Research assistance and consulting

1. (Guidance)

2. Research
Assistance

3.  Research Assistant
 A research assistant (in some institutions referred
to as research officer) is a researcher employed,
often on a temporary contract, by a university or a
research institute, for the purpose of assisting in
academic research.

4.  Research Assistant
 Research assistants are an important component to the
research process and particularly to large research
projects conducted at larger organizations such as
universities. Research assistants are particularly integral
at research universities where faculty members are
expected to carry out funded research as part of their
job.

5. What does a
Research Assistant
Do?

6.  On Academic Discipline
 The tasks of a research assistant will vary greatly from one
academic discipline to another.

7.  On General Tasks
 Many research assistants may assist with general tasks required in
most courses of inquiry. This may include conducting a search for
scholarly literature relevant to the research project, searching the
library, copying articles, ordering additional articles and books,
and formulating a bibliography. Other general tasks may be
related to clerical and record-keeping for the overall project.

8.  Research Tasks
 Depending on the academic field and the particular principal
investigator in charge, a research assistant may be treated as more
of a research associate and expected to make much more
significant contributions to the overall project in addition to the
general tasks. Research assistants may be tasked with collecting
data by planning and implementing experiments, conducting
interviews, administering surveys, or coordinating focus groups.

9.  Communicating Research
 Research assistants may be charged with assisting a
researcher with preparing presentations about research
project results for professional, scientific and academic
conferences. Power point slides may need to be crafted for
oral paper presentations, and posters will need to be created
for conference poster presentations.

10. Research
Assistance
Examples

14.  Research Appointments & Paper Consultations
 Request a research appointment with a research librarian who
will provide advice on defining your topic, developing your
research strategy, locating and using subject-specific data
sources, and identifying potential research problem areas.
Please include a description of your topic and times you are
available to meet.

15.  Research Classes
 Each semester, the Library offers research classes on a
variety of subjects to assist students working on research
papers and assignments for their substantive and clinical
courses, as well as journal work. Library research classes and
training sessions offered by LexisNexis and Westlaw are all
listed in the HLSL Legal Research Training calendar.

16. Getting Help with Research Projects
 Use Find Resources for locating library materials.
 Use Research Guides for identifying recommended resources on a given
topic or an industry, such as "company research" or "biotechnology
industry."
 Use Fast Answers for getting answers to specific research questions such as
"where can I find a list of recent mergers and acquisitions?" or to ask
your own question of library staff.

17. Librarians dedicated to subject areas are here to help you
with all aspects of the research process, including:
 Figuring out research topic ideas
 Finding background information on your topic
 Identifying high quality, scholarly resources for your
topic or project
 Strategizing on how to manage citations
 Set up a one-on-one research session with your subject
librarian.
 Request a research consultation.

18.  Research Assistance Program
 Our Research Assistance Program (RAP) is designed to
encourage post-publication research that provides new
information about the applications and characteristics
of our instruments. By making the results of such
studies available to the field, you will be contributing
to scientific knowledge and sound professional
practice.

20. Research
Consulting

21.  Research Consultant
 A research consultant is a specialist that performs targeted
research and provides a final report to the client. This type of
consultant is most commonly found in scientific, government or
engineering services firms. The need for these types of specialist
services is standard in these industries, as permanent staff are not
experts in the specific areas.

22.  Research Consultants Does!
 Supporting and working alongside more senior recruitment
consultants, as a Research Consultant you'll be responsible for
collecting, analysing and presenting data in a variety of
formats

24.  The Research & Instructional Support (RIS) Department
offers a research consultation service for
students, faculty, and staff. This is an in-
depth, customized, one-on-one meeting with a RIS staff
member to discuss possible information resources and search
strategies for class
assignments, papers, presentations, Masters theses, and
doctoral dissertations.

26.  Library Research Consultations connect researchers
to the information and skills needed to support
research.
 Research Consultations with subject experts are
tailored to the needs of researchers.

27. What can you expect from a Research Consultation?
 help finding scholarly information related to research topics
 strategies for searching specific databases
 access to the information identified
 assistance with systematic reviews
 Research Consultations are available to higher degree
students, postgraduate students, honours students, Faculty
and academic staff.

28. A few examples of typical research consultations
include:
 Undergraduate students
 Writing course term papers or honors theses
 Sharing citations with other students on a team project

 Graduate students
 Identifying databases and other resources for thesis work
 Formulating reference styles for journal article submission
 Compiling and managing a personal citation database

29. Faculty
 Locating resources for research or grant proposals
 Integrating a large citation database into manuscript
preparation
 Compiling and displaying source materials for a course Web
site
Campus administrative and professional staff
 Locating sources for statistical data for reports and
presentations
 Posting a database of subject references on a Web site

30. THANK YOU 