Workshops

This hands-on session will introduce you to EndNote desktop reference management software, a tool to help with collecting, managing and organising your references and creating citations and bibliographies in different formats. You will reflect throughout on how reference management software can fit into your existing research workflows.

In the session you will gain practical experience of managing an EndNote Library including using the Cite While You Write function to insert and format in-text citations and bibliographies within Microsoft Word documents, and an introduction to using EndNote with Overleaf.

How to book on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Shut Up and Write is an event for researchers to come together for a fixed amount of time and write. The aim is not to put pressure on you to be productive, rather, to help you carve out some dedicated time to write and to present a chance to connect with other researchers. It is a great way make progress on those thesis chapters, journal articles, or grant applications.

Whilst two hours doesn't sound like much, it is amazing what you can get done if you really focus. There will be short, scheduled breaks in between writing sessions of 30 minutes, to help keep you motivated and on-task. During the breaks there will also be time to reflect on some of the challenges we are facing as a research community and how we might support one another.

How to book on

This event will take place on the online video conferencing app Zoom.us. Booking onto the event is essential to receive the link and passcode to join.

Find out more about the workshops and online resources offered by My Research Essentials on the library webpage. Online resources related to this workshop include:

• Start to finish: writing
• Start to finish: dissertations
• My Research Essentials Medium: writing strategies
• My Learning Essentials: writing online resources

In this interactive workshop you will reflect upon and discuss ways to improve your public speaking skills, helping you to present your work more effectively. Using some improvisation techniques we will look at ways we can become more relaxed about public speaking, and practice responding to unexpected questions with confidence, which will support you when at academic conferences or presenting your research to peers. We will provide you with practical exercises to help you build confidence in communicating with a variety of audiences.

This workshop will equip you with the skills to spot so-called 'Predatory Publishers', and feel confident in the credibility of the journals you will be submitting to. By the end of the session you will be able to:

• Feel confident in your ability to identify credible journals
• Understand the motivations behind 'Predatory Publishing'
• Understand the consequences of submitting your work to non-reputable journals
• Spot the common characteristics of non-reputable publishers
• Use established tools and processes to check the credibility of a journal

As part of this workshop we will be running an activity where a personal device (mobile phone, laptop, tablet etc.) would be useful but is not essential.

This session will take place on campus.

Researchers collect, receive and manage research data in many forms. Managing your data can be complex, but a little planning at the beginning can save you time, raise your research profile and help you work more effectively. This session aims to provide you with confidence in data and information management and introduce you to resources and services to help with Research Data Management.

How to book on

This event will take place on the online video conferencing app Zoom.us. Booking onto the event is essential to receive the link and passcode to join.

Further support

Talk to us online via the 24-hour Library Chat service. Alternatively, you can email us for advice or to book one-to-one appointments at uml.teachingandlearning@manchester.ac.uk.

Find out more about the workshops and online resources offered by My Research Essentials on the library webpage. Online resources related to this workshop include:

• Research data management
• Research data explained

Zoom guidance and support

All University of Manchester students and staff should register at Zoom.us using their University of Manchester email address, only authenticated users can join this event. Help and support with using Zoom is provided by Media Services. Updates are posted to the Media Services website, and you can contact the team by emailing mediaservices@manchester.ac.uk.

Shut Up and Write is an event for researchers to come together for a fixed amount of time and write. The aim is not to put pressure on you to be productive, rather, to help you carve out some dedicated time to write and to present a chance to connect with other researchers. It is a great way make progress on those thesis chapters, journal articles, or grant applications.

Whilst two hours doesn't sound like much, it is amazing what you can get done if you really focus. There will be short, scheduled breaks in between writing sessions of 30 minutes, to help keep you motivated and on-task. During the breaks there will also be time to reflect on some of the challenges we are facing as a research community and how we might support one another.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via the 24-hour Library Chat service. Alternatively, you can email us for advice or to book one-to-one appointments at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Find out more about the workshops and online resources offered by My Research Essentials on the library webpage. Online resources related to this workshop include:

• Start to finish: writing
• Start to finish: dissertations
• My Research Essentials Medium: writing strategies
• My Learning Essentials: writing online resources

The aim of this one-day writing retreat is to provide a quiet space where staff and researchers can make progress with their writing. It is a great way to carve out dedicated time to get on with those journal articles, thesis chapters, HEA Fellowships or grant applications.

The majority of the day will be spent in concentrated writing sessions where there should be no talking, no internet, no research - just writing! There will be short, scheduled breaks (with free tea, coffee and snacks) in between these blocks of concentrated writing time, to help keep you motivated and on-task.

Don't forget your laptop!

Programme for the day:

9.00-9.20 Tea, coffee and registration

9.20-9.50 Set your writing goals for the day, and learn some useful writing strategies

9.50-12.00 Concentrated writing time

12.00-13.00 Lunch and optional wellbeing activity

13.00-13.10 Reflect on your progress so far, re-evaluate your goals

13.10-15.20 Concentrated writing time

15.20-15.35 Coffee break

15.35-16.50 Concentrated writing time

16.50-17.00 Reflection

Researchers collect, receive, and manage data in many ways. Making sure this data is well-managed and reusable can be complex, but the FAIR Principles are here to help. The concepts underlying the FAIR principles are grounded in good scientific practice and aim to guide people to maximise the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets. Making your data FAIR can help you work more effectively, raise your research profile, and engage with open research initiatives.

This workshop is for people in academia with little or no experience of FAIR. This course aims to be succinct in introducing FAIR, its concepts and terminology, and supplements all material with introducing and signposting to useful FAIR resources.

Participant information

This session will take place on Teams. We will send you the Teams link for the workshop a day before the workshop is to take place, booking onto this workshop is essential.

Please note: This event is bookable by all staff and PGRs, simply follow the 'Book on this event' button below to register.

Research Data Conversations is part of a new series of My Research Essentials and Data Stewardship Community events exploring themes within research data and data stewardship.

The sessions will have a collaborative and conversational format and explore themes that promote open and FAIR data practices, and the promotion and development of new and emerging ideas in research data management.

Research data management and data stewardship is an area of growing professionalism and potential for academic-related career paths. These events would be suitable for anyone interested in exploring ideas in the field, connecting with data professionals at different stages of their careers and across different disciplines, and joining a community that feeds into the development of research systems and data stewardship at the University of Manchester.

The session will be led by Dr Hannah Long, Research Associate in Health Inequalities and Open Research Fellow 2024-25. Hannah will lead a discussion on open data practices for qualitative health researchers and her Open Research Fellows project on developing a Data Note guide specifically for qualitative research datasets.

Date: Wednesday 28 May 2025

Time: 12pm-1.30pm. These events are catered from 1pm, giving attendees the opportunity to continue the conversation and make connections over lunch.

12-1pm: Presentation and discussion.

1-2pm: Optional lunch and further conversations.

Venue: Main Library, Ground Floor Seminar Room

Led by: Dr Hannah Long.

In this workshop you will explore three of the most common challenges identified by PhD candidates: managing your relationship with your supervisor; time management and procrastination; and dealing with setbacks during research.

You will explore the context around these issues and how they affect the research process, before working with other postgraduate researchers to help develop the necessary skills and approaches for dealing with them.

Finally, you will be introduced to established models and strategies for working effectively with your supervisory team, beating the procrastination cycle and maintaining resilience in the face of setbacks.

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

If your research involves working with people (e.g. through surveys, interviews, trials, experiments, focus groups or other methods) then it is essential to know the legal, ethical and contractual obligations you have towards research participants and how to put them into practice.

This course will outline how to collect, store, protect and share the personal data you may encounter as part of your work. Specific attention will be paid to the requirements of data protection legislation for recruiting participants and gaining consent, managing the data securely, and anonymising data so that it might be shared for future use.

This is a blended learning course comprising:

1. Mandatory pre-course learning (ca. 80 minutes) delivered via a collection of online resources (see links below) that introduces key principles and practices. Interactive quizzes are used to help check comprehension.
2. An interactive face-to-face session (200 minutes) where you apply your pre-course learning to real-life research project case studies. Working together in groups, you will explore the issues and risks, and present back your mitigation strategies for wider discussion to formulate optimum solutions. Expert facilitators will be on hand to provide practical guidance and support. There will also be opportunity for attendees to seek specialist advice from the expert facilitators.

Expert content creators and facilitators are drawn from the Information Governance Office; Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity; Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis; Research IT; and The University of Manchester Library.

Please note:

• Failure to complete the mandatory pre-course learning would place unnecessary burden on other participants and facilitators and would be considered un-collegial.
• The face-to-face session is designed to be highly interactive, so you must be willing to actively participate in the group work and discussions.

Links to mandatory pre-course learning:

• Find out how the data protection principles apply to research (9 minutes read)
• Research with human participants: your responsibilities under UK GDPR (7 minutes read)
• Participant engagement and consent (3 minutes read)
• Recruitment of research participants (6 minutes read)
• Participant Information Sheets (5 minutes read)
• Obtaining informed consent (7 minutes read)
• Research with children and young people (5 minutes read)
• Research with additional considerations (4 minutes read)
• Data protection considerations (8 minutes read)
• Anonymisation and pseudonymisation of research data (18 minutes read)
• Keeping your research data secure (6 mins read)