Training
There are ten topics in this year’s Library training programme for graduate students, including one new topic:
Making the most of your library
Copyright for dissertations and theses
Introduction to online statistics
Managing your references and bibliography
Spotlight on patents and standards
Full details including dates, times and locations are available in the Graduate School’s Skills Training and Development programme. If you find a session you would like to attend, you should book it online. Outlines of what will be covered are presented below:
Making the most of your library
This session will cover:- Identifying the best way to access print and online sources, including books and journals
- Finding good quality information sources on the internet
- Discovering more about the libraries in London, and elsewhere, and how to access them
Copyright for dissertations and theses
This session will cover:- The copyright ownership of your work and how to protect it
- Legal and ethical considerations when researching and writing up
- IP issues to be aware of when archiving, publishing or exploiting your work
- Guidance and resources available
Exploiting e-journals
This session will cover:- Finding journal articles
- Options if an article isn't available at Brunel
- Keeping up-to-date with new publications in your research field
Introduction to online statistics
In this session, you will learn how to identify and locate data and statistics which:- Are freely available on the web
- Are available through Brunel as a subscription database
- Include both UK and international sources
- Include national statistics, public opinion and raw financial data
Please note, this session is intended as an introduction to sourcing statistics. Students requiring training on Datastream or needing complex (times series) data should attend training organised via their School. Although this session is open to students from all disciplines, it contains information which is likely to be of more relevance to students in Social Sciences and Business.
Making an impact
This session will cover:
- Identifying journals in which to publish
- Using impact factors to rank journals
- Alternative metrics for ranking journals, e.g. immediacy indexes
- Selecting post-doc supervisors using h-indexes
Managing your references and bibliography
This session will cover:- Manual referencing using Harvard
- Writing citations and references
- Other referencing styles: APA, MLA, OSCOLA and Vancouver
- An introduction to other referencing options
Referencing with RefWorks
This session will introduce RefWorks and enable you to:- Create a bibliography for your dissertation or thesis in the required referencing style
- Insert citations in your document
- Collect accurate references from catalogues and databases
- Organise your references in folders
Advanced RefWorks
Students attending this session should previously have attended a “Referencing with RefWorks” session. Coverage will include:- Creating an RSS feed to collect new references as they are published
- Using “RefGrab-It” to collect references for individual web pages
- Organising your folders and deduplicating references
- Using the RefWorks Alumni Programme after you leave Brunel
Spotlight on patents and standards
Looking for help and advice in searching for patents and standards? This session aims to raise awareness of Library resources on:- Patents
- Standards
- Web resources
Theses and open access papers
This session will cover:- Submitting your thesis for BURA
- Discovering theses using EThOS, Scirus and Dissertation Express
- How you can benefit from the increasing availability of open access journals
- How you can benefit from research archives and subject repositories
