Research and Research Data Management Resources [New]

Research Data Management (RDM)

Content in Research Data Management [New]

Developed and adapted by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Library and Scholarly Resources at Athabasca University, this free online course “is a self-directed micro-course, designed to assist emerging scholars with managing research data from start to finish. Explore data management strategies via the course’s interactive content, engaging animations, and video clips. Learn from the first-hand experiences of experts and emerging scholars. Work through the course at your own pace and schedule – and download the Learning Journal to find reflection questions and professional development activities that you can revisit throughout your researcher’s journey” [Description from resource].

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Data Primer: Making Digital Humanities Research Data Public [New]

This Data Primer was collaboratively authored by over 30 Digital Humanities researchers and research assistants, and was peer-reviewed by data professionals. It serves as an overview of the different aspects of data curation and management best practices for digital humanities researchers. Endorsed by the National Training Expert Group of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada [Description from resource].

Includes: Data management plan template, exercises

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Illuminating RDM Webinars, UCalgary [New]

Illuminating Research Data Management is a webinar series designed to empower researchers to confidently manage data at all phases of their research program.  Hosted by University of Calgary [Description from collection description]. 

Includes: recorded webinars, slide decks

Licence: Collection includes a variety of CC Licenses including CC BY 4.0, CC BY-NC 4.0, and CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, please refer to the individual webinar package for use.

Research Data Management in the Canadian Context: A Guide for Practitioners and Learners [New]

Research Data Management is a term for all the things that researchers do to structure, organize and maintain data before, during and after doing research. RDM is also an emerging discipline that is concerned with researching and developing ways to manage research data more effectively. But what is research data? Where is the push towards formal Research Data Management coming from? What are the requirements of good data management? Research Data Management in the Canadian Context: A Guide for Practitioners and Learners looks at these questions and more, all with a focus on Canadian guidelines, regulations and infrastructure [Description from resource].

Licence: CC BY-NC

La gestion des données de recherche dans le contexte canadien: Sous-titre: Un guide pour la pratique et l’apprentissage [New]

La gestion des données de recherche est une pratique qui désigne tout ce que les chercheuses et chercheurs font pour structurer, organiser et préserver leurs données avant, pendant, et après la réalisation d’une recherche. La GDR est également une discipline émergente qui s’intéresse à la recherche et au développement de moyens qui permettent de gérer plus efficacement les données de recherche. Mais que sont les données de recherche ? D’où viennent les exigences pour formaliser la gestion des données de recherche ? Quels sont les critères d’une bonne gestion des données ? La gestion des données de recherche dans le contexte canadien : un guide pour la pratique et l’apprentissage aborde ces questions et d’autres encore, en mettant l’accent sur les lignes directrices, les règlements et l’infrastructure au Canada [Description from resource].

This resource is the French translation of Research Data Management in the Canadian Context: A Guide for Practitioners and Learners listed above.

Licence: CC BY-NC

Research Skills

Advanced Research Skills: Conducting Literature and Systematic Reviews

A short course for graduate students to increase their proficiency in conducting research for literature and systematic reviews. After taking the mini-course graduate students will understand how to conduct their review, how to execute appropriate searches, manage their results, and demonstrate strategic reading skills. Module 1 provides a quick overview of the different types of academic reviews and the steps involved in conducting them. Module 2 demonstrates how to formulate a research question and how to search for sources. Module 3 discusses how to select and organize sources. Finally, Module 4 outlines techniques for reading and assessing the quality of sources. The course contains interactive H5P activities for students to test their learning. Students have access to a workbook of reflective activities to document their research process. The intended outcome is to ensure graduate students understand how to conduct and manage their own research for their academic success and future careers.

Includes: Research Roadmap Workbook [Google Doc – make a copy]

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research

This textbook provides a process for academic research and writing, from formulating a research question to selecting good information and using it effectively in research assignments.

Includes: Videos, self-quizzes, and activities

Licence: CC BY

Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research, 1st Canadian Edition

Canadian adaptation by the University of Regina, with engaging graphics, compelling examples, and easy-to-understand explanations that make Choosing and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research, a valuable, open-access resource for completing research-based writing assignments and projects. Students will be better equipped to tackle the challenges of developing research questions, evaluating and choosing the right sources, searching for information, avoiding plagiarism, and much more.

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Doing Research: A Student’s Guide to Finding and Using the Best Sources

This Canadian textbook takes a modules-based approach to learning research skills that emphasizes the reflective nature of information discovery, the contextual basis for evaluating that information, and a recognition that information has value.

Includes: Activities and exercises

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library

Engineering and Information: Research Skills for Engineers

This book, Engineering and Information: Research Skills for Engineers, is intended to expand experiential learning course offerings for undergraduate students through a series of interactive modules. The developed resource includes seven independent modules that focus on essential skills for engineering including how to find, understand, evaluate, and document information sources that are commonly used by engineers such as journal articles, patents, standards/guidelines, books, and webpages.

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Graduate Research Project Guide: Secondary Data Analysis [New]

This work, from a Social Work perspective, aims to present graduate students a step-by-step guide to choosing a research topic, finding a dataset, writing an Introduction and Literature Review, conducting data cleaning and analysis, and presenting findings in a final version of a thesis/graduate research paper. Since this book is a step-by-step guide, it contains only key elements and steps. Thus, for more detailed information about research methods and statistics, we recommend reviewing other research methods and statistics textbooks. [Description from resource].

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Health Professions Education Research Primer

This is a joint project between the McMaster Education Research, Innovation, and Theory (MERIT) unit, McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences Program for Faculty Development, and the McMaster Masters in Health Sciences Education program. This e-book has been published via McMaster University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Office of Continuing Professional Development. This project is made possible with funding by the Government of Ontario and through eCampusOntario’s support of the Virtual Learning Strategy.

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Library 160: Introduction to College Level Research

You will learn how scholarly information is produced, organized, and accessed; how to construct and use effective search strategies in a variety of web tools and scholarly databases; how to choose finding tools appropriate to the type of information you need; critical thinking skills in the evaluation of resources; and best practices in the ethical use of information.

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

A Quick, Somewhat Easy-to-Read Introduction to Empirical Social Science Research Methods [New]

A brief textbook to introduce students to the core concepts of empirical social science research methods. This textbook has been used as the main textbook in an undergraduate social science research methods course (supplemented by many in-class exercises and research reports) and as the basis of a review in preparation for graduate-level study in research methods and program evaluation. [Description from resource].

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Reviews: Available through OER Commons.

Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any course on research methods.

The contents and examples are designed for anyone interested in behavioral research (not just information systems people), and so, the book should appeal to most business programs, social sciences, education, public health, and related disciplines. Also available in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

Social Science Research: Principles, Methods and Practices (Revised edition) [New]

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and postgraduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioural research, and can serve as a standalone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class [Description from resource].

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA

Reviews: Available through Open Textbook Library.

Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers

This is an unabashedly practical guide for the student fact-checker. It supplements generic information literacy with the specific web-based techniques that can get you closer to the truth on the web more quickly.

This guide will show you how to use date filters to find the source of viral content, how to assess the reputation of a scientific journal in less than five seconds, and how to see if a tweet is really from the famous person you think it is or from an impostor. It’ll show you how to find pages that have been deleted, figure out who paid for the website you’re looking at, and whether the weather portrayed in that viral video actual matches the weather in that location on that day. It’ll show you how to check a Wikipedia page for recent vandalism and how to search the text of almost any printed book to verify a quote. It’ll teach you to parse URLs and scan search result blurbs so that you are more likely to get to the right result on the first click. And it’ll show you how to avoid baking confirmation bias into your search terms.

Licence: CC BY 4.0