This web page is intended to help you find information on professional development during and after the Urban Studies program.   If you need help, please contact Nina Smart, Urban Studies Liaison Librarian, at nsmart@sfu.ca. Additionally, help is available at Ask a librarian.

Note: Some resources below are limited to current SFU students.  Do not forget to explore resources offered via your public library, for example Vancouver Public Library's Digital Library, containing dozens of ebook, newspaper, and article online resources

CVs and interviewing

Prepare a good CV , Write a compelling job application  and Perform well at job interviews
Chapters from How to be an Academic Superhero: Establishing and Sustaining a Successful Career in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities

Creating your Academic CV
OISE, University of Toronto

Resume vs. Curriculum Vitae: What's the Difference?
UC Davis Internship and Career Centre

Resume and Cover Letter
SFU Career and Volunteer Services 

Career and Volunteer
SFU Student Services: for "undergraduate, graduate and new alumni"
includes CV writing and interviewing resources, job posting sites, and increasing your online presence

Mastering Your Message for the Interview
Episode 4 of the podcast "The Professor Is In"

Online presence and networking

Get known and networked
Chapter from How to be an Academic Superhero

Visibility: Build your online presence
SFU Library Scholarly Publishing guide

SFU Urban Studies Graduate Student Association
FaceBook group

Summit SFU's institutional repository
Make your research readily available to the world

Grant-writing and presentation skills

Secure funding
Chapter from How to be an academic superhero (note: American resources)

Research Commons: Grants and Funding
Guide to funding agencies, useful books and sites, workshops

 Winning Grants Step by Step : The Complete Workbook for Planning, Developing and Writing Successful Proposal
This book has list of figures, samples, and worksheets; goals; objectives; budget organization

Help Funders Fund You: Five Tips for Writing Funding Application from the journal Science

Resources to help you improve your presentation skills
Research Commons, who also offer Presentation consultations

Voice and Presentation Skills Centre for Educational Excellence (CEE) 
Book an appointment for SFU faculty, staff, and graduate students
Sanders Whiting also offers "Private Voice and Presentation Skills Sessions" at various times during the year

Research landscape

Get informed and stay current
Chapter from How to be an Academic Superhero

Urban Studies information resources
This SFU subject guide identifies selected resources for Urban Studies research, such as recommended journal article databases.  Some resources limited to current SFU community

Publication process

In brief, the Research Lifecycle consists of:

              Ideas > Partners > Proposal writing > Research process > Publication

Research is a Conversation
video from the NVL library

Scholarly Publishing
SFU Library Research Commons, including sections on publishing choices, funding, and more

Public Knowledge Project (PKP)
SFU is home to this internationally recognized open-source publishing platform

Introduction to Scholarly Communication
video from the University of Guelph

Publishing and Toxic Comparison
Episode 2 of the Podcast "The Professor Is In"

Resources for SFU  alumni

Alumni services
SFU Library guide including list of off-campus access to a selection of resources such as:

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO)
Collection of ebooks, articles, reference sources, and videos on the various types of research methods
Excellent resource for those who wish to continue research, before or after returning to school

Sage Skills: Business 
"practice the skills needed to transition from campus to the modern workplace" Lots of videos, and an entire unit on Professionalism
Note: for "business", read "work/post student life" - our Business Librarian wrote an whole blog post about it, he loves it so much

Project MUSE Search
Humanities and social sciences ebooks and ejournals.  Examples: Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, or Journal issue: Museums and Monuments: Memorials of Violent Pasts in Urban Space. 
See also  Research Area > Art and Architecture > Architecture

OECD iLibrary
Covering country studies, forecasting publications, reports, periodicals, and socio-economic databases. Can Browse by  Theme such as: Urban, Rural and Regional Development

Open Access resources

 "Open Access publications are free to read on the open internet. Readers can download, copy and distribute an Open Access publication, as long as credit is given to the authors. Readers do not require a subscription or any other form of payment, either personally or through their university or library, to access the content" from Open Access of SFU Library's  Scholarly publishing + open access site. 
 

Examples:

Summit
SFU's Research Depository, including the Urban Studies theses page

Open Access Theses and Dissertations
"over 1000 colleges, universities, and research institutions"  and over 5 million theses and dissertations

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
over 14,000 journals and 4,000,000 articles. Sample journal titles: UPLanD: Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & Environmental Design; Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis; Town and Regional Planning

SFU Library's list of Open Access databases.

Other resources

Becoming an urban planner: a guide to careers in planning and urban design (online and print)

A career worth planning: starting out and moving ahead in the planning profession (online book)

How to be an Academic Superhero: Establishing and Sustaining a Successful Career in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (online book) including chapter Stay happy and healthy

The professor is in: the essential guide to turning your Ph.D. into a job  (online and print)

Urban planner (online book)

Work your career: get what you want from your social science or humanities PhD (online book)

OpEd Project
"The world becomes more intelligent when it is more inclusive."

The Conversation Canada
Online media resource with news articles and opinion pieces written by academics and researchers who are experts in their field

SFU departmental resources

Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi)
Focuses on a reciprocal relationship between universities and communities

Ethics - Human Research
SFU Office of Research Ethics

SFU Knowledge Mobilization
"By creating and mobilizing knowledge, nurturing partnerships and harnessing the power of research, engagement at SFU is an instrument for change"

Alumni Relations SFU
(If they keep asking you for money feel free to suggest they fund alumni access to more databases)

Self-Paced Courses & Seminars
SFU Health and Counselling

SFU Research Commons
Graduate writing, learning and publication, including data services, access, and management

Thesis assistance: Templates and resources for preparing and submitting your thesis information on formatting your thesis from the SFU Library Thesis page

Note: Sources for this page originally based on Summer 2020 URB 602 outline