Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 7th Week Hilary Term

Monday 2 March

Searching for patents and standards
🕘 13.00-14.00 | 📍 Radcliffe Science Library | Find out more about what patents and standards are, why they might be useful for your research and how to find them in specific databases.

Science communication: An introduction to translating your research for a non-specialist audience
🕘 15.00-16.00 | 📍 Cairns Library | This session introduces the essentials of science communication and explores how to make your research accessible and engaging for different audiences.

Tuesday 3 March

Fundamentals of open access
🕘 10.00-11.30 | 💻 Online | Understand what open access really means – decode the jargon and explore how publishing open can benefit your research.

Thursday 5 March

EndNote for referencing
🕘 09.30-11.30 | 💻 Online | Want to effectively manage your references? Join this session to discover how EndNote can help you collect, organise, and cite your sources with ease.

Friday 6 March

Working with sensitive research data
🕘 11.00-13.00 | 📍 Social Science Library | Learn key principles for handling sensitive or restricted research data, including confidentiality, consent, cybersecurity, and data management. The session welcomes real examples from participants and highlights the support available at Oxford.

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 6th Week Hilary Term

Monday 23 February

Termly update on open scholarship
🕘 14.00-15.00 | 💻 Online Speakers from Bodleian Open Scholarship Support and across Oxford will discuss current changes in the field of open scholarship.

Tuesday 24 February

Zotero for referencing
🕘 10.00-11.30 | 💻 Online Looking for an easier way to collect, manage, and cite references? In this session you’ll be introduced to Zotero — a tool that helps you organize references and add in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies to your documents.

Using Scopus for your research
🕘 13.00-14.00 | 💻 Online Unlock the full potential of your literature review with Scopus, a vital abstract and citation database for social sciences, medical sciences, and physical and life sciences

Thursday 26 February

Managing research data and Data Management Planning (DMPs)
🕘 10.00-11.30 | 💻 Online Take control of your research data! Find out how to manage, store, and share it effectively, understand Oxford’s data policy, and make the most of the support on offer

Friday 27 February

Using AI to find, analyse and share information sources
🕘 13.30-16.00 | 📍 IT Services Designed for those new to AI, this practical session will allow you to independently experiment with three GenAI tools and participate in group discussions to explore their strengths and limitations.

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 5th Week Hilary Term

Tuesday 17 February

Research metrics and citation analysis tools: Part 3 researcher metrics
🕘 15.00-16.00 | 📍 Social Science Library
Discover how to measure and understand research impact using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus.

Wednesday 18 February

Newspapers and other online news sources from the 17th-21st centuries
🕘 11.30-13.00 | 💻 Online
Understand the value of using newspapers in your research and learn effective search techniques when consulting historical and contemporary newspapers from across the world.

Open monographs
🕘 11.00-12.00 | 💻 Online
Understand the benefits and challenges of open access publishing for monographs and other longform works.

Thursday 19 February

Your thesis, copyright & ORA
🕘 14.00-15.00 | 💻 Online
This session guides DPhil students through depositing their thesis in the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA), covering the process, key rights and permissions, and where to find support.

RefWorks for referencing
🕘 15.00-17.00 | 💻 Online
Join us for this interactive session in which we introduce RefWorks, a subscription reference management tool that University of Oxford members can use for free during their time at the university and as alumni

Friday 20 February

EndNote for referencing
🕘 09.30-12.30 | 📍 IT Services
This session covers the main features of EndNote and comprises a presentation followed by practical exercises at the computers. You can leave at any point once you have tried out the software

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 4th Week Hilary Term

Tuesday 10 February

Preparing for your literature review in the social sciences
🕘 09.30-11.15 | 💻 Online
Learn how to build a successful search strategy, source highly cited papers and stay up to date with new research.

Science communication: An introduction to translating your research for a non-specialist audience
🕘 10.00-11.00 | 💻 Online This session introduces the essentials of science communication and explores how to make your research accessible and engaging for different audiences.

Research metrics and citation analysis tools: Part 2 article metrics
🕘 15.00-16.00 | 📍 Radcliffe Science Library Discover how citation counting can help identify influential papers and how altmetrics provide a different perspective on research output.

Wednesday 11 February

Playing in the open: Getting familiar with Creative Commons licences
🕘 09.30-11.00 | 📍 Radcliffe Science Library Create content for your teaching or research with greater confidence by attending our session on Creative Commons (CC) licences. Learn how they work, how they interact with copyright and how to use them to best effect.

Fundamentals of open access
🕘 14.30-16.00 | 💻 Online Understand what open access really means – decode the jargon and explore how publishing open can benefit your research.

Thursday 12 February

Undergraduate critical thinking with newspaper and social media sources
🕘 09.30-11.30 | 💻 Online In a world of clickbait and algorithms, critical thinking matters more than ever. This interactive workshop will help you evaluate credibility and bias in today’s news and social media

Keeping up to date with research
🕘 13.30-15.00 | 💻 Online Discover how to use alerts to stay up to date with new research, with guided instruction and hands-on setup of tailored email alerts.

Friday 13 February

Managing research data and Data Management Planning (DMPs)
🕘 11.00-13.00 | 📍 Social Science Library Take control of your research data! Find out how to manage, store, and share it effectively, understand Oxford’s data policy, and make the most of the support on offer

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 3rd Week Hilary Term

Tuesday 03 February

Scholarly literature for your research
🕘10:00-12:00 | 💻Online
Learn how to create an effective search query and try out a range of tools to search for scholarly materials to support your research.

Research metrics and citation analysis tools: Part 1 journal metrics
🕘15:00-16:00 |📍Radcliffe Science Library
Learn how to locate and interpret journal level metrics and consider their uses and limitations.

Thursday 5 February

Copyright the card game
🕘09:30-12:30 |📍Radcliffe Science Library
This fun, interactive, games-based session will introduce the key concepts of copyright law and will help you to apply them in practice.

Getting started in Oxford libraries
🕘12:00-13:00 | 💻Online
Join this session to learn how to access the Bodleian libraries’ services and resources.

Friday 6 February

Zotero for referencing
🕘09:30-12:30 |📍IT Services
Covering the main features of Zotero this session comprises a 45-minute presentation followed by practical exercises at the computers. 

Undergraduate critical thinking with academic sources
🕘09:30-11:30 | 💻Online
Learn to question assumptions, analyse sources and develop effective search strategies to excel in your studies.

Data sources for research – discovery, access and use
🕘11:00-13:00 |📍Social Science Library
Explore Oxford’s data sources—from archives to business data—and learn how your work can become part of the research discourse.

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 2nd Week Hilary Term

Monday 26th January

Science communication: An introduction to translating your research for a non-specialist audience
🕘14:00-15:00 | 💻Online
This session introduces the essentials of science communication and explores how to make your research accessible and engaging for different audiences.

Friday 30 January
Choosing and using software for referencing
🕘09:30-12:30 |📍IT Services
After a 30-minute presentation on reference management tools, you will have the opportunity to try out EndNote, Mendeley, RefWorks and Zotero. As you explore which tool works best for you, library staff will be on hand to guide you and to answer any questions you may have.

Using AI to find, analyse and share information sources
🕘13:30-16:00 |📍IT Services
Designed for those new to AI, this practical session will allow you to independently experiment with three GenAI tools and participate in group discussions to explore their strengths and limitations.

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 1st Week Hilary Term

Tuesday 20th January

REF open access policy briefing
🕘 14:00-15:00 | 💻 Online
Make sure your research meets the new REF open access requirements. Get up to speed on what’s changed and where you can find help at Oxford.

Wednesday 21st January

Foundations of copyright for teaching
🕘 11:00-12:30| 💻 Online
This workshop explains the different types of copyrighted works used or created in teaching, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of both teaching staff and students.

Introduction to online resources for historians: show and tell
🕘 14:00-16:00 | 💻 Online
Discover a wealth of online resources for all periods of British and Western European history.

Thursday 22nd January

Logistics of open scholarship
🕘 14:30-16:00 | 💻 Online
This session covers the logistics of researching, publishing, and locating open scholarship resources and tools at Oxford.

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 0 Week Hilary Term

Wednesday 14 January

Foundations of copyright for researchers

🕘 11.00-12.30 | 💻 Online
Understand how copyright affects your research and your rights and responsibilities in an age of open scholarship.

Fundamentals of open access
🕘 10.00-11.30 | 💻 Online
Understand what open access really means – decode the jargon and explore how publishing open can benefit your research.

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills term card for Hilary 2026 below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.

Build your confidence with the Bodleian iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Workshops taking place in 9th Week Michaelmas Term

Tuesday 9 December 

REF open access policy briefing
🕘 10:00-11:00 | 💻 Online
Make sure your research meets the new REF open access requirements. Get up to speed on what’s changed and where you can find help at Oxford.

Science communication: An introduction to translating your research for a non-specialist audience
🕘 11:00-12:00 | 💻 Online
This session introduces the essentials of science communication and explores how to make your research accessible and engaging for different audiences.

Searching for patents and standards
🕘 13:00-14:00 | 💻 Online
Find out more about what patents and standards are, why they might be useful for your research and how to find them in specific databases.

Wednesday 10 December 

Overton walkthrough for Oxford University
🕘 11:00-12:00 | 💻 Online
Discover Overton—the world’s largest database of policy documents, indexing millions of policy documents from around the world.

Thursday 11 December 

Fundamentals of open access
🕘 14:30-16:00 | 💻 Online
Understand what open access really means—decode the jargon and explore how publishing open can benefit your research.

To view a full list of this terms workshops go to the Bodleian iSkills website or take a look at the iSkills Michaelmas Term Card below. All workshops must be booked in advance via the Bodleian iSkills website.