All Office of Scholarly Communication courses

This is a friendly introduction to Github – a free and open source platform that can help you build projects that are collaborative, well documented, and version-controlled.

In this workshop we will introduce you to the Github ecosystem and help you get you comfortable navigating basic Github workflows. We will make sure that you leave the workshop aware of the best practices for developing projects on Github (e.g. writing a good “readme” or posting and labeling issues) and an understanding of how Github can help make your projects more readable and accessible.

This workshop is developed for anyone looking for a solution to making projects – whether it be your research on arctic glaciers, the materials for an undergraduate course, your PHD thesis, or even a cookbook – more manageable. This workshop is geared towards all skill levels, but first-time and novice users are encouraged and prioritized.

Full details of this workshop can be found at: https://kirstiejane.github.io/friendly-github-intro/

• Would you like to share your research findings with the international academic community, without paywall restrictions?

• Would you like to boost citations of your work?

• Did you know that funders recognise the benefits of Open Access and most now require it as a condition of their grants?

These are questions for postgraduate students at all stages of their research.

Seeing your name on the spine of a book is a great achievement, which can help to kick start your career in some disciplines. How do you get there?

This session answers some of the key questions along the way, including including:

• Should you turn your thesis into a monograph?
• How do you choose a publisher?
• How do you get your proposal accepted?
• What are the key stages in the publication process?

• Where should you publish your monograph or book chapter?
• How do you assess the appropriateness of a publisher for your work?

Picking where to publish your research and in what format is an important decision to make.

This session looks at the things you need to consider in order to reach your audience effectively, including:

• Turning your thesis into a monograph
• Choosing a publisher
• Understanding the publication process

In-person and online bookings for this annual conference from Cambridge University Libraries focusing on Open Research at Cambridge have now closed.

This day-long, hybrid conference, to be held on Friday 17 November 2023, has the theme of Open Research for Inclusion: Spotlighting Different Voices in Open Research at Cambridge.

This conference will focus on areas of Open Research in under-represented disciplines and contexts which have been at the forefront of recent discussions in Cambridge. These include Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), and research from and about the Global South.

We'll be exploring these topics with individual speakers, panels and a workshop. The full programme and further information can be found on our events page.

Problem solving is a daily part of working in a library, whether it is for our users or ourselves. Turning these problems into research projects is the next step but one that many of us find difficult to take.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series, this workshop will help you think about the everyday innovations in your library and how these can be turned into research projects for discussion at future events. We will look at the pros and cons of undertaking research in your workplace, how it can help to generate solutions to problems, support a case for resources or just find out more about your library.

This workshop is suitable for those interested in undertaking research projects, complete novices or those wanting to know more about the possibilities of workplace research. Who knows where is might lead?

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series

Being a reflective practitioner is something which doesn’t come naturally to all of us but it is a surprisingly easy skill to develop. As well as helping you to think critically about your own personal development, undertaking reflection can help library staff to improve their service and deal with user feedback in a constructive way.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series, this interactive workshop will help you to understand the theory of reflective practice, how to overcome barriers to integrate it into your everyday role and offer a chance to practice reflective writing. All skills that come in handy when preparing those conference abstracts… It is also useful if you are thinking of undertaking any level of professional qualification such as CILIP Chartership or Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series

One thing that puts many people off speaking at conferences is a perceived lack of presentation skills. Although this is one way to undertake public speaking, presentation skills are a much wider part of the information profession and can encompass anything from leading a tour to working at an enquiry point.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series, this workshop will take you through the process of creating and delivering a presentation, offer tips on design, outline techniques to deal with nerves and help you to feel more confident in communicating with others. Offered as a more accessible version one-hour version of our previous interactive workshop, this session offers you a chance to refresh your knowledge in a supportive environment.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series

Confused by copyright? You are not alone!

Copyright involves much more than checking how much you are photocopying, but it can be difficult to know where to start.

Join the Office of Scholarly Communication as we answer your copyright queries, looking at:

• Who owns the copyright to my published articles?
• How can I use Creative Commons Licenses to make my work available to all?
• How can I safely reuse other's work?
• What do my publishers and funders require of me?

How do you create the perfect copyright recipe?

Creative Commons licenses sit alongside existing copyright regulations as a way to help researchers use existing creations and share their own work with others. This webinar will explore the history of the Creative Commons movement, explore how the licenses can be put together and how librarians can encourage their researchers to use them to their best advantage.

Please join us for the second forum of 2024. Please note the change of day - this is our first forum on a Monday

The venue for this forum is: Seminar Room 3 - The Triangle Building, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, CB2 8BW

Lunch will be provided at the forum. Please ensure you let us know of any dietary needs or intolerances in this UTBS booking form.

Places are limited, so please book as soon as possible. Equally, please cancel as soon as possible, should you no longer be able to attend.

Please note the deadline for booking is Wed 20th March (to allow visitor passes to be prepared)

Bookings for this event need to be approved as it is designed specifically for members of the Data Champion Programme.

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Data Tree is a new online course that has been developed by the Institute for Environmental Analytics. It is designed for PhD students and early career researchers with all you need to know for research data management, along with ways to engage and share data with business, policymakers, media and the wider public.

In this interactive workshop, course Director Vicky Lucas will introduce Data Tree. This will be an opportunity to find out about the leading experts who have contributed to the course, its interactive quizzes, videos and real-world examples, and to delve into some of the topics covered. Attendees of the hour-long session will leave fully prepared to use this excellent free resource to build on their data management skills, solve data handling problems and communicate the results of the research to non-academic audiences.

Read more information about Data Tree

The Netherlands has been frontrunner in the transition to Open Science. The Dutch government has mandated all universities to have 100% Open Access to academic publications by 2024 and has recently broadened its scope to research data. These plans can only succeed by national cooperation of all parties involved.

The chairman of Tilburg University is one of three main negotiators with the publishers. As such, the university is expected to be leading the development of policies in Open Science and the monitoring of progress.

In this talk, Hylke Annema of Tilburg University will tell us about the current developments in the Netherlands and at Tilburg University.

Discussion among participants about best practices is highly encouraged.

You know about Symplectic Elements as a way to gather the outputs of our research community but have you ever wanted to know more about the connections between funding and publications?

Digital Science, the makers of Symplectic Elements, have recently launched a new product called Dimensions. Dimensions integrates with Elements to link grants, publications, citations, clinical trials and patents and enables us to take a completely different view of what our research community is doing.

Join Dr Juergen Wastl from the Research Information Office for a demonstration of how the institutional instance of Dimensions works, ask any questions and get some hands on experience with the system.

For a sneak preview, the publication instance of Dimensions is available to all here.

This course will give you the confidence and tools to promote your research more effectively to a variety of audiences. We will explore how to reach more colleagues and increase your chances of being cited. We will also examine how to publicise your work more widely and reach the public. You will discover some tools to help you disseminate your research and track its impact. There will also be an opportunity to reflect on which solutions are the most practical and most likely to succeed in your circumstances.

Venue: DMB GS1

Are you completely new to Twitter and struggling to start? Or are you already on Twitter but know you could be making better use of it to promote yourself and your library? Join Librarians In Training for an interactive workshop aimed at helping librarians to make the most of their time online.

Offered as part of the Librarians In Training Easter App Hunt this interactive session will give you the chance to enhance your Twitter skills. For those new to the platform there will be guidance on what Twitter can be used for and how to get started whilst those already using Twitter will benefit from learning how to engage library users, promote their service and enhance their own professional network.

The session will include both advice and practical exercises so you can put your new knowledge to the test.

If you already know the basics of Research Data Management (RDM) – for example backing up your work, file storage options - but now need to know more about effective strategies for sharing your data, then this course is for you!

This course gives a brief recap on RDM and then covers managing personal and sensitive data in the context of the new GDPR legislation, why it is a Good Thing to share your data, and how to do this most effectively in terms of describing your data, deciding where to share it, and using licences to control how your data is used by others. You will even get to write your own Data Management Plan (DMP): these help you manage your data throughout a project and after it has ended and are increasingly required as part of a grant or fellowship application. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you are completely new to the concept of research data management then the beginners course is for you.

What would happen to your research data if your lab exploded, or your laptop was stolen, or your cloud storage account was hacked? How could you prevent data loss in these situations? Managing your data effectively is vital to help you do this.

This workshop will introduce the basic principles of Research Data Management (RDM) and how they are relevant throughout the research life cycle.

Intended for those who are new to RDM, this course will firstly explain what RDM is, and then go on to cover basic data back-up and storage options, file sharing tools, and strategies for organising your data, as well as providing guidance on managing personal or sensitive data. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you already have a basic understanding of RDM then the advanced course is probably more appropriate for you to attend.

Increasing numbers of electronic alternatives to the traditional paper lab book are available, offering advanced opportunities for managing your research.

• Are you moving towards web-enabled working in the lab?
• Have you considered the advantages of - and issues around - going paperless?

Hear from researchers and PIs across the disciplines who are using Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) and those considering a trial, and from current providers.

We are grateful to Dotmatics for supporting this event.

Join the OSC for an exciting opportunity to hear a preview of Dr Danny Kingsley's keynote for the upcoming CONUL2017 conference. Feedback on both the talk and the topic are encouraged!

Emerging from the Chrysalis - Transforming Libraries for the Future

Access to information has changed immeasurably in the past decade, bringing the traditional role of the academic library into question. Rather than a doomsday scenario, this situation offers huge potential for information professionals to situate the library at the heart of research support. 'Scholarly communication' is the umbrella term for the information exchange between research communities, research funders, the publishing industry and the general public. This talk will discuss the establishment of the Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge University, how it is now embedded within multiple administrative areas of the University and how it works collaboratively with the research community to identify areas that need expertise, support and services. By taking an open and transparent approach to this work, the Office of Scholarly Communication has had an impact not only within the institution, but nationally and internationally. This has not been without challenges, including working within a strict university governance system and managing unstable funding sources. However this work is now more important than ever at a time when academic publishers are investing substantially in research management and analytics businesses. Libraries that embrace the management of the unique work created within their own institution may find themselves central to the research institution of the future. The alternative could be obsolescence.

Cambridge is in a strong position to determine its own ambitious vision for a more open, accessible and inclusive approach to the sharing and use of research to help drive innovation and discovery and help address global challenges: for health, for climate, for equality and diversity. With changing societal attitudes and technological advances in communication tools, now is the time to consider which strategies we want to adopt to maximise the reach and impact of Cambridge research including through new and open forms of scholarly communication.

Libraries play a crucial role in the scholarly communication landscape, with librarians being well-placed to understand both the needs of the researchers we support and the challenges in providing access to materials. We hope you will want to take part and help shape the options for Cambridge.

These workshops are designed to create a space to think ahead, taking a long view, and explore what the future of scholarly communications will look like locally and globally. They follow on from similar workshops involving leaders in research, publishing and libraries at Cambridge earlier this year. We will have an opportunity to review and comment on some of the outputs of the previous workshops.

If you have recently started receiving peer reviews, or would like to become a reviewer, this is an unmissable chance to pick up tips and best practices for responding to reviews, being noticed as a reviewer, getting your review done, and getting credit for your work

The Office of Scholarly Communication invites you to an essential introduction to Peer Review.

You'll learn...

• how to make the most of the peer review process
• how to increase the chance of being asked to review
• how to get ready to review and be recognized for your work
• how to write the feedback you wish you'd received.

If you have recently started peer reviewing, or are ready to get involved, this is an unmissable chance to pick up tips and best practices from PLOS, publishers of the world's largest multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal.

The Office of Scholarly Communication invites you to join PLOS for an essential introduction to Peer Review.

You'll learn...

• the 3 questions you should always ask yourself when you're asked to do a review
• how to get ready to review and be recognized for your work
• how to read a manuscript with peer review in mind
• how to write the feedback you wish you'd received.

Stay on after the workshop to chat to PLOS staff and editors and enjoy light refreshments.

So much choice, so little time!

With the growth in both traditional and online publishers choosing the best place to share their work is becoming an increasingly complex decision for researchers. The first in our Librarian Toolkit series on helping researchers publish will cover topics such as writing tools to use, picking the right format for publication, factors to consider when choosing a journal and how to use impact factors and other metrics.