Category Archives: Research

News and Information for Postgraduates

New Open Access Research and Research Data Management Policy for PGR Students

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The Open Access Research and Research Data Management Policy for PGR Students has now been approved by the Board of the Faculty of Graduate Research.

The policy will be implemented in two stages:

  1. PGR students who are funded by RCUK should comply with this policy with regards to research papers submitted for publication from 1st April 2013.
  1. All PGR students should comply with this policy from 1st October 2013 with regards to research papers and research data.

The following links provide further help and guidance on Open Access and research data management for PGR students and their supervisors:

Further help and advice is available via the Open Access and Data Curation Team on  or .

Broaden your Library Horizons with SCONUL

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Calling all University Staff and Postgraduates!

Would it help your research to be able to access and even borrow books from other higher education libraries across the UK and Ireland?  Did you know a scheme exists to allow you to do this?

The Society of College, National and University Libraries or SCONUL aims to promote awareness of academic libraries and our role in supporting research and teaching As part of this they help foster collaboration and encourage reciprocal borrowing rights between member libraries.

What does this mean for you?

Members of staff or postgraduate student at the University of Exeter are entitled to apply for free SCONUL access to the Libraries of any other institutions who, like us, are also part of the scheme. This can get you through the door of institutions that are not open to public and in many cases SCONUL visitors are also allowed to enroll and borrow a limited number of books.

How do I get access?

  • You need to apply online via the SCONUL access webpage
  • Select your user category (e.g. Part Time Postgraduate) from the drop down list, then select ‘University of Exeter’ as your home institution.
  • The site will then display which Universities you are eligible to access. Click on ‘see results as a list’ to scroll through the drop down list, or click on the map tab and enter a postcode to search for accessible institutions in a particular area.
  • When you have found the details of an institution you want to visit click on ‘Apply for Access’ then fill in and submit the online form.
  • You will then receive two emails: the first is a “Library Access Application Notification” email confirming that your application is being processed. The second email should approve your request and welcome you to the SCONUL scheme.
  • Print out the second email and take this, along with your Exeter UniCard to each institution you have been approved to visit and staff there will enroll you.
  • The small print: you must abide by the regulations of any library you join under SCONUL Access. Please be aware they may not allow you to borrow from all of their collections (e.g. loan of periodicals or short loan items may not be possible). Additionally during the busiest periods – such as summer exam time – some institutions may restrict access to SCONUL users so it is worth checking with in advance them before travelling.

What about a full-time Undergraduates?

Borrowing access from other Libraries is unfortunately restricted to the following categories: University staff, postgraduates (taught or research) and students who are officially registered as part-time or distance learning students. However full-time undergraduates are entitled to apply for a Reference Only SCONUL card which could still give you vising access to many Libraries which would not otherwise be open to you. Please apply for a Reference card online, using the same procedure outlined above.

We hope many of you will want to take advantage of the SCONUL Access scheme and enjoy the  wider research opportunities it presents.

Where will your SCONUL travels take you?

 

International Open Access Week 22-26 October

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We are delighted to announce our programme of events to celebrate International Open Access Week from 22nd to 26th October 2012 which will take place on Streatham, St Luke’s and Tremough campuses. Open Access to research publications and data has the potential to transform the way research is conducted and Open Access Week is a key opportunity for all members of the community to better understand and become more involved in this international movement.

We have organised an exciting week of activities which include our keynote speakers, Cameron Neylon, Advocacy Director at Public Library of Science, who will talk on How I learnt to stop worrying and love the RCUK policy, and Alma Swan, Director of European Advocacy for SPARC, who will present on Open Access and You – A relationship with promise. Other events include a webinar on Managing Research Data for the Social Sciences, Brian Kelly’s presentation on Open Practices for the Connected Researcher, Mark Hahnel’s talk on the Disruptive Dissemination of Research Outputs, a special Open Access edition of Research Speed Updating and a workshop on Data Protection, Data Storage and Sharing.

Come along to our Open Access Café, where are Open Access Week competition will be announced, and chat to others about Open Access issues over a glass of wine at our Open Access Happy Hour.

The full timetable of events is available here – we do hope you can make it to some of the activities or stop by at our stall on the mezzanine level of the Forum from Monday 22nd October!

Funds Available for Open Access Publishing

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Do you need to publish your paper on Open Access?

We have a grant from the Wellcome Trust  to pay for the costs of publishing papers arising from research funded by the Wellcome Trust on Open Access. If you have paid to publish Wellcome research on Open Access recently, or plan to, please let us know as we may be able either to fund or reimburse these costs.

You can find out more about how the University is helping researchers meet funders’ Open Access policy requirements from the Library web site: http://as.exeter.ac.uk/library/resources/openaccess/ .

We also have a subscription to BioMed Central (covering full costs of publication) and a smaller amount of money to cover the costs of publishing in other journals.  The funds currently available are under review and we hope they will be increased in future to help a wider range of researchers to comply with funder policies.

If you have any Open Access queries at all, please get in touch with , the Open Access Manager, or contact .

Images of Research 2012 winners announced

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IoRWinner2012On Friday 25th May, the winners for the Images of Research 2012 competition were announced. The competition was run jointly by the Library and Employability & Graduate Development and was open to all postgraduate researchers. It aimed to highlight the wide range of research that is taking place at the university, using images to look at that research in a new and exciting way. There were three categories and a winner was selected in each by our panel of judges.

The three categories & their winners were:

Enhancing the quality of life, health & creative output
Winner: Helen Owton ‘The Meaning of Breathing’

Increasing the effectiveness of public services & policy
Winner: Nick Napper ‘Are text based slides really the best we can do?’ (pictured alongside his winning poster with David Billington (one of the judges & Executive Director of Great Western Research))

Fostering UK & global economic importance
Winner: Neil Ormerod ‘Trail Test’

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all those who entered. Thanks also to the Annual Fund for their generous support of this project. The posters are now available to view in the breakout space in the Research Commons.

Discuss Debate Disseminate

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The Open Exeter project is pleased to invite all UoE researchers to Discuss Debate Disseminate: A discussion of the issues around the management of your research materials and data and an opportunity to network with other researchers. PhD students and early career researchers from all disciplines welcome.

The event will take place on 22nd June 09:00 – 12:30 in the Upper Lounge of Reed Hall on the Streatham campus.

Programme

09:00 – 09:15: Arrival coffee/tea

09:15 – 09:30: Welcome

09:30 – 10:30: Session 1: Delete, Keep or Share?: Each researcher brings one example of research material or data (this could be, for example, in electronic or paper format).  In groups you will describe your research material or data briefly before discussing whether you would delete it, keep it, or share it, and why.

10:30-10:45: Coffee/tea break

10:45-11:30: Session 2: “Speed data dating”: Meet and get to know other researchers and the issues that they face with their research materials. Are there any common problems or solutions?

11:30-12:15: Session 3: PhD student panel session: Open Exeter PhD student answer your research materials management questions.

12:15-12:30: Feedback and Close

Please register for the event via email to

For event details see: https://www.facebook.com/events/407590612590904/

Open Exeter presents “How to Write a Data Management Plan”

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The Open Exeter team will present “How to Write a Data Management Plan: A Short Guide”, followed by coffee and cakes at the Cornwall campus in April. All researchers and PhD students are welcome to attend this event, which aims to help researchers who increasingly will need to write data management plans as part of their funding applications.

The talk will take place on 23rd April, from 12:00 – 12:30 in Lecture Theatre 1, Peter Lanyon Building, Cornwall campus.

You can register for the event via our Facebook event page or by sending an email to h.lloyd-jones@exeter.ac.uk but feel free to come along even if you haven’t registered!

Get to Know Your Subject Librarians

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Group - Large but croppedIf you need help with finding resources either in the library or online then the person to turn to is your Subject Librarian.

If you are not sure who they are and what they do then you can watch this short video to find out or go to the “Getting Help” page, use the drop down menu to select your subject.  All their contact details are there and they are happy to meet you or answer queries by phone or e-mail.

So don’t struggle, contact your librarian today.

Tell us about your research data!

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It’s your last chance to participate in the Open Exeter survey!

Attention all researchers and PGR students! Take part in our short online survey and you’ll be in with a chance to win a top-of-the-range Kindle! The survey will be open until the end of March.

The Open Exeter project is investigating how research data is created, managed and used across the University in order to create an institutional data repository for all types of research data. We will also implement training and guidance for researchers and review and ratify institutional policy on research data.

What are the benefits of putting your research data on Open Access?

  • Compliance with funders’ Open Access policies
  • Greater visibility of research
  • Increase your citations
  • Better chance of further collaboration
  • Securely held data with a reduced risk of data loss
  • Ability to reuse data for other research projects

We need the help of researchers and PGR students to enable us to understand what kind of data you are using, how much data you store, and what type of training would be useful for you as well as letting us know your opinions about Open Access.

Find out more about Open Exeter:

– Read our blog

– Follow us on Twitter: @OpenExeterRDM

– Join us on Facebook

Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Today, the Encyclopaedia Britannica has announced that after 244 years, it will discontinue the 32-volume printed edition once its current inventory is gone.  But do not worry, they promise that ” the encyclopedia will live on – in bigger, more numerous, and more vibrant digital forms”.eb

Find out more about the change from the Britannica Blog or try out Britannica Online, which is entirely free for a full week beginning today.