Bodleian iSkills workshops aim to develop your skills in information discovery and scholarly communications, covering a variety of resources across a wide range of disciplines. They are primarily aimed at University of Oxford students and staff. Some workshops take place face-to-face, whilst others are run online.

The workshops are FREE but online booking is essential. A list of the sessions taking place this term can be found on the iSkills Workshops webpage.

Monday 9 December

14:00-15:00 iSkills for Medicine: An Introduction to Designing a Conference Poster
Are you planning to present a poster at an upcoming conference, meeting or symposium? This introductory session will provide you with some top tips on how to create a poster presentation which will help you to communicate your research project and data effectively. There will be guidance on formatting, layout, content, use of text, references and images, as well as advice on printing and presenting your poster. This session will also provide help with locating resources such as templates, free-to-use images and poster guidelines. By the end of this online session you will be able to:

• evaluate the effectiveness of templates, formatting, text and images;
• plan, prepare and present your poster.

Who is this session for? Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Format: Online using Microsoft Teams.

Tuesday 10 December

10:00-11:00 iSkills for Medicine: An introduction to science communication: Translating your research for a non-specialist audience
Are you looking to learn about the ways in which to transmit scientific ideas and make your research accessible to a non-specialist audience through a variety of mediums? This session will serve as an introduction to science communication and how it can be successfully incorporated into our roles. By the end of this session you will be able to:

• define science communication and provide a list of examples;
• explain why science communication is important for both our CPD and the public;
• list ways in which we can all get involved in science communication.
  

Who is this session for? Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Format: Online using Microsoft Teams.

Wednesday 11 December

10:30-12:00 iSkills for Medicine: Introduction to Zotero
An introduction to the functionality of Zotero, a software programme used to manage references and create bibliographies. The workshop will cover:

• understanding the main features and benefits of Zotero;
• setting up a Zotero account;
• importing references from different sources into Zotero;
• organising your references in Zotero;
• inserting citations into documents;
• and creating a bibliography/reference list.
  

Who is this session for? Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Format: Online using Microsoft Teams.

14:00-15:00 iSkills for Medicine: Literature Searching – Getting Started
Puzzled by PICO? Daunted by databases? Baffled by Boolean? This one-hour introductory class will offer top tips and advice on how to find literature to answer a research question. No prior experience necessary! Together, we will break down a question into the PICO format, put together a structured search, and try it out in PubMed. By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• explain what structured searching is, and when to use it;
• break your research question down into searchable concepts;
• and make use of Boolean operators (ANDs/ORs) in your structured searches.

Who is this session for? Students, staff and researchers from MSD and OUH.
Format: Online using Microsoft Teams.

Tuesday 17 December

10:00-11:30 Open Scholarship: Fundamentals of Open Access.

Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open.

• What is open access? Key terms – Gold, Green, Article Processing Charges
• Where to get more information and help
• Where to look for open access material
• Useful tools to assist you in publishing open access

Bodleian iSkills workshops aim to develop your skills in information discovery and scholarly communications, covering a variety of resources across a wide range of disciplines. They are primarily aimed at University of Oxford students and staff. Some workshops take place face-to-face, whilst others are run online.

The workshops are FREE but online booking is essential. A list of the sessions taking place this term can be found on the iSkills Workshops webpage.

Monday 25^th November 2024

14:00-15:00: Open Scholarship: Forum of Open Scholarship

During this forum speakers from Bodleian Open Scholarship Support and across Oxford will discuss current changes in the field of open scholarship. Including subjects like data, open access, open monographs, copyright and more. It is advised that attendees of the forum have previously attended the Fundamentals and Logistics courses to improve understanding.

Format: An online presentation with time to get answers to your questions.

Location: Microsoft Teams

Tuesday 26th November 2024

10:00-11:45: iSkills: Preparing for your literature review in the Social Sciences

Get ready to undertake your literature review using your own research questions to build a successful search and apply it to a range of library resources. By the end of the session, you will be able to:

• Understand the literature review process
• Be able to plan an effective and structured search on your dissertation or thesis topic
• Know where to look for different types of information
• Have considered different methods of searching
• Know where to come for future help

Format: Online teacher-led presentations and live demonstrations (with opportunities for questions via the chat function and follow up one-to-one help).

Location: Microsoft Teams

12:00-13:00: iSkills: Confidential Print and Foreign Office files: Sources for 19th and 20th century studies

The British Foreign Office was the government department responsible for the conduct of British relations with nearly all foreign states. Confidential Print and Foreign Office files were intended for circulation internally within the Foreign Office and to the monarch, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, other government departments and diplomatic missions abroad. These files are now housed in The National Archives, UK, and have been digitised by Adam Matthew Digital on the Archives Direct cross-searchable platform.

The Archives Direct platform includes British government papers from the 19th and 20th centuries relating to Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia, Latin America and North America. It’s a crucial resource for the study of politics, international relations, peace and conflict studies, economics and trade, British history and global history. This session will introduce you to The National Archives and their Foreign Office and Confidential Print files, and show you how to search across them to discover sources for your studies and research. It will cover the following resources in the session:

• Central Asia, Persia & Afghanistan 1834-1922
• Confidential Print Africa 1834-1966
• Confidential Print Latin America 1833-1969
• Confidential Print Middle East 1839-1969
• Confidential Print North America 1824-1961
• Foreign Office Files for China Section 1919-1980
• Foreign Office Files for India Pakistan and Afghanistan 1947-1980
• Foreign Office Files for Japan 1946-1952
• Foreign Office Files for the Middle East 1971-1981

Format: Live presentation with time to answer questions.

Location: Microsoft Teams

13:00-14:00: iSkills: Research metrics and citation analysis tools: Part 3 researcher metrics

This session will examine metrics for individual researchers. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn about the researcher h-index and its limitations. You will be introduced to additional metrics tools such as author beamplots which help to contextualise a researcher’s output over time. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with:

• Accessing citation data for specific researchers on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar
• Understanding how the h-index is calculated and its inherent limitations
• Creating an ORCID number to help track all your own research outputs
• The importance of research outputs beyond journal and conference papers when assessing a researcher’s impact

Format: Classroom-based. Presentation with practical exercises.

Location: Radcliffe Science Library, Seminar Room Parks Road, OX2 3QP.

Wednesday 27^th November 2024

10:00-12:00: Referencing: EndNote

EndNote is a desktop-based reference management tool for Windows and Mac users, which helps you build libraries of references and insert them into your Word document as in-text citations or footnotes and automatically generate bibliographies. This online introduction to EndNote is open to all University of Oxford students, researchers and staff and teaches you how to use the software so that you can effectively manage your references. Please note that we also run a face-to-face EndNote workshop. Please check the iSkills course listing for availability. The workshop will cover:

• What EndNote can do for you
• Adding references to EndNote from a range of sources
• Managing your references in an EndNote library
• Adding in-text citations and/or footnotes to your essays and papers
• Creating bibliographies

Format: Live interactive session with Q&A

Location: Microsoft Teams