Services for Higher Degree by Research students

Our librarians can:

• help you locate publications, databases and other resources related to your research focus
• purchase or acquire items for the Library collection on your behalf
• assist you to download and use referencing software (e.g. EndNote)
• deliver personalised research training or general research advice
• provide advice on research identifiers (e.g. ORCID iD), research data management, copyright and scholarly publishing to help your research achieve maximum impact.

The Library has an extensive print and digital collection, including monographs, journals, maps, architectural plans, manuscripts, ephemera, anatomical models and photographs.

As a HDR candidate, you can borrow items from the print collection for a standard loan period.

Use Library Search to find and access the materials you need. If you can't find a resource:

• submit a request for document delivery, or
• request a purchase via Library Search.

Find out how to manage research data to ensure that you do it right from the beginning. Your research data could be in multiple forms, including spreadsheets, text, transcripts from interviews, videos, images or code. Learn how to:

• use the UQ Research Data Manager (UQ RDM)
• prepare a data management plan
• adhere to grants and ethics guidelines
• store and secure your project's data.

Find the right software or tool for your research. Use tools to format written work, manage citations and analyse and present data.  

You can download EndNote referencing software to your own device and it is also available on Library computers. Other software installed on Library computers includes:

• Microsoft Office - Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Acrobat X Pro
• R and RStudio
• NVivo

The Library offers free face-to-face and online training. Training sessions particularly aimed at HDR candidates include:

• Creating a Structured Thesis (CAST)
• Microsoft Word and Excel
• data and text analysis software training (e.g. NVivo, R and RStudio)
• managing research data and strategic publishing.

The Graduate School Career Development Framework provides a range of opportunities for you to develop your research, transferable and professional skills.

The Library also provides access to software and skills training from LinkedIn Learning.

An ORCID ID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) uniquely distinguishes you as a researcher and connects you to your research activity.

HDR candidates who commenced on or after 1 April 2018 are required to register an ORCID ID with UQ by attainment of their confirmation milestone.

Use your ORCID ID and other research identifiers to streamline your publication workflow and draw in accurate data about your work to your UQ eSpace profile. This will help you spend more time on your research and less time on the management of your research.

Find out how to:

• get an ORCID ID
• link your ORCID ID to UQ eSpace
• learn about Web of Science Researcher Profiles (using ResearcherID) and Scopus Author Identifier
• get the most out of all your researcher profiles.

As a researcher, your responsibilities include the correct handling of data, conduct of ethical research and identification of conflicts of interest.

Research Integrity Training

UQ provides various opportunities for training in research integrity, including the Research integrity online module. This training aims to assist staff and students in understanding their responsibilities and in developing strategies to meet their obligations.

Research Integrity Advisers

UQ has appointed academic staff from each Faculty and Institute to the roles of Research Integrity Advisers who promote the responsible conduct of research at UQ and can provide advice on good research practice.

Sharing research data ethically

If you will be sharing or re-using your project's data in the future, ensure you have appropriate consent and ethics approval.

Access help and resources to guide you through the steps of a literature or systematic review. Find information on your research topic:

• Search techniques
• Where and how to search
• Techniques for comprehensive searching

Literature reviews

A literature or “narrative” review examines the current literature on a topic, providing backing context and critical analysis of existing work. The exact format and scope can vary depending on your discipline, and related works, such as an undergraduate essay, Masters’ or PhD thesis. The review is intended to situate where your work and theory or methods are positioned, in relation to existing studies.

• Our Literature review guide looks at conducting your search, storing and organising the literature and evaluating what you find
• Student Services has a guide to help you write effective literature reviews

Systematic reviews

Systematic reviews are very different from narrative reviews. A systematic review:

• has a clear question or hypothesis to be answered
• searches are rigorous, to locate all potentially relevant literature
• includes explicit inclusion-exclusion criteria
• assesses study quality for inclusion and provides a synthesis of results.

Our Systematic review guide gives an overview of systematic searching and resources to support producing systematic, scoping, rapid, or umbrella reviews or for projects requiring a systematic searching approach.

Get systematic searching support from your Librarian Team to help you develop your systematic search.

• The Graduate School offers writing workshops and online courses
• Student Support has workshops on research writing, presentations and peer writing support

• Book a UQRDM training session.
• Check the UQRDM guide for HDR students.

Learn how to review your writing to ensure consistency and accuracy in grammar, spelling, punctuation and formatting.

Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process of your work, to ensure no errors remain. These errors may be factual or stylistic and detract from the professionalism of your work.

• Student Support has tips on editing and proofreading
• Use a text-to-speech tool to hear your writing read out loud. This can help you identify problems
• Attend a Word: Creating a Structured Thesis (CAST) workshop to learn how to format efficiently in Microsoft Word. Check our Training page for upcoming sessions

iThenticate is a plagiarism detection tool to check your written work before publication.

Use iThenticate to check the academic integrity of your work for milestone submissions and publication. It must be used in preparation for your thesis’ final examination and for submission to UQ eSpace. Learn more about iThenticate.

To ensure you choose the best outlet for your manuscript, you should be aware of the important strategies around where and when to publish. Making the right choices can propel your career. Our Publish and share page covers:

• the publishing process
• strategic scholarly publishing and journal selection
• open access
• ORCID ID and other research identifiers.

Measure the impact and increase the visibility of your research. Learn what's involved in Metrics, impact and engagement:

• Metrics to measure research performance
• Demonstrate the impact of your research
• Gather evidence of interaction with your research end-users