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Research workshops
Policy Commons Workshop
Policy Commons is a new database for finding grey literature. It brings together reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media from NGOS, think tanks, and research centres around the world.
This interactive session will provide:
-an overview of the Policy Commons database
-an examination of what grey literature is and how it can be useful in your work
-a chance to explore and use the many search features of this tool
-an opportunity to engage in conversation (with librarians and other nonprofit staff) about your information priorities and the topics that concern you
Slides from workshop; handout from workshop.
Critical Appraisal and Research-Informed Practice
Does your organization use a research-informed approach to planning and decision-making? How do you evaluate published research to determine if it's useful to you? This workshop will explore:
- factors influencing research-informed practice
- hierarchies of "evidence" -- and critiques thereof
- schema and tools for evaluating the quality and applicability of research
- questions beyond "what works" that might shape how you incorporate research into your practice
Please bring your knowledge and experiences so participants can learn from one another.
Finding Free and Open Scholarly Resources
*This workshop is suitable for both registered Community Scholars and those who are not part of the Community Scholars Program.
Learn how to find free and open access research. Community Scholars’ Librarians will guide you to a variety of sources that can help you stay up-to-date in your field and make evidence-based decisions, cite credible sources in upcoming grants, and continue to develop your program innovations.
12:00-12:50 -The session begins with an exploration of the research publishing landscape and ways that researchers without an academic affiliation can freely access academic publications. We will focus on public and open access resources and tools.
1:00-1:30 - After a short break, learn more about the Community Scholars Program as a unique solution to research access, including how you can get involved.
Stay for the first part or the whole session.
Getting Started with Searching in the Community Scholars Portal
Have you recently joined the Community Scholars Program or has it been a while since you've had a chance to figure out where it fits with your work?
Join us for an online session that will provide strategies for finding and using relevant research and a chance to connect with other Community Scholars.
See the presentation slides from the June 2020 Getting started with searching in the Community Scholars Portal workshop.
Improve Your Searches in the Community Scholars Portal
Are you interested in learning ways to make your searches more effective to find articles and books relevant to your practice?
Join us for an online session on strategies for searching in the portal, including building a concept map, developing a research question, expanding the keywords you use for your search, and using the portal's search features to get more precise results. You'll have a chance to try some searches, ask questions, and connect with other Community Scholars.
See the presentation slides from the February 2020 Improve Your Searches in the Community Scholars Portal workshop.
Finding Academic Resources Beyond the Portal
Are you interested in finding academic resources beyond what is available through the Community Scholars Portal?
Join us during Open Access Week 2019 for this interactive hour-long workshop to learn tips and tricks for finding and accessing research materials that are published open access and are available beyond the subscription journals available through the Community Scholars Portal.
See the presentation slides from the Fall 2019 Finding Academic Resources Beyond the Portal workshop.
Literature Reviews: Approaches to Organizing all of the Information that you have Found
Gathering and reading relevant literature is one thing, but putting it all together to support your grant applications and research proposals can be overwhelming! This brief session will cover what a literature review is and the different approaches you can take to organize your literature using tools like Excel and OneNote.
Searching PubMed
This session will show how to find medical research using a freely available medical database, Pubmed, with the goal of supporting evidence informed decision-making.
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Describe how a medical database is organized,
- Use the organizational structure to find articles on your topic using a medical database (PubMed),
- Locate the details of your search, and
- Find freely available articles.
See the presentation slides from the March 2020 Searching PubMed workshop.
Using Zotero to save, cite, and share research with your team
Are you looking for ways to organize and keep track of the research you find in the Community Scholars Portal? Join us to learn about Zotero - a free, open source tool that helps you collect, organize, cite and share your research sources. The workshop will cover:
- How to search in the Community Scholars Portal to find relevant resource to save and cite
- How to import articles and book chapters and organize them in Zotero using folders, tags, and notes
- How to create a group library to share research within your work team.
See the presentation slides and handout from the July 2020 Using Zotero workshop (we recommend viewing the slides in presentation view in PowerPoint to see the animated gifs on some of the slides).
Sharing research beyond your team: How to find openly licensed research to share with clients
Do you work with external clients who would benefit from having access to the research articles that you find through the Portal? Join us to learn techniques for finding research that is openly licensed to allow you to share it with others beyond your work team. We will discuss the correct way to cite a published work to give credit to the author so you can enhance knowledge sharing while respecting intellectual property.
Breaking Down Barriers to Research Access with Academic Librarians
This event was hosted by 312 Main and SFU CERi and consisted of an online session followed by an in-person Pop-Up Library and reception. From 2-3, attendees joined librarians from the Community Scholars Program and UBC's Learning Exchange to hear how their work supports community acces to academic publications. From 3-5, we hosted a drop-in in the lobby of 312 Main to say hello, get research assistance, grab a cookie, and more.
Build your capacity for original research with Sage Research Methods Online
Looking to conduct a study for your organization, but not sure which method to use? As a Community Scholar you have access to Sage Research Methods, a comprehensive database containing handbooks, articles, case studies, and videos outlining both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Learn about this resource and its built in “Project Planner” in a brief online session.
Slides from this session now available: https://ln2.sync.com/dl/3d5fad240/g646depw-xidstwzk-8693e9uz-jime7qk2
Introduction/Refresher: Using the Community Scholars Portal
Whether you're new to the Community Scholars Program, or if it's just been a while and now you're digging in to the evidence base as you work on those grant applications, this session is for you. This online workshop will cover:
- what you can find in the Community Scholars Portal
- signing in to the Community Scholars Portal
- conducting a basic search
- getting "better" results
- saving, downloading, printing, emailing the materials you find
- ...and a chance to have your questions answered
Tools for Seamless Searching: GoogleScholar Library Link and CSP Bookmarklet
In September's newsletter, we announced two new tools for seamless searching. We are really excited about these and we want to share the feeling with you! The Google Scholar Library Link and the CSP Bookmarklet are customizations that you can make in your browser to allow you to access articles and e-books licensed for Community Scholars without having to enter the Portal. These tools will help you navigate around paywalls where CSP access is possible. Please join us in this session to learn:
- how and when to use these tools
- how to install the CSP bookmarklet in your browser
- how to configure Google Scholar to serve up Community Scholars access
Introduction/Refresher: The Community Scholars Program and Portal
This workshop is for registered Community Scholars
Whether you're new to the Community Scholars Program, or if it's been a while and you're ready to dig in, this session is for you.
This online workshop (hosted on Zoom) will cover:
-introduction to the program
-what you can find in the Community Scholars Portal
-signing in to the Community Scholars Portal
-conducting a basic search and getting "better" results
-saving, downloading, printing, emailing the materials you find
...and a chance to have your questions answered
* We'd also love to hear more about your work and how the program can best support you.
Literature Reviews: Approaches to Organizing all of the Information that you have found
Gathering and reading relevant literature is one thing, but putting it all together to support your grant applications and research proposals can be overwhelming! This brief session will cover what a literature review is and the different approaches you can take to organize your literature using tools like Excel and OneNote.
Workshop: Spatial is Special. A Very Short Intro to GIS
What is GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and what does it mean to think spatially? This workshop will introduce you to a few basic GIS concepts by using a cloud-based GIS application (ArcGIS Online). The workshop is geared toward anyone curious about GIS or interested in making a digital map to visualize phenomena around us on earth.
If you work for a non-for-profit organization, you may wish to read this guide Using mapping/GIS for community-based research, participatory projects, and equity/diversity/social justice for ideas of how to mobilize GIS/web maps for understanding communities, identifying trends/patterns, and communicating with the general public. If you have any questions about the guide, we welcome your questions at the workshop.
Publishing workshops
Predatory Publishing
The Open Access (OA) publishing model stands for unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse. While this is a laudable goal, it has given rise to predatory open access publishers who exploit the OA concept without providing the expected publishing services. This session will give an overview of predatory publishers and tips on how to avoid them.
Data and Statistics workshops
Data & Statistics Session 1: Introduction to free online statistics
This session is ideal if your organization does not have the capacity for data analysis, as the resources demonstrated will contain only analyzed data formatted for immediate use.
This session will demonstrate how to navigate provincial and national sources of statistics, with the goal of helping you better understand the communities and populations you serve. By the end of this session you will be able to identify your geographic area of interest in relation to Statistics Canada geographic classifications, find statistics and population information from the Census of Canada as well as other thematic surveys conducted by Statistics Canada, and find additional information through BC Stat. All resources covered are publicly accessible – no sign-ins required!
Data & Statistics Session 2: Introduction to free online data
This session is ideal if your organization has capacity to complete statistical analyses and/or basic mapping (this session will not cover how to use any statistical or mapping software packages).
This session will cover finding relevant data sets from Statistics Canada, federal and provincial government departments, and municipalities, and how to access these files. You do not need to have attended session 1 to benefit from this session, but an understanding of your organizations data needs and capabilities will help you make the most of the information included in this session.
See the presentation slides from the April 2019 Finding Online Data workshop.
Past Journal Club meetings
The journal clubs are like book clubs, but with scholarly articles as the reading material. All Community Scholars are welcome to join us, in-person or remotely, for discussions around journal articles related to their work. We can also help you launch your own journal club on a topic of interest. For more information, please see What is a Journal Club? on our Background the Further Information page.