Tips for Editing Your Own Work

In this blog post from Congress 2021, University of Alberta JD Candidate Valerie Leowto draws on advice from Letitia Henville and Glen Ashworth for tips and apps that can aid in editing your own work. “Many of you are likely familiar with the difficulties of editing your own writing. When reading over your own work, your brain has a tendency to make sense of what you think is on the page, rather than what is actually there…” See the full post.

Computer Stock photos by Vecteezy

Publishing Fees Workshop – Western Libraries

Western Libraries is offering two workshops on publishing fees:  

Ins and Outs of Publishing Fees  

Have you been asked to pay an article processing charge or other fee to publish your work in a journal? Learn why these fees exist, how you can publish without a fee, and what discounts and fee waivers are available to you as a researcher at Western, including new waiver programs with PLOS and SAGE publishers.

This workshop will be of particular interest to faculty, but staff, undergraduate, and graduate students are also welcome to attend.  

Leave knowing:

  • Types of journals that charge publishing fees
  • Options for paying publishing fees
  • Options for publishing without a fee

New Open Access Agreements with Major Publishers

Western Libraries has announced new agreements with three major publishers that offer new discounts and waivers for open access journal Article Processing Charges (APCs). These new agreements are with SAGE, PLOS, and Elsevier. 

  • SAGE: No APCs for Western-affiliated authors for most SAGE journals (all those that operate on the hybrid subscription/OA model; some exceptions apply) and 40% discount on APCs for journals published on the gold OA model (entirely funded by APCs).
  • PLOS: No APCs for Western-affiliated corresponding authors who publish in PLOS Biology or PLOS Medicine, and 25% discount on APCs for Western-affiliated contributing authors, as part of the PLOS Community Action Publishing program.
  • Elsevier: 20% discount on APCs for Western-affiliated authors.

These agreements were negotiated by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) on behalf of researchers at all CRKN member institutions.

To learn more, register to attend an upcoming Ins and Outs of Publishing Fees workshop. 

As part of their commitment to open access and support of the research mission of the University, Western Libraries has subscribed to several organizations that offer discounts for author processing charges for open access journals. For detailed information, please see the list of memberships.

Another way to make your research widely available is to share it in Scholarship@Western, Western’s institutional repository. There are no fees involved with this route to open access. 

If you have questions about the discounts and waivers, or if you are interested in having your work deposited in Scholarship@Western, please email rsclib@uwo.ca

Access to Statistics Canada Data – Workshop

Continuum of Data Access (Statistics Canada)

Wednesday April 14th, 2021, 1:00 pm

Elizabeth Hill (Data Librarian, Western Libraries)
Tina Luu Ly (Analyst, Western’s Research Data Centre)

Workshop Description: Western Libraries in conjunction with Western’s Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC) is offering a workshop on access to Statistics Canada data at Western. The workshop will highlight public / open data products and access, as well as academic access to Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF). The workshop is a good introduction or review of access points to data that is useful for teaching and research. Access to masterfile data is also available to Western researchers through the Real Time Remote Access (RTRA) system and the RDC. The workshop will describe different types of access and the application process for using RTRA and RDC.

This workshop will be of interest to students , instructors and researchers. 

If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Hill, ethill@uwo.ca, Data Librarian, Western Libraries

Research Using Social Media Data – Western Libraries Workshop

Social Media Data for Research: Twitter and Others

Tuesday March 16, 2021
1:00 pm
via Zoom

Want to learn how to get started with social media research? Join Western Libraries staff for a FREE Zoom workshop on popular platforms for research, methods for accessing the data, and different approaches and tools for analysis. Sign up at:  http://www.events.westernu.ca/events/libraries/2021-03/social-media-data.html 

Looking for Scholarships or Funding?

Are you looking for funding from sources other than traditional agencies such as SSHRC or the other Tri-Council Agencies (CIHR, NSERC)?

Please consider using Pivot. It’s free! (Paid for by Western Research).

What is Pivot?

Pivot is a comprehensive database of international grant funding opportunities available to all Western faculty, staff, and students. You can access Pivot from any computer on campus.

However, to use Pivot off campus, you must create a personal Pivot account. 

Why use Pivot?

  • Pivot can assist you in finding funding opportunities – government, private, foundation, and international funding
  • Once you do a search for funding (and save it) you can have Pivot send you weekly updates via email on potential funding sources with upcoming deadlines based on the search
  • Once you find a funding source that might be of interest in the future, you can ‘track’ it and have alerts sent to your email so that you know of upcoming deadlines.

To learn more about how to use Pivot:

Researcher Profiles: Pivot provides information from publicly sourced sites, and Western does not review or manage researchers identified as Western faculty on the PIVOT profiles. We do suggest you Create or Update Your Profile on Pivot. Doing this will assist Pivot in providing you with a curated list of funding opportunities based on your departmental affiliation, research interests, publication and granting history.

NVivo Workshop from Western Libraries

Introduction to Qualitative Analysis with NVivo

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2021
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Via Zoom

Interested in digital qualitative research? Join Western Libraries for a webinar on getting started with NVivo. Learn about the capabilities of this popular analysis package, how to set up a project and import different kinds of data, and start coding. NVivo is a tool for organizing, managing and analyzing qualitative data. This introductory session will provide an overview of NVivo’s capabilities and demonstrate how to use it to get started on a qualitative research project.

Session outcomes:

  • Learn about the features and functionality of NVivo
  • Set data files up for autocoding and import
  • Create an NVivo project and import different types of data
  • Organize and classify files and cases
  • Code data and create notes and memos
  • Run queries and create charts
  • Plan a content analysis

Register for this online workshop here.

Access to NVivo software is not essential but may be helpful if you want to follow along. A trial version of the software may be downloaded here. Sample data files will be sent out with the link to access the workshop.

Social Network Analysis – Are you interested in this methodology?

Social network analysis (SNA) is a unique field of study that looks to better understand the relationships and social networks of a defined group of individuals and/or organizations. In research, applications of social network analysis are myriad. People from many disciplines might have use for social network approaches, ranging from biology to computer science, psychology, sociology, healthcare, and public health (as only a few examples).

In an effort to enhance the depth and scope of expertise locally at Western, a series of talks and workshops led by experts in this field is being planned.

The initial talks will introduce the essentials of social network analysis including the theories and methods of analyzing social interactions such as inter-individual, inter-organizational, partnership, and social support. After this, there will be a series of workshops where scholars can develop a proposal with peer support and expert facilitation choosing and adapting the optimal data collection and analysis techniques for their research.

No prior knowledge in SNA is required.

As a way to gauge interest in potential future methodological workshops it is important to identify the spectrum of researchers who are currently engaging in or wish to engage in social network analysis/approaches.

Interested Western University faculty, post-doctoral scholars, trainees, PhD candidates and staff are asked to complete a brief survey which will remain open until February 26th. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

Contact for more information:
Anna Gunz, Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics
Mariam Hayward, mariam.hayward@uwo.ca, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Manager, Western Research

Western Libraries Research Skills Workshops

Western Libraries is offering a series of free Research Skills Workshops to help you navigate scholarly publishing, access data sources including social media and COVID data, systematic reviews, geospatial tools and analysis (GIS), reference management tools and more! 

To Register

COVID-19 Data – Research Workshop from Western Libraries

Are you doing research on COVID-19?

Are you interested in learning more about the data being collected on the pandemic?

Join Western’s data librarians as they review sources of COVID-19 data. This workshop will have two areas of focus. Librarians will highlight available COVID-19 data dashboards and the sources they use, looking at data accessibility, reliability of the data, and how it is displayed. They will also review surveys, patient data, and social data collected to evaluate the impacts of the pandemic on people’s health and their social and economic well-being, looking at key Canadian and international datasets that have been shared for reuse.

Thursday, January 28, 2021
10:00 – 11:00 am

Register by Wednesday, January 27 for this online workshop here.