How to lie with *ahem* use numbers

This post linked to here is interesting from several perspectives.

Read as a cheat sheet for what not to do as a researcher - but maybe as a politician?...
... and a reminder of what to be on the lookout for when assessing the works and words of others.

Numbers have power, handle with care!

"Bad Science makes Big Headlines"...

We have been meaning to put this up for quite a while, since it is increasingly an issue. This specific post from Huffpost is from back in February, but is an ongoing issue and has been from time immemorial.

It is a very nice little piece on critical thinking in academic, journalistic and everyday life.

"... neither academic publishing nor scientific journalism are immune to misleading headlines and invalid findings. If journalists can be fooled by bogus or simply bad science, how is a layperson supposed to sort out the hype from the help?"

The author Steven N. Austad goes on to present six down to earth tips on how to discriminate muck and treasure.

Have a read!

Get more help on information skills, critical thinking and source evaluation included ;)

Postgraduates: are you ready to learn some new skills?

Postgraduate study is a step up from undergraduate study and requires more in depth skills. The Universities of York and Hull provide a suite of workshops and courses designed to help taught and research postgraduates develop skills that will help them meet the challenges of research at this level.

University of York:
Bookable training courses at http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/researcher-development/students/
We particularly recommend Searching the Literature which is RDT201421 on skillsforge for research students, and RD0173 on the LMS for research staff.

University of Hull:
Bookable skills workshops at http://libguides.hull.ac.uk/skillsworkshops/postgraduateworkshops
Enhanced Information and Research Skills Module at http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/skills-team/supportingresearch/workshopseirs.aspx
A Research Data Management module will also be running from early November.

Researcher Development sessions at the University of York

The University of York Library’s Research Support Team and Academic Liaison Librarians are delivering Searching the Literature sessions as part of the Researcher Development training programme.

 

The following session should be of particular relevance to HYMS researchers:

• Tuesday 28th April 10:00-12:00: Searching the Literature Sci/Health/Med

 

The session is specifically created for PhD students - particularly new PhD students who have just started undertaking their literature reviews - and for research staff. It includes opportunities for practical work using your own topics.

The Research Support Team is also delivering workshops providing an introduction to Research Data Management, covering best practice for the successful organisation, storage, documentation and archiving / sharing of research data. The course is aimed at PhD students but staff are also welcome to register.

 

The workshops will be held on:

• Monday 27th April, 09:30 - 12:00
• Tuesday 19th May, 14:00 - 16:30
• Monday 1st June, 13:00 - 15:30

To find out more and to register for a place, please visit the Researcher Development web page for Research Data Management.

Researcher Development: "Searching the Literature" Session at University of York - Monday 9th February

The University of York Library’s Research Support Team and Academic Liaison Librarians are delivering Searching the literature sessions as part of the Researcher Development training programme.

 

The following session should be of particular relevance to HYMS researchers:

• Monday 9th February 10:00-12:00: Searching the Literature Sci/Health/Med

 

The session is specifically created for PhD students - particularly new PhD students who have just started undertaking their literature reviews - and for research staff. It includes opportunities for practical work using your own topics.

To find out more about the Researcher Development training programme, and to book your place at the session, follow the link above or visit:

• http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/researcher-development/programme/

Access to eresources at University of Hull library

Since January, the Brynmor Jones Library has introduced Shibboleth as its main authentication method, replacing Athens.

For users of the service, this results in two major differences:

1.) You no longer need an Athens username and Password for the University of Hull, and will sign in with the IT login you received instead.

2.) When accessing resources off-campus you will no longer look for the Athens login but for an institutional login and may then need to select the UK Access Management Federation and University of Hull from dropdown menus.

If you have previously saved the urls of any electronic resources supplied by the University of Hull in your favourites, it may be that your Athens details will have been saved as well, and that when you try to login to that resource it takes you to the Athens login.

If this takes place, you may need to clear your web cache.

If you have any queries about any of the above, please contact library@hyms.ac.uk.

New look for the HYMS Library web pages

We've had the decorators in at the HYMS Library web pages. Everything's looking all shiny and new. We hope you like it.

 

All the previous content is still there and in the same places, but we're adding much more, including links to our skills tutorials on the new Skills Tutorials tab. We're currently in the process of refreshing these resources, so keep an eye out for future updates. 

 

If you're a new student (or even if you're an old one), the New Students tab has help and advice on getting the most out of the Library, including tips on eBook and eJournal searching and help on using your Reading Lists.

 

You can find our pages via the HYMS Library tab in Blackboard, or by going to: 

     http://libguides.hull.ac.uk/medicine

Web of Science masterclass at University of Hull

Finding quality articles with Web of Science, Wednesday 19 February 2014, 2.15pm-3.05pm, Derwent Computer Suite 2

Web of Science is useful for its coverage of general and multidisciplinary titles, and can be used for searching for articles or tracking citations – i.e. seeing how a known work or author has been cited by other authors. Learn how to use the advanced features of this database.

Workshop requirements:
Use of search engines and/or databases would be useful.

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Search for material effectively in Web of Science
• Track citations and create citation alerts
• Export citations to bibliographic software like Refworks or Endnote

This masterclass is ideal for students who wish to use Web of Science to research topics.

Book at http://libguides.hull.ac.uk/content.php?pid=508012&sid=4446564

Planning your research: assignment calculator

If you're involved in a longer piece of research then the "Assignment Calculator" from Gulf Coast State College is quite a nice reality check about how you should be timetabling the various parts of your work.

Note that some of the hyperlinks will not be HYMS relevant/available - but you should find alternatives for most via either the homepages of the two Universities or our own HYMS Library pages at http://libguides.hull.ac.uk/medicine .