Research Thing 17 : Visualisation tools

In research, data in difference formats is usually needed to illustrate and represent visually the information that supports certain arguments or facts. Although I have not heard of or explored data visualisation tools before, I think such tools would be very useful to display data in a way that is visually appealing and makes information processing a lot easier for the audience / readers.

Research Thing 16: Mapping tools

I have yet to explore and understand mapping tools. I can see their use, especially for historical purposes (like HistoryPin) and also to tag photos with the location for future reference. It would be useful in some research disciplines like History, Geography and the Sciences.This is not a Thing I am completely familiar with (I have only heard of HistoryPin before) and it is not as useful to me as other Research Things. I liaise with the School of Education - in a curriculum and pedagogical setting for research output, how can mapping tools be used? If anyone has any suggestions to offer me, I am willing to explore mapping tools further.

Research Thing 15: managing research data

I and some of my colleagues at my campus have had questions from academics regarding organising data files using naming conventions. It is very important, from the start, to name and label data in a way that makes it easily retrievable when needed. Apart from organising the files in a logical order and with metadata, storing the digital data in a secure way is crucial. I learnt about CloudStor in a previous lesson, which is a useful tool for storing data in the cloud. I have more to learn about this area of research and how we, as librarians, can use our organisational skills and expertise, to assist or advise researchers about naming conventions for their data files and storage options.

Research Thing 14: Reference management tools

I predominantly use and have expertise in EndNote as ACU subscribes to this. Once a user sets up and learns the basics of EndNote, I can assist them also in building their skills to tailor EndNote to meet their research needs. It is an excellent program, but if you want to collaborate, not so easy, unless you use EndNote Online. The desktop version, however, is more powerful and I prefer this version (as long as you back up a compressed version of your library to a USB or the cloud like Dropbox).

RefWorks I have yet to grasp. I have issues installing the Write'n'Cite plugin and this was also difficult when assisting a student on his Mac laptop. It was frustrating. I am much more competent with EndNote.

I have experimented with both Zotero and Mendeley. I have the Zotero browser extension in my Firefox browser, but I haven't used it enough to know the benefits. Also, I had completed the first two parts of a three part Mendeley Librarian Certification program offered by Elsevier. The beauty of Mendeley is the collaborative aspect, where you can create a private group and share papers, and work on a project (like a publication) with others. There are also public groups where you can share citations, and I like that social networking aspect of Mendeley. I had two academics from ACU ask me if there are any tools to use for sharing references and creating a paper with a peer from another university as they worked on a publication. At the time I only knew of EndNote and it wasn't the best for collaboration. If only I knew more about Mendeley to provide information to these researchers back then so a more informative decision could be made.

Each reference management tool has its strengths and weaknesses. It is a matter of assessing your needs before you start on your project (eg. is it individual or collaborative) and making a call on which tool is most appropriate to use from the start.

Research Thing 13: Presenting your research

I have used Prezi for Information Literacy sessions, but would love to use a presentation tool for perhaps a conference presentation. I have only used PowerPoint for such events.

I like Prezi but am a very basic user. I know there are some powerful features of this tool, but I am still learning. I love to download and view or search for presentations from SlideShare. There are some great presentations and subjects on SlideShare.

Other presenations tools I know of are Google Slides but this is not as intuitive as images cannot be embedded. A drawback is the inability to add images or video. There is no option to browse the camera roll for media, or even to copy and paste images from other sources.

Another visual tool that you can use on the iPad (as with the Prezi app) is Haiku Deck. When I was investigating presentation tool apps I looked at the Prezi app (so you can run a Prezi from your device) and also Haiku Deck. One unique and useful feature is its ability to search Creative Commons–licensed images to use in your slides. It is great for anyone who wants to create elegant presentations with a minimalist look. 

Depending on the purpose of the presentation, a researcher has many options to choose from. If they want a visual presentation with images and videos, and embedding it into other social media platforms, then Haiku Deck or Prezi are great (and the advantage of the mobile app versions). SlideShare is fantastic to share presentations and get greater exposure and imapct. 

There are so many options these days, is it a matter of knowing the purpose and audience and then choosing the right tool to engage the audience. Learning a new tool can require some time, but the end result is worth it and it adds to lifelong learning.

Research Thing 12: Digital curation and content aggregation

I use the following tools:

Feedly
Ever since Google Reader ceased, I tried Netvibes for a while but then discovered Feedly. Great app. for the iPad. You can organise your feeds into folders by subject and favourite posts can be saved to Pocket, as mentioned in the Thing's readings. This is the best way for me to keep my RSS feeds organised, and keep up to date. I also have some RSS feeds in Outlook that are work related, like Library Biz, which works well to not miss anything important for work.

Pinterest
Pinterest I use for fun, I have a home libraries pin board and a style / clothing pinboard. I also had created an apps and gadgets pinboard and a mood board.

FlipBoard
I love to create magazines of RSS feeds from my different social media accounts. You can curate things into magazines, eg. food. People can follow your magazine and get updates as you add content to the magazine. You can also follow other people's magazines. Love the feel of "flippping" the pages like you would a print magazine. Very visual.

Pocket
This and Instapaper makes bookmarking pages on the web and blog posts easy and also more accessible in terms of reading and viewing. The text is much more simplified and you can enlarge the text for easier reading if required. You can organise your bookmarks and pages you have saved to read later.

Research Thing 11: Web conferencing and communication tools

I have used Skype for personal purposes and also paid a small fee to be able to call home when I was overseas. It is sooo much cheaper to call a landline using Skype when overseas. I have used the chat, and video conferencing features and find it easy to use.

I have had a brief training session on Adobe Connect with an IT staff member as I hosted a webinar on it. At first it was a bit daunting, but then it was all OK. There have been occasions when using Adobe Connect, there have been some technical issues, but it is still useful for webinars nontheless.

I can see how these tools can be used, especially when researchers  collaborate or HDR students need a conference call with their supervisor.

Research Thing 10: Managing and manipulating digital images

I just did a search on Flickr for creative commons photos and typed in Research. I found a photo in a laboratory from the Argonne National Laboratory Materials Engineering Research Facility. This photo shows an instrument that separates and analyzes the components of a sample to measure and identify impurities.

So I can see how demonstrations and apparatus, or documenting research events etc. can be a useful record and for sharing with others.

Research Thing 9: Survey tools

I have used Qualtrics and Google Forms . I have used Qualtrics for quick staff feedback on internal training and also for infromation literacy and for external training such as at library events.

I have used Google Forms for Information Literacy feedback in the past and for collating what food people would bring for Harmony Day at Strathfield. I like Qualtrics for more formalised surveys as it has the ACU branding on it. Also it is easy to share and collaborate when creating a questionnaire and reports are easy generate. This has been good for evidence in PRPs. Google forms is easy too, but you all people who collaborate need Google acounts. It's free, however and for informal information gathering, it has unlimited response rate.

Survey Monkey is only free but with limitiations. For instance, only a certain number of respondents allowed and limited questions can be asked. You would need a paid version for unlimited access, hence why I liked Google Forms more.

Research Thing 8: Mindmapping and brainstorming tools

I started creating a Padlet at http://padlet.com/vicki_bourbous/60qb05fr5cz9

It seems easy enough to use - also has an iPad app. It is a fun way to brainstorm, although I like Socrative as a way to brainstorm live if teaching and save the results for sharing.

This, however, is for collaborating in a social networking way, to brainstorm, especially if people are in different locations. I do like it and can see its potential uses.

Research Thing 7 - Researcher Identifiers

My advice to ACU researchers regarding profiles and IDs is the same as Tatum's - get on board!

Anything that lessens any ambiguities and errors is terrific, the fact that you can link profiles to your ORCID ID makes everything more accurate and less messy. Also it makes it easy for someone to view your work and follow you and thus, be recognised and cited.

I need to learn more about how everything links together so I can feel confident in explaining the benefits to our researchers as to why this is a good step to take. I don't have time at the moment, but once things get a little more quiet (if there is such a time) later perhaps in October, I will look into this in greater detail as a way to also connect with researchers and show them the possibilities and how the library can help.

Research Thing 6 - managing your online research networks

I have accounts with both Academia.edu and LinkedIn . I can't say I have updated them recently. I do endorse people's skills and they endorse my skills in LinkedIn. I once had a job offer via LinkedIn, so it is a useful way to market your skills and qualifications, and link to interest groups to follow the latest information and stories. Luckily I am quite happy in my role so I didn't take the offer :).

As for Mendeley, it is great for researchers to colalborate, share information in public and private groups (only in a private group can you annotate a PDF in Mendeley). I am doing Mendeley Librarians Certification program and I have until 30th September to finish. I have finished 1 and 2 and this weekend I will try and complete 3. It was a fair bit of work, but a great learning opportunity.

Research Thing 5 - Social media for researchers

I just read the article by Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson: Academic attention economy. 

I chose this post to read because I follow Inger Mewburn's blog the Thesis Whisperer, and I am doing her MOOC on Suviving the PhD.

Should academics blog? That is the question. I just listened to a podcast the other day from the Australian Writers' Centre and the impact on sales of books that people recommend on social media is amazing. So economically, it pays to blog, but the impact comes from the audience passing it on as a "word of mouth" form of marketing.

So what about academics? In this climate, it is said it is not about quantity published, but about the quality of the articles. However, if no-one knows about it, what's the point? What impact will that have? The experiment of the blogged article that was also open access in Studies in Higher Education saw a massive readership / views  and had impact in mainstream media too. For those academics who are more "traditional", they may be missing a huge market / audience that can also further market or recommend the work and thus get societal impact and be known as an expert in their selected field. So in this case, quantity, in terms of impact, does matter.

As humans, we like to engage in conversation. Academics, who prefer to remain it their ivory towers, and not evolve and adapt to this new social enviroment, may just become non-existent. It is true Darwinian theory here of survival of the fittest. Those that are more proactive and social in various online forms of medium will have more impact. Some might say those with the loudest voice, but I think the quality will still have to be there and be relevant for the audience that is targeted, for the publication to gain readership numbers and "get noticed" and create dialogue.

Research Thing 4 - File Sharing

I had no idea about Cloudstor. I must explore this further.

I have used Dropbox to work on a book chapter with a colleague. This worked well for us. I have two DropBox accounts - a personal one and a work one, but I must try our Cloudstor. I also have a Box account and Google Drive.

I like the cloud storage solution because I had an experience where I had saved documents on Good Reader for offline use, but when I updated my device, I lost my documents on this app. Not good. So I use cloud storage to save and sync across devices.

As for security, there is a risk with everything I guess. We have so many online accounts these days, security could potentially be compromised there too. That is why it is useful to use an app like 1Password to generate stronger passwords. Nothing is foolproof, but we can take some precautions to keeping our accounts secure.

Blog post of interest - How to start blogging as a researcher

In case anyone is interested here is a link to a post on PhD Talk : How to start blogging as a researcher

Research Thing 3 - Collaboration Tools

When collaborating, I have used Google Docs, DropBox, Sharepoint (especially the 2007 version when we had our own space to store and share documents, now I use DropBox).

I also use EverNote, I have emailed notes to people but haven't collaborated using this tool. Also with Prezi, I have used it to create presentations, but not as yet collaborated to share prezis.

The other thing is sharing references. I know that in EndNote online, you can create a folder and share it with a colleague and give them certain permissions to add or edit references. For instance, they can add notes to a reference in the folder.

There is also sharing calendars, like in Outlook or Google Calendar along with other great apps, like Wunderlist, where you can share tasks and projects and sync everyone's schedules so we can be more organised.

New technologies and PhD students

I just read a blog post from the Doctoral Writing blog. It seems that the literature states that uptake of digital technologies amongst doctoral students is low.

An interested conversation to be had on why and how this can be overcome:

https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2015/09/06/digital-technologies-in-doctoral-candidature-and-supervision-stories-from-the-field-2/

Research thing 2 : Organisation and Productivity tools

I've used all the tools mentioned in Research Thing 2! Here's how:

• Doodle - I have used this app for scheduling campus library meetings when I have acted in the role. It saves being bogged down by email and you can see at a glance the best time to hold a meeting to get the most people attending. 
• Diigo  - I use this tool to bookmark everything I want to access again at a later date. As it is stored on the cloud, I am not in danger of losing my bookmarks on a browser if I upgrade my computer, which has happened. You can tag items ans also create lists, which is what I have done to organise my information. You can make bookmarks public or private. I absolutely love Diigo and being able to access anywhere, anytime. 
• Evernote - Love, love, loooove Evernote. I have 2 accounts - a work one and a personal one and I have used it for meetings, to record notes at conferences and courses and to even save things from the web. There was a free feature where, when you installed the desktop version, a tab was placed in Outlook for saving emails directly to Evernote. But I think they have made that a paid feature now. Here is a workaround - when you set up an Evernote account, you also get an Evernote address to email things directly to Evernote on the go! So forward your selected email message to Evernote using the Evernote email address. Furthermore, being a librarian, I love organisation. Again, you can organise your information in Notebooks and tag notes for easy retrieval. So good. Also if you like writing your notes or need to draw something with a stylus pen, try Evernote's product PenUltimate and save your notes and drawings to places like Evernote or DropBox.
• Wunderlist - Although I have only tested this one briefly by downloading the app on my iPad, I can see its potential use. At the moment, for my to do lists and calendar etc., for work I use Outlook, for home I use Reminders and Apple's calendar (which syncs across my MacBook, iPad and iPhone, yes I am an Apple lover), but I am investigating other options. I recently gave a session to library staff on productivity apps, and there are several others to try. I have tried  Remember the Milk , as well as paid apps like Things (which I liked for managing projects and it syncs across my iOS devices too). 

Research Thing 1 - Blogging your research

I'm using my blog from the previous 23 Things again! I think blogging is a great tool for sharing experiences and reflections.

I read a few blogs relating to PhD studies and I have recommended these blogs to HDR students. They are:

• The Thesis Whisperer
• Doctoral Writing SIG

I think people are interested in sharing experiences about the PhD or research process. People can relate to other people's experiences and form a community. Doing research can feel like a very isolated experience and can be stressful. Tips on managing studies and research and how others, for instance, balanaced this with other life events, are useful.

I especially love the Thesis Whisperer as it is Australian and has fantastic resources to assist researchers and supervisors. If people are interested in the blogs of other PhD students, there is a page of links at http://thesiswhisperer.com/read-some-phd-student-blogs/.