Getting Started in Grad School: 4.7 USask Research Resources

As you progress in and through your program and field of study there will be further research considerations and supports to assist you in the various stages of your research.   What follows are additional research-related resources and practices to be aware of regarding research data, open scholarship, and USask research supports.

This PAWS channel is a clearinghouse for locating campus resources available to support you through the research lifecycle. This campus resource highlights the major milestones of the research lifecycle and USask tools, information, and support available for each stage, including library resources.

To access this resource, log into your PAWS account and search "research resources". Once open, select "Add to Favourites" to ensure this page is added to your Favourites menu.  

Use your NSID to log in to https://paws5.usask.ca/#research

Research data management (RDM) is the process that guides the collection, documentation, storage, sharing, and preservation of research data throughout the lifecycle of a project. 

A data management plan (DMP) is a document that describes how your data will be collected, organized, analyzed, stored, preserved, and shared (when applicable) over the course of a research project. It is designed to make your data and the accompanying research process transparent and understandable to others to improve its reproducibility and reusability. 

Want to learn more?  Watch this workshop recording on how to develop a data management plan. 

Open scholarship, also called open science or open research "is a movement in scholarly communication that promotes the free and open sharing of research outputs, including data, code, and publications. The goal of open science is to increase the accessibility, transparency, rigor, reproducibility, and impact of research" (source).  

"Open" encompasses principles like open-access publishing, open data, open educational resources, and open peer review. The goal of open scholarship is to eliminate barriers to accessing and disseminating research, promoting collaboration, fostering the reuse and repurposing of research outputs, and maximizing the impact of scholarly work. 

Here are some things you can do to practice open scholarship throughout your research program (source):

• Make your publications open access. Making research results openly available does not need to cost huge fees. This guide provides advice on how to reduce or avoid author fees for open access publishing.
   
• Use HARVEST to make publications and other research outputs open. HARVEST, USask’s digital research repository, provides a free and legal way to make publications, presentations, posters, reports, and other products of research open access. Digital repositories like HARVEST also ensure long-term preservation and discoverability for research outputs.
   
• Make your research data open (where appropriate). Research data can be deposited for free in Canada’s Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR). More support in managing your research data is available on the Library Guide to Research Data Management (RDM).
   
• Learn more about Open Science practices. Watch these workshop recordings: 
  • What does it mean to be open? Practicing open scholarship throughout the research lifecycle 
  • Open-up your research: Improving research integrity and transparency using the Open Science Framework