The Research Skills Team in Library Services supports the inclusive, open and collaborative research environment and culture at the University of Birmingham. We develop researchers from Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) to Professor to become effective and influential in their research field.
Principles
- We are inclusive and empower all researchers to take ownership of their development.
- We work collaboratively with the academy and Professional Services colleagues to embed skills development into the research lifecycle and career development offering.
- We acknowledge the broad range of disciplines researched at the University of Birmingham and consequently adopt a coaching approach, encouraging researchers to develop transferable skills linked to career progression within and outside academia.
What we can offer
We enable PGR students, academics and staff to research effectively, through development of their:
- Open Research practice
- Literature, data and other resource discovery skills
- Reference management skills
- Ability to curate their online identity
- Publication strategies and use of social media
- Understanding of research metrics (including citation metrics and altmetrics); how to obtain them and how to use them responsibly
- We enable PGR students in particular to develop their skills in academic writing, communication and productivity
We do this through
- Workshops open to all PGRs, academics and staff
- Workshops aimed specifically at PGRs
- Lectures or workshops embedded in existing programmes
- Bookable individual appointments for library skills (limited to 4 sessions per academic year)
- Online training (particularly Canvas modules)
Our strength is developing researchers to become
- Effective
- Open
- Inclusive
- Influential
- AI literate
What we can’t offer
- Proofreading services or quality judgements of work
- Carrying out of complete systematic and other literature reviews
- Advice on research methodologies
- Support with non-bibliographic subject data retrieval, and data analysis