mentioned today but not explored.
We started by looking at university and external resources:
Conference: Research Data Management in Art and Design
Rachel Jillions of the University of the Arts London has just sent through details of this conference which might be of interest to researchers in Art and Design.
Research Data Management in Art and Design
Thursday 11th December
10:00-16:00
University of the Arts London is holding a one day conference on Research Data Management in Art and Design – ‘Where are we now?’
The conference will be an opportunity to learn about how data management is being addressed in the unique fields of Art and Design from the perspectives of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, University Research and Data Managers, and the Researchers themselves.
UON Graduate School Blog 