Training and events

This Copyright for Researchers course aims to convey copyright essentials to Imperial PhD students. It is focused on UK law only. The structure of the course reflects your research lifecycle and aims to provide clarity on copyright issues you will encounter at each of the stages of the lifecycle. This course will equip you with a working knowledge of copyright and licensing so that in your career as a researcher you use and can share information in a copyright safe way.

Duration: Approximately 3 hours 
Format: Self-paced online Blackboard course

To self-enrol onto the course, please follow the instructions: Ensuring Integrity: Copyright (Doctoral Students) 2021-2022.

Tuesday 04 June 2024 10:00 - 11:30, MS Teams

Publishing research is a key step towards achieving impact within and beyond academia. This course will explain how traditional bibliometric measures including the Journal Impact Factor and the h-index are calculated and introduce the key arguments against using them to assess research. We will also explore citation bias. We will then discuss how organisations are adopting new methods of assessing research using direct examples from funders. Lastly, the course will introduce a new alternative impact tool, Altmetric that you can use, as well as an activity to apply these new methods to your experience of publishing in your field.

Please register via the Graduate School Bibliometrics and Demonstrating Academic Impact.

To be confirmed, MS Teams

Research publishing models are changing. Authors are increasingly choosing to share preprints ahead of the sometimes-lengthy wait for journal publication and funders are responding with new preprint policies for immediate access to results. There are also new types of peer review available that offer different levels of confidentiality and transparency to authors, reviewers and readers.

In this course you will learn about traditional publishing methods as well as these innovative new models. We will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of the different models and all the practical steps that you need to consider before posting a preprint or submitting to an open, transparent or post-publication peer review journal.

This course is aimed at doctoral students but all staff and students are welcome to register. Doctoral students can register through the Graduate School: Preprints and Open Peer Review.

Friday 17 May 2024 10:00 - 11:30, MS Teams

This workshop provides an insight into preparing your thesis to be made Open Access (OA) and the benefits of open access more generally. This workshop will provide you with a general introduction to the topic, with specific reference to your PhD thesis, and related research outputs that may arise from PhD study. You will be introduced to: 

• Open Access repositories
• Practice of Open Research
• Open access publishing
• Online tools to find open access research material

Please note this course was previously named ‘Introduction to Making Your Thesis Open Access’

To book your place please visit Publishing Open Access: Your Research and Thesis.

For more information or any questions please email the Open Access team.

Tuesday 07 May 2024 10:00 - 12:00, MS Teams

Data is a key research asset, underpinning almost all published research conclusions. In recent years, new technology has enabled us to:

1. Generate and record far more data than ever before; and
2. Share, reuse and combine that data in new ways to generate new insights.

Research data is increasingly a first-class research output, and a little bit of planning will enable you to take advantage of this shift.

This course will highlight the key considerations for students and researchers to help them assess when it is appropriate to share your data and how, and how to write a data management plan.

Visit the Graduate School: Research Data Management webpage to book your place.

For more information or any questions please email the Research Data Management team.

Tuesday 21 May 2024 10:00 - 11:30, MS Teams

Research data is a key research asset and planning how to manage data outputs is increasingly becoming a requirement of applying for grants and funding. Having a data management plan will help you manage costs and responsibilities, keep your data safe and secure during the project and prepare your data for archiving and (where appropriate) sharing at the end of the project.

This webinar will introduce you to the online data management planning tool DMPonline and cover some of the more practical elements of creating a data management plan.

The webinar is designed to accompany the Graduate School: Research Data Management workshop. Prior attendance of that workshop is not mandatory but is recommended.

Visit the Graduate School: Research Data Management Plans webpage to book your place.

For more information or any questions please email the Research Data Management Team.

To be confirmed, MS Teams

In this session we will cover the basics of organising and managing research data that will help you now and in the future. Whether you have created the data yourself or are reusing data from existing resources, making sure research data are well managed can help prevent data loss, ensure research transparency and reproducibility, and enable data sharing and reuse.

To book your place visit the Library Workshops page and see Introduction to research data management.

For more information or any questions please email the Research Data Management team.

The open access team offers one to one consultations on open access related topics.

You can book a one to one if you need support with open access and the REF, paying for open access from your Wellcome or RCUK grant, using Symplectic, options for open access, making your research open access, or require any other advice about open access publishing.

Pictured: Kim Blake (L), Open Access Assistant, provides a one-to-one to Alexandra Williams (R), Centre Support Manager, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

This session will explore how your thesis can be made Open Access in Spiral as required by Imperial, the exemptions available and the benefits of Open Access more generally.

• The requirement to make your thesis Open Access via Imperial’s Open Access repository for research, Spiral.
• Open access and dissemination of your research
• What Embargoes can I use for my thesis online?
• Creative Commons licences for your thesis

This session is not for credit and will not count towards the attendance requirement.

Dates & How to Book

• Wednesday 08 May 2024, 14:30-15:30, Microsoft Teams

Please select a date and book on via Inkpath using your Imperial Single-Sign-On.

Thursday 1 February 2024 10:00 - 11:30, MS Teams

Publishing research is a key step towards achieving impact within and beyond academia. This course will explain how traditional bibliometric measures including the Journal Impact Factor and the h-index are calculated and introduce the key arguments against using them to assess research. We will also explore citation bias. We will then discuss how organisations are adopting new methods of assessing research using direct examples from funders. Lastly, the course will introduce a new alternative impact tool, Altmetric that you can use, as well as an activity to apply these new methods to your experience of publishing in your field.

Please register via the Graduate School Bibliometrics and Demonstrating Academic Impact.

Wednesday 28 February 2024 10:00 - 11:30, MS Teams

Research publishing models are changing. Authors are increasingly choosing to share preprints ahead of the sometimes-lengthy wait for journal publication and funders are responding with new preprint policies for immediate access to results. There are also new types of peer review available that offer different levels of confidentiality and transparency to authors, reviewers and readers.

In this course you will learn about traditional publishing methods as well as these innovative new models. We will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of the different models and all the practical steps that you need to consider before posting a preprint or submitting to an open, transparent or post-publication peer review journal.

This course is aimed at doctoral students but all staff and students are welcome to register. Doctoral students can register through the Graduate School: Preprints and Open Peer Review.

Wednesday 15 May 2019, 14.00-15.30, South Kensington

Wednesday 14 November 2018, 14.00-15.30, South Kensington

Tutors: Philippa Hatch and John Murtagh (Library Services)

This workshop will provide a general introduction to open access, with specific reference to the PhD thesis, and related research outputs that may arise from PhD study. It will include the use of third party copyright material in a thesis and the workflow attached to ensuring this is legally reproduced in any thesis being deposited online in Spiral. Students will be introduced to the College’s repository, the Sherpa open access information services, and open access workflows.

On completion of this workshop you will be able to:

• Recognise ‘What is open access?’ and understand the theory and background behind it.
• Identify what you need to know about making your thesis open access.
• Utilise the College’s repository, the Sherpa open access information services and open access workflows.
• Employ the correct approach to making work from your PhD thesis, and any research-related work outside the thesis, available on open access .
• Evaluate your work to ensure it meets the legal reproduction requirements for use of third party copyright material.

Training workshops for the National Heart & Lung Institute as part of their ongoing commitment to postdoc training.

15 minute presentation + 1hr 45 mins questions/hands on practice (set up or deposit).

Presentation: What? Why? When? How? Open access publishing at Imperial‌

Thursday 25 January 2018

Postdocs, Fellows, PAs and PIs at Hammersmith campus

Thursday 16 November 2017

Postdocs, Fellows, PAs and PIs at Royal Brompton campus

"I found the meeting really helped me to understand what I need to do to ensure my work is accessible and will qualify for the REF. In particular it clarified the interconnection between ORCID and Symplectic, but that we need to upload manuscripts via Sympectic even though the publication details will feed through from ORCID. I hadn't realised that to be included in REF we need to upload the accepted version of a manuscript within 3 months and not wait for a publisher's proof version, even if that becomes available within the 3 month time period. I am now clear on the different roles of Symplectic and SPIRAL.”

Wednesday 26 September 2018

Members of the OA and RDM teams gave a joint presentation and workshop to ECRs in the Centre for Environmental Policy. Topics covered included REF, Data Management Plans (DMPs), OA and citations, data archiving, and more. A 30-minute presentation was followed by a 30-minute extended Q&A.

To arrange a similar session for your department please contact us.

Termly workshops

Tuesday 20 March 2018

Once a term the Scholarly Communication team carry out a workshop on open access, with specific reference to the PhD thesis, and related research outputs that may arise from PhD study.

Thursday 4 May 2023, MS Teams

This training session aimed at researchers new to Imperial included an introduction to open access and research data management (RDM), funder open access and data management policies, information about depositing papers in Imperial’s repository Spiral, open access funding available at Imperial, data management plans, and advice on using Symplectic Elements. It situated good practice in open access, RDM and data management in the context of open research at Imperial.

A similar session currently runs approximately twice a year. Please email Ruth Hibbert if you would like to ask about future sessions, or receive a recording of the most recent session.

Tuesday 7 November 2017

Introduction to Making your Thesis Open Access - Tuesday 7 November 2017
A general introduction to open access, with specific reference to the PhD thesis, and related research outputs that may arise from PhD study.

Presentation: Open access for Buisness PhD students

Thursday 22 February 2024, MS Teams

This training session was aimed at PAs, EAs, and Research Administrators who upload papers to Symplectic, make open access funding applications to the library funds, work on data management plans, or wanted to find out more about open access, open research, and research data management.

A similar session currently runs approximately once a year. Please email Ruth Hibbert if you would like to ask about future sessions, or receive a recording of the most recent session.

We can offer similar sessions tailored to other groups. Please contact us to discuss your options or arrange a session.

The Publishing Trap is a 8-12 person board game created by the  UK Copyright Literacy team. It is an active way to explore the impact of different scholarly communications choices and discuss the role of open access in research.  Students take a journey,  with 4 researchers working in different subjects, from PhD student to retiring professor. Exploring the impact of different licensing and personal decisions. Members of the Scholarly Communications Team are on hand to answer participants questions and link the game to open access support at Imperial.

Please email openaccess@imperial.ac.uk to organise a session.

Tuesday 19 February 2019

Members of the Scholarly Communications Management team ran a stand in The Molecular Sciences Research Hub, at Imperial’s newest campus to answer questions about research data management, open access, and bibliometrics. See Research that starts conversations for more information about bibliometrics.

Finish Up & Move On (FUMO) is one of the Graduate School's flagship courses and provides Doctoral students with invaluable skills to prepare them for whatever their next steps might be. The Open Access Team attend on one of the days and provides information on open access but also requirements for REF2021 and funds available to doctoral students.