Personal tools
 

Researcher's Toolkit

 
Researcher's Toolkit


A wealth of resources to help researchers

  • locate current and completed research, keep up to date in a chosen field
  • become aware of relevant skills training including advice on how to manage research findings
  • collaborate with others
  • discover research jobs and opportunities
  • learn about sources of funding and support
  • access information on the REF

 

You can also find help on the Cranfield Intranet's Research Infokit (NB: you must login via VPN first for off-campus access)

Collaboration and Contacts

Locate an individual researcher or group to identify possible partnerships or to find out what the opposition have been working on

Academia.edu
An online 'tree' of academics around the world, displayed according to university / department affiliation. A visual way of keeping track of who is researching what. Over 52,000 academics are currently included.
AIP Uniphy
A literature-based professional networking site promoting and facilitating collaboration and data sharing amongst physical science researchers. Requires free personal registration.
ISI Highly Cited
A resource which identifies individuals, departments and laboratories that have made fundamental contributions to the advancement of science and technology in recent decades.
JISCmail
Mailing list service for higher education sponsored by JISC.
ResearcherID.com
Free web site offering a global, multi-disciplinary scholarly research community. Provides the global research community with an invaluable index to author information. Each author listed is assigned a unique number, which serves as a fast, easy identifier. Search the registry to find collaborators, review publication lists and explore how research is used around the world.
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Conference and Symposia Information

AllConferences.com
A directory of conferences, conventions, trade shows, exhibits, workshops, events and business meetings covering a wide variety of subject areas including Arts & Humanities, Computers & Internet, Society, Business, Education, Government, Health, and Science & Technology. The Advanced Search option also allows you to specify a country, city and date.
ConferenceBrief from AERADE
Conferences in the fields of aerospace and defence.
IET Events
Events held by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Symposia at Shrivenham
A list of current events at Shrivenham, arranged by the Symposia Office Cranfield University.
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Cranfield Communities

Cranfield Defence and Security Research
Research currently conducted by CDS at Shrivenham in defence-related issues.
Cranfield Management Research Centres
Information on the work of the Cranfield School of Management's research centres.
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Discovering Theses - Indexes and Institutional Repositories

Sources to help you identify the existence of masters and PhD theses - some provide full-text papers.

CERES
Cranfield University repository containing PhD theses and staff papers.
EThOS
EThOS - from the British Library - aims to produce a single access route to all theses produced by UK Higher Education. This resource currently offers a search of over 250,000 documents which customers may then order online. Personal registration is required.
Index to Theses
Database of theses accepted at UK universities. Indexed with abstracts. Please note, this is only available off-campus via the Cranfield University extranet.
Registry of Open Access Repositories
Search across content from more than 1300 repositories across the world to discover theses and staff papers.
UK Institutional Repository Search
Working demonstration of a search tool that covers 98 UK academic eprint repositories.
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Journals Information

DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals
A directory of quality controlled open access journals in all scholarly and scientific subject areas. Contains over 2500 titles. These journals do not impose an embargo period but some may require free online registration.
Journal Citation Reports
A tool for journal evaluation, using citation data drawn from over 11,000 scholarly and technical journals worldwide. Coverage is both multidisciplinary and international, and incorporates journals from over 3,300 publishers in 80 countries. It includes virtually all specialities in the areas of science, technology and the social sciences. The library currently holds the JCR Science Edition containing data from roughly 7,300 journals in the areas of science and technology; and the JCR Social Sciences Edition containing data from roughly 2,200 journals in the social sciences. Within any subject area it will tell you which journal: received the highest number of citations; published the greatest number of articles; received the highest average citations per recent article; and received the most cites per current article.
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
Bibliographic database providing information on serials published throughout the world. It covers all subjects, regular or irregular publications, paid subscription or free. Please note, this is only available off-campus via the Cranfield University extranet.
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Keeping up to Date with Research Areas

Tools and advice to make sure you are aware of what is happening in your chosen field.

Barrington Library guide to keeping up to date
Our guidance on the best tools around to help you keep on top of what's happening in your subject area, including database alert services, internet tools such as RSS, forthcoming conference information and new book releases.
JournalTOCs
A free journal tables of contents service, covering over 14,000 scholarly journals from around 500 publishers, and almost any subject area. NB: You will need to register in order to save your selected journals.
ScienceWatch
Weekly tracking of hot or emerging papers and research topics in this free resource for science metrics and analysis. Includes interviews, first-person essays, podcasts, and profiles from scientists, journals, institutions and nations.
TechJournalContents
A free service which enables searching across current issues of more than 4,600 scholarly technology journals from many publishers to find the most research articles of a wide range of scientific, technical, and social science disciplines. Over 400 titles are freely available on Open Access. (NB: Access to full-text of others depend on institutional / personal subscriptions). Publishers covered include Springer, Emerald, Inderscience, Wiley Interscience, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, IEEE, Sage, AIP, and IMechE. Searches can be saved as RSS feeds.
ZETOC
Electronic table of contents service provided by the British Library. Bibliographic search facilities of journals and conference proceedings also available.
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Managing Your Findings

CiteULike
A free service for discovering and managing scholarly references, sponsored by Springer. Enables storage and sharing of references amongst colleagues.
Connotea
Free online reference management software aimed at researchers, clinicians and scientists. Permits sharing of references with colleagues.
EndNote Web
A web-based bibliography manager to create personalised folders of organised references. Requires personal registration.
RefWorks
A web-based bibliography and database manager which helps to keep references organised.
Zotero
Free reference management software for Firefox users.
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National Research and Reports on Research

JISC
JISC is an independent advisory body that works with further and higher education establishments, providing strategic guidance, funding, advice and opportunities to use ICT to support teaching, learning and research.
Peer Review Guide
A report from the Research Information Network (RIN) on the peer review process for both grant applications and publications, outlining what the process involves, examining some of the current issues on fairness and effectiveness, and some of the challenges and opportunities it faces in the Internet age.
Research Information Network
Organisation sponsored by the UK higher education funding bodies, national libraries and research councils. Concerned with establishing a national framework for research information provision. Activities and projects are listed under headings: Search Discovery and Access; Scholarly Communications; Digital Content, Digitisation and E-Research; and Collaborative Collection Management and Storage.
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RAE and REF Information

Cranfield's RAE Performance - 2008
Brief summary of Cranfield's results with links to the official ratings.
Research Assessment Exercise
Official page for the RAE 2008.
Research Excellence Framework
The replacement for the RAE. Information includes development and timeline.
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Research Careers

Charting a course for a successful research career
As researchers operate in a progressively competitive research environment, with grant applications increasing, funding opportunities decreasing, and funding bodies tightening the reins around their requirements and expected outcomes - early career researchers are often at a disadvantage when applying for grants. In this second edition of the guide, Professor Alan M Johnson steers early career researchers through the potential pitfalls and opportunities when planning for a successful research career.
Cranfield Job Opportunities
Research jobs at Cranfield University.
Find a PhD
Guide to current research and PhD studentships available across Europe.
Jobs.ac.uk
UK research and academic job opportunities.
PhDJobs.com
UK PhD career advice and job opportunities. Includes recruiter profiles, top tips, and an email newsletter.
ResearchIsCool.com
Research jobs and postgraduate courses - worldwide coverage.
Vitae Researchers' Portal
Vitae is a national organisation supporting the personal, professional and career development of doctoral researchers and research staff in higher education institutions and research institutes. Includes advice on how to develop as a researcher, managing your research, ethics, getting published, intellectual property, applying for funding and working collaboratively.
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Research Organisations and Funding

British Academy
Provides research funding to postdoctoral level scholars in all subjects within the areas of humanities and social sciences.
HEFCE
HEFCE promotes and funds quality cost-effective teaching and research. Includes publications and information on the Research Excellence Framework. Regular updates are available via email.
Higher Education Academy
Research information about students in Higher Education.
National Postgraduate Committee
Charity organisation aimed at advancing postgraduate education in the UK. Includes reports, policies and a database of practice.
Research Councils UK
RCUK is the strategic partnership of the UK's seven research councils - this site provides links out to the councils for Arts & Humanities (AHRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences (BBSCRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPSRC), Economic and Social Research (ESRC), Medical Research (MRC), Natural Environment (NERC), and Science and Technology Facilities (STFC).
Research Professional
Multi-disciplinary database supplying information on research funding opportunities, sponsors, research news, and jobs. Also gives access to the full-text publication Research Fortnight. Signing up for a personal log-in permits customers to set up their own alerts in chosen subject areas, receive regular newsletters by email, save searches, and keep a watch on particular sponsors such as the MOD or DSTL, and funding programmes. (This resource was previously known as ResearchResearch)
UK Council for Graduate Education
The Council promotes gradute education in all disciplines through the organisation of conferences, workshops and discussion forums debating and reflecting on topical postgraduate issues, and the publication of reports and newsletters. UKCGE also promotes and conducts research surveys and investigations into postgraduate education, as well as providing postgraduate data and information to both members and other interested parties.
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Research Skills and Training

Use these as a supplement to our Information Literacy Tutorial and the Barrington Library lunchtime training sessions.

MyRI
An online tutorial to support staff on issues involved in measuring the impact of their research, including using specific resources such as Scopus and Web of Knowledge to examine bibliometrics. The tutorial has been developed under a Creative Commons licence by four Irish academic libraries and funded by the NDLR.
Online Writing Lab
Free online advice from Purdue University on all aspects of academic writing, including creating a thesis statement, proofreading your work, technical paper writing, literary analysis and criticism, conducting research, email etiquette, citations, writer's block, and a grammar blog.
OU Guide to PhDs in Science, Engineering and Mathematics
An Open University study unit focussing on what a PhD is, reasons to study for one, demonstrating research skills, managing your PhD project including planning with Gantt charts, and communicating science.
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Subject Advice and Subject Resources

These resources are in addition to all the resources on 'Your subject page', available from the Staff and PhDs area.

AERADE
Free, internet-based collection of over 4000 quality assessed resources worldwide. The resources are selected, evaluated, regularly monitored and last updated by subject specialists from Cranfield University. Each resource is described so that you can assess its potential value to you before you visit it.
Virtual Training Suite
Online advice and training on locating subject-based internet resources, covering all disciplines.
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