Online Resources to help you with your Statistical Analysis – 10am-11pm

This session, jointly delivered by a Maths tutor and a librarian, will cover the online resources available to help you identify appropriate statistical analysis for your research questions and for you to run using various statistical software packages.

Using Word to build your dissertation – 12pm-2pm

Discover how to use really useful features like styles, automatic table of contents and multi-level lists, to take the manual work out of formatting your documents. Learning how to use these built-in features will reduce errors and save precious time when deadlines are approaching. 

Reference Management Made Easy With Mendeley – 2pm-3pm

Mendeley is a free reference management tool that can save you time! Discover how to organise your papers, and automatically insert citations and bibliographies into your paper.

Literature searching – 3pm-4pm

This session will focus on potential resources for a comprehensive literature review across the range of sources, and how to structure searches to achieve best results. It will also look at how to access resources that may seem inaccessible.

Literature review (humanities) – 4pm-5pm

This workshop is relevant to all those in the process of planning a dissertation, long essay or research proposal. We will look at the purpose of a Literature Review chapter, what it will typically contain, possible approaches to structure and organisation and how points raised in your Literature Review should link to other sections of your paper. Please have your proposal/title available.

Welcome to the Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity Service - 10am-11am
This session is hosted by the wellbeing ‘drop-in ‘ advisers and will give you an overview of the service and how we can help, tips and advice for staying well and healthy in these difficult times, an introduction to self help resources to tackle common mental health issues such as anxiety, stress, low mood, perfectionism and low self-esteem, and advice on how to deal with procrastination.

Structuring your dissertation (humanities) – 11am-12pm

What different possibilities are you considering for the structure of your dissertation? How can you find out or verify what is ‘best’ for subjects within your faculty? Bring your ideas to contribute, and have your work available to refer to. We will examine different potential structures together, and consider the factors which need to be taken into account when planning a dissertation.

Excel: working with PivotTables – 12pm-2pm

Find out how quickly and easily you can create PivotTables that calculate, summarise, sort, and format your data to see comparisons, patterns and trends.

Reference Management Made Easy With Zotero – 2pm-3pm

Zotero is a free reference management tool that can save you time! Discover how to collect, store and organise your references and automatically insert citations and a bibliography into your assignment or research paper.

OSCOLA drop-in – 3pm-4pm

OSCOLA is a popular citation style across Law Schools in the UK but it is not the easiest one. If you have any particular questions, why not come to the OSCOLA drop-in session to clear up your doubts before you start writing your dissertation?

Introduction to the UK Data Service - 10am-11am

The UK Data Service is the nation's pre-eminent collection of datasets in the social sciences, and is used by numerous students and academics for statistical research purposes. On Track is delighted that Beate Lichtwardt from UKDS is able to offer an overview of what the Data Service holds, and an introduction to the practicalities of finding and accessing datasets.

Structuring your dissertation (social sciences) – 11am-12pm

What different possibilities are you considering for the structure of your dissertation? How can you find out or verify what is ‘best’ for subjects within your faculty? Bring your ideas to contribute, and have your work available to refer to. We will examine different potential structures together, and consider the factors which need to be taken into account when planning a dissertation.

Evaluating resources – 12pm-1pm

The quality of your dissertation is directly related to the quality of the sources you use. Complete an online tutorial before the session for an introduction to evaluating resources at your own pace, and then come along to the live session to practice evaluating sources with your peers. The two activities combined will get you thinking about which kind of resources are appropriate to use in your work, and which are not, and will also include practical guidelines and tips for distinguishing respected academic publications/websites from rogue or predatory resources. The online tutorial will be circulated to registered attendees before the session.

Literature review (social sciences) – 1pm-2pm

This workshop is relevant to all those in the process of planning a dissertation, long essay or research proposal. We will look at the purpose of a Literature Review chapter, what it will typically contain, possible approaches to structure and organisation and how points raised in your Literature Review should link to other sections of your paper. Please have your proposal/title available.

Using news and media resources – 2pm-3pm

There is more to research than just using books and journals! News & media sources can be useful, and sometimes essential, for researching many topics in the social sciences, business, and humanities, whether for current or historical information. This session will share with you some of the key resources available, their potential relevance to your research, and how to search them effectively.

Using EBSCO for Health and Social Care – 1pm-2pm
During this session, you will learn how to effectively search and use the EBSCO database for conducting literature reviews or for general research.

Silent Zoom – writing retreat - 2pm-5pm

If you are finding you would like some company as you work, try this writing retreat. We will meet in a Zoom room, say hello, and then work in silence. Even silent, the company is pleasant, encouraging, and conducive to a level of self-discipline that you may not find easy to achieve alone. Think of it as working on your own, but not alone – just like the library.

Excel: working with PivotTables – 10am-12pm

Find out how quickly and easily you can create PivotTables that calculate, summarise, sort, and format your data to see comparisons, patterns and trends.

Searching Covid-19 Literature – 12pm-1pm

A number of organisations have created excellent resources for supporting research into COVID-19. This session will introduce you to authoritative sources of information regarding the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) situation and provide support in how to search databases effectively to find reputable research on the coronavirus.

Other databases for Health and Social Care – 1pm-2pm

During this session, you will learn how to effectively search and use various database for conducting literature reviews or for general research.

Humanities drop-in – 2pm-4pm

History, Language & Linguistics, LiFTS and SPAH students: Looking for advice and support regarding your research topic? Come along with your questions and speak to your Academic Liaison Librarian 1:1 via Zoom. This is a drop-in session, so no booking is required, although if demand is high you may need to wait for a few minutes.

Using Word to build your dissertation – 10am-12pm

Discover how to use really useful features like styles, automatic table of contents and multi-level lists, to take the manual work out of formatting your documents. Learning how to use these built-in features will reduce errors and save precious time when deadlines are approaching.  

Literature searching using Scopus – 12pm-1pm

In this session we will cover what Scopus is and how content is indexed. We will cover how to run a literature search and what you can do with the results by analysing the search results. We will look at author and institutional profiles as well as citation data and how to set all alerts for all of these, as well as saving search criteria. The session will be run by Rupal Malde, Customer Consultant at Elsevier.

Creating your Data Analysis Plan– 1pm-2pm

In this interactive workshop, you will learn tips on what to look for when creating your data analysis plan for your dissertation.

Descriptive Statistics and Graphs – 2pm-3pm

Before focusing on inferential statistics, we use statistics to summarise or describe only the data we have (i.e. our sample). Choosing the right descriptive statistics  and the most appropriate type of graph depends on the type of data (categorical, discrete, continuous). This workshop will look at different examples

Literature searching – 3pm-4pm

This session will focus on potential resources for a comprehensive literature review across the range of sources, and how to structure searches to achieve best results. It will also look at how to access resources that may seem inaccessible.

Literature review (science and health) – 11am-12pm

This workshop is relevant to all those in the process of planning a dissertation, long essay or research proposal. We will look at the purpose of a Literature Review chapter, what it will typically contain, possible approaches to structure and organisation and how points raised in your Literature Review should link to other sections of your paper. Please have your proposal/title available.

OSCOLA for International Law – 12pm-1pm

In this session, we will first review the basic principles of OSCOLA and we will look at how to cite some resources specific to international law. There will be some exercises during the session and Q&A at the end. 

Company information for EBS – 1pm-2pm

This session will look at various resources you can use to get company information such as financial information, board of directors and news. We will practice using a few key databases and free resources.

Google search skills drop-in – 2pm-3pm

Complete our online tutorial at your own pace, and then drop into this session live if you have any questions. This online tutorial will cover how to search Google and Google Scholar effectively. You will discover how to find high quality academic material through the use of advanced search techniques. The online tutorial will be circulated to registered attendees before the session.

Finding data – 3pm-4pm

Need to get hold of statistics or data for your topic, but unsure where to look? This session outlines some of the key places to find reliable data, covering high quality open access sources and library subscription databases. Students in Business, Economics, Politics, Sociology, and related fields will find this session of particular use.

Literature review clinic – 10am-11am

This workshop is a follow-up session for the workshop ‘Literature review’. We will work together to address questions from the previous sessions. Please have your proposal/title available.

Running and Interpreting T-tests - 11am-12pm

In this workshop, we will look at annotated SPSS output on summary descriptive statistics and output for T-Tests.

Reference Management Made Easy With Zotero – 12pm-1pm

Zotero is a free reference management tool that can save you time! Discover how to collect, store and organise your references and automatically insert citations and a bibliography into your assignment or research paper.

Industry information for EBS – 1pm-2pm

This session will look at a few key databases that are useful for finding industry and market information. The databases we will practice include Mintel, Passport, and BSU.

Running and Interpreting Regressions – 2pm-3pm

In this workshop, we will look at annotated SPSS output on using regression when we want to explain or predict the effect of one variable in terms of another

Social sciences drop-in – 3pm-4pm

Looking for advice and support regarding your research topic? Then come along with your questions and speak to your subject librarian 1:1 via Zoom. This is a drop-in session, no booking required, though if demand is high, be prepared to wait.  

Structuring your dissertation (science and health) – 4pm-5pm

What different possibilities are you considering for the structure of your dissertation? How can you find out or verify what is ‘best’ for subjects within your faculty? Bring your ideas to contribute, and have your work available to refer to. We will examine different potential structures together, and consider the factors which need to be taken into account when planning a dissertation.

Using EndNote for reference management – 10am-1pm

EndNote is the University’s free, recommended and supported reference management tool. Learn how EndNote works to collect references from a variety of sources; to store and organise your references using groups; find, attach and annotate full text articles; and insert your references into word processing software using EndNote’s unique, mouse-free Cite While You Write (CWYW) function.

Structuring your dissertation (clinic) – 1pm-2pm

If you attended one of the previous faculty-specific sessions on structuring your dissertation you can check your progress and develop ideas further. If you were not able to attend the previous sessions we will examine different potential structures together, and consider the factors which need to be taken into account when planning a dissertation. Bring your ideas to contribute, and have your work available to refer to.

Silent Zoom (writing retreat) – 2pm-4pm

If you are finding you would like some company as you work, try this writing retreat. We will meet in a Zoom room, say hello, and then work in silence. Even silent, the company is pleasant, encouraging, and conducive to a level of self-discipline that you may not find easy to achieve alone. Think of it as working on your own, but not alone – just like the library.

On Track social event - 4pm-5pm

The hard work is done (well some of it at least!), so take some time off to enjoy a “virtual social”. Relax with a cup of tea, glass of wine, piece of cake, or anything else you fancy, as we chat about the last few weeks and reveal the results of our amazing survey completed by this year’s On Trackers. Not to be missed!