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PhD on Track – online library support for PhD students
Austrheim, Gunhild5; Bech, Mia 3; Cutler, Ingrid 2; Gasparini, Andrea Alessandro1; Haraldsen, Kirsten Borse 1; Kavli, Fredrik 4; Konestabo, Heidi Sjursen1; Lundmark, Anders Mattias1; Mikki, Susanne 2; Roos, Monica 5; Rullestad, Tove 2; Skagen, Therese1; Torras, Maria-Carme 5; Westbye, Hilde 1; Ødegaard, Marte 1; Gullbekk, Eystein1
Presenter: Kirsten Borse Haraldsen: k.b.haraldsen@ub.uio.no
1Oslo University Library,
2Bergen University Library,
3Aalborg University Library,
4Norwegian School of Economics, Library,
5Bergen University College, Library,
In order to become skilled researchers within their specific field, PhD students must master a number of so-called generic or professional skills. These include to publish scientific results, efficiently navigate different sources of information and literature, and to understand how measurements of scientific impact may affect funding and career opportunities. The students may also encounter ethical dilemmas, such as handling different co-author practices, disagreements on publication channels, and open access publishing. In a collaborative effort five Scandinavian research and university libraries have developed the free online resource PhD on Track, to help address these skills and knowledge needs of PhD students. The resource is primarily aimed at inexperienced PhD students, but may also prove valuable to more experienced researchers.
In our poster we present the different elements of PhD on Track, highlight some of its potential uses and point to discussions of libraries as legitimate actors in PhD students’ research and learning. We value input from the research communities in an effort to include more specific resources and topics targeted at the biochemical and biological researchers, e.g. about research data repositories, and funding in cross-disciplinary framework programs.
The www.phdontrack.net site was launched in 2013 and is already used as a resource in 7 countries. It is built on the results of an empirical study of PhD candidates practices and experienced challenges (Gullbekk et al 2012), conceived as part of the collaborative project “Information Management for Knowledge Creation” funded by the Norwegian National Library.
Reference:
Gullbekk, E., Rullestad, T., & Torras i Calvo, M.-C. (ed.) (2012). PhD candidates and the
research process: The library's contribution. (Vol. 8). Oslo: Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo.
