Researcher Training
Develop your library research skills and digital capabilities as a researcher – from database searching, managing references to publishing strategically.
Event Calendar
You can register to attend researcher training events delivered by the Library using the calendar below. Please note that we add new events regularly.
Session Details, Recordings, and Resources
Click on a tile below to find out more about our Researcher@Library sessions and access recommended resources. For webinars that have run recently, you can also view recordings.
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This session will benefit graduate researchers and academic staff who are new to the University, but it is open to all University staff and students.
This introductory workshop covers topics that are essential to advanced research at the University of Melbourne. Delivered by some of the University’s Liaison Librarians and research support specialists, the session covers:
- An overview of library services, spaces, and collections
- Library Guides and the Library Website
- Search tools and apps to make research easier
- Managing references and your bibliography
- Accessing specialist advice throughout your research career
Recommended resource
Researchers’ Library Guide. This guide highlights Library resources and services for new research staff and graduate researchers.
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The primary intended audience of this workshop is graduate researchers, but it is open to all University of Melbourne students and staff.
Literature reviews are essential starting points for tackling new research questions, whether you’re working on a new study, a paper, or your thesis. In today’s dizzying information landscape of search engines, databases, and AI, a robust search strategy ensures you’re surfacing the most relevant peer-reviewed research on your topic. This hands-on workshop looks at how to develop a search strategy for a literature review, so you can take control of finding and evaluating the scholarship.
Delivered by Liaison Librarians across different disciplines, the workshop covers:
- Why we conduct literature reviews, and how they differ from other kinds of reviews.
- Responsible use of Gen AI in the search process.
- Using your research question and exploratory searches to build an effective search.
- Choosing the right database(s).
- Search demonstrations and activities.
- Tips for saving your searches and staying current with search alerts.
- Seeking support from your Liaison Librarians.
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This webinar is open to all UoM students and staff. The session will introduce you to the basics of using Zotero for reference management.
This webinar will enable you to:
- Understand what reference management software can and cannot do
- Install Zotero, its connectors, and plugins
- Navigate the Zotero interface
- Add references to your Zotero library
- Sync an online account with your desktop
- Use Zotero to insert citations and format a bibliography in Word or Google Docs using your preferred referencing style
Recommended resources
The Library provides a comprehensive Zotero Guide on the Re:cite website. We recommend you visit this page and download Zotero before the session.
If you’re unsure whether to use Zotero or EndNote, the options for managing references guide will help you to choose which program best meets your needs.
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This interactive online workshop is open to all UoM students and staff. The session is intended for established Zotero users who want to explore further features.
The workshop will enable you to:
- Understand more methods to add items and full text to your library
- Use annotation and note-taking tools
- Manage duplicates
- Make the most of tags
- Create and follow groups
- Understand the importance of retractions
- Sync across devices and tablets
- Understand the storage options
This session is designed for users who are familiar with the basics of adding references and working with Zotero in Word but want to use more advanced features to support research activity.
Recommended resource
The Library provides a comprehensive Zotero Guide on the Re:cite website.
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This webinar is open to all UoM students and staff. The session will introduce you to the basics of using EndNotefor reference management.
This webinar will enable you to:
- Understand what reference management software can and cannot do
- Navigate the EndNote interface
- Create and add references to an Endnote library
- Use EndNote to insert citations and format a bibliography in Word using your preferred referencing style
Recommended resources
The Library provides a comprehensive EndNote Guide on the Re:cite website. We recommend you visit this page and download EndNote before the session.
If you’re unsure whether to use Zotero or EndNote, the options for managing references guide will help you to choose which program best meets your needs.
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This interactive online workshop is open to all UoM students and staff. The session is intended for established EndNote users who want to explore further features.
This workshop will enable you to:
- Import existing folders of PDFs
- Merge multiple chapters in Word
- Sync with EndNote Online
- Share your EndNote library
- Edit citation styles
This session is designed for users who are familiar with the basics of adding references and working with EndNote in Word but want to use more advanced features to support research activity.
Recommended resource
The Library provides a comprehensive EndNote Guide on the Re:cite website.
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This workshop is intended for graduate researchers, academic staff, and professional staff working in research support. It is delivered by the Digital Stewardship, Research Data Management and Research Computing Services teams.
This session introduces the University’s data environment and tools for best practice in research data management. It is designed to help you plan, store, and publish research data and digital assets, including guidance on working with sensitive data in a secure and compliant way. The workshop includes guided, hands-on activities using the University’s data management tools.
Topics covered include:
- Research project planning
- Working with sensitive research data
- Data organisation and storage
- Data publication and retention
Recommended resource
The Managing Data @Melbourne online training introduces the basics of research data management.
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Delivered by archivists from the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA), this webinar is open to all staff and students at the University of Melbourne.
This session introduces archives as an essential source of primary resources, and discusses the collections held by UMA. Specific topics include:
- The institutional context of UMA
- Collecting areas and collections held by UMA
- How to search our archival holdings effectively
- How to access archives in person through the reading room, or via digital channels
- How to cite archival documents in your research
- Other archival institutions and how to find them
Latest recording
View the latest recording of this session from 17 September 2026:
Recommended resource
Using Archives Library Guide. This guide provides information on archival and primary source research, and how to access the University of Melbourne Archives.
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This webinar is open to all staff and students at the University of Melbourne and covers what you need to know to get started digitising printed materials.
This session is for anyone digitising (photographing or scanning) documents, photographs, maps, or other printed materials. Whether you’re doing-it-yourself from an office, on location, or at the University Digitisation Centre, this webinar has you covered!
Delivered by the University Digitisation Centre, the webinar covers:
- An introduction to digitisation using digital cameras, phone cameras, or scanners.
- Options and recommendations for digitising content on-site, such as in archives or reading rooms.
- Image processing and workflow recommendations.
- Overview of self service scanning facilities available to University staff at the UDC building in Parkville.
Latest recording
View the latest recording of this session from 14 April 2026:
Recommended resource
University Digitisation Centre. Visit the UDC website for more information about digitisation and the services available.
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This webinar is open to all staff and students at the University of Melbourne who are interested in automating image processing workflows in Windows.
This session is for researchers who digitise (photograph or scan) printed materials and want to automate repetitive image processing tasks. Examples vary from making multiple versions of a single image for print or web publishing, to automating the entire process of converting scanned images to PDFs with optical character recognition (OCR). Each can be accomplished with a few mouse clicks using freely available tools.
Delivered by the University Digitisation Centre (UDC) team, the session covers:
- Comparison of GUI applications vs. Command line scripting.
- Different ways of running scripts without having to type.
- Preparing a workflow for a task.
- Sample workflows for processing files while you’re scanning.
- Using spreadsheets to manage and execute multiple scripts.
- Running scripts in parallel to boost performance.
- Where to get help with your specific workflows.
Note that the tools and processes covered in this session are for the Windows operating system only; no Mac or Linux apps or processes are discussed although many of the tools and processes have equivalents for these systems.
Latest recording
View the latest recording of this session from 2 June 2026:
Recommended resources
Visit the University Digitisation Centre website for more information about digitisation and the services available.
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This workshop is intended for graduate researchers and early-career researchers but is open to all University of Melbourne staff and students.
In this interactive workshop, participants get an overview of what goes in to choosing where to publish research findings, then get hands-on with different tools and resources.
Delivered by the Liaison Librarian and Scholarly Communications teams, the workshop covers:
- Using databases and other tools to find suitable journals.
- Understanding your publishing options, including open access opportunities.
- How to critically evaluate your options, including avoiding predatory and high-risk publishers.
This session focuses on publishing in journals but also contains some takeaways for publishing peer-reviewed books and book chapters.
Recommended resource
Scholarly Publishing Library Guide, particularly its pages on Choosing Where to Publish. This guide supports researchers with scholarly publishing decisions, such as selecting journals or conferences, publishing books, publishing from your thesis, and open access considerations.
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This webinar provides an overview of research metrics for graduate researchers, academic staff, and professional staff working in research support.
Research metrics are used to quantify engagement with research outputs, and range from traditional metrics like journal impact to non-traditional or "altmetrics," like shares on social media.
This session covers:
- The University of Melbourne's position on appropriate use of research metrics
- Requirements of major funding bodies
- An overview of prominent tools
Latest recording
View the latest recording of this session from 18 August 2026:
Recommended resource
Research Metrics. The Library's research metrics website covers what they are, how to capture them, and how to use them responsibly.
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This workshop is for graduate researchers, academic staff, and professional staff working in research.
This session explores different forms of evidence used to demonstrate research impact, including citation performance of research outputs, media and social media interest, commercial potential and sharing of outputs and data. Participants will get hands-on experience with different tools and resources.
Topics covered include:
- An overview of the suite of Impact Measurement Products available to researchers
- Which measure to use in which context
- How to get assistance
Latest recording (webinar version)
View the latest recording of this session from 17 February 2026. Note the webinar version of this session does not include the hands-on activities:
Recommended resource
Research Metrics. The Library's research metrics website covers what they are, how to capture them, and how to use them responsibly.
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This webinar is for graduate researchers, academic staff, and professional staff working in research.
This session explores alternative metrics for traditional research outputs (e.g. journal articles) and metrics to demonstrate the impact of non-traditional research outputs (e.g. datasets, software, performance, exhibitions). Participants will get hands-on experience with different tools and resources.
Delivered by specialist Liaison Librarians, the session covers:
- Why it is necessary to provide evidence
- Alternative metrics for traditional research outputs
- Other measures or indicators
- Metrics for non-traditional research outputs
- Next steps
Latest recording (webinar version)
View the latest recording of this session from 25 February 2026. Note the webinar version of this session does not include the hands-on activities:
Recommended resource
Altmetrics Library Guide. This guide explores alternative metrics: what they are, tools to gather them and how to increase your Altmetric Explorer scores.
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This workshop is intended for graduate researchers and early-career researchers newer to the academic publishing process, but it is open to all University of Melbourne students and staff.
This interactive workshop introduces key concepts around open access and scholarly publishing, explores the open access publishing pathways available to University of Melbourne researchers, and includes hands-on activities using tools and resources.
The workshop covers:
- Open access and its benefits.
- Open access pathways across the scholarly publishing landscape.
- Using the University's new Journal Open Pathways Explorer.
- Finding fully open access journals and publishers.
- Understanding and using the University's open access publishing agreements.
- Navigating Article Processing Charges (APCs) and other publishing fees.
- Using open access repositories when your research is published behind a paywall.
Recommended resource
Key resources covered in this session include the Open Access Publishing and Repository Open Access pages on the Library’s Open Scholarship website, and the Scholarly Publishing Library Guide.
The workshop also explores the new Journal Open Pathways Explorer platform, as well as the Open Policy Finder.
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This session is open to all academic staff, graduate researchers, and professional staff at the University of Melbourne.
Presented by the Scholarly Communications team, this session explores the open access publishing pathways available to University of Melbourne staff and students in 2026.
The webinar covers:
- The open access landscape in 2026, including publishing trends, funder open access policies, and our Principles for Open Access.
- Finding fully open access journals and publishers.
- The different open access publishing agreements active in 2026, including our Read and Publish Agreements and Transformative Agreements with various publishers.
- The scope, limitations, and eligibility criteria of the agreements, and how to use them when publishing your research.
- Navigating Article Processing Charges (APCs) and other publishing fees.
- Other open access initiatives and infrastructure being supported by the University in 2026.
- Repository open access options available when research is published behind a paywall.
Latest Recording
View the latest recording of this session from 5 Feb 2026:
Recommended resources
For further information, see the Open Access Publishing page on the Open Scholarship website.
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This webinar is intended for graduate researchers and those working on honours or coursework theses.
Presented by the Scholarly Communications team and the Copyright Office, this session provides an overview of open access and copyright considerations for your thesis.
This session covers:
- Open access deposit in the University's institutional repository (Minerva Access)
- Embargo and restricted access options
- Considerations for theses with publications
- Publishing thesis material after submission
- Third-party copyright and permissions.
While most of this session focuses on graduate research theses, presenters touch on how coursework and honours students can also make their theses open access.
Latest recording
View the latest recording of this session from 14 May 2026:
Recommended resources
PhD and Masters Research candidates can find out more on the Graduate Research Hub’s My Thesis in the Library and the Library’s Open Access Theses pages.
Honours and Masters Coursework students looking to make a thesis open access can refer to a step-by-step guide on the Minerva Access website: Honours and Masters Coursework thesis submission.
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In this webinar, we explore the open access pathways available for scholarly publications such as journal articles, conference papers, and books and book chapters.
Presented by the Scholarly Communications and Liaison Librarian teams, the session covers a range of topics, including:
- Benefits of open access, plus emerging trends and recent developments
- Open access policies, principles, and funder requirements
- Finding fully open access journals and publishers, including ‘Diamond’ and ‘Subscribe to Open’ titles
- Using the University’s open access publishing agreements
- Navigating Article Processing Charges (APCs) and discounts
- Finding cost-free repository open access pathways
- Using the University’s institutional repository, Minerva Access
Latest recording
View the latest recording of this session from 22 October 2025:
Recommended resources
Open Scholarship. The Library's Open Scholarship website explores some of the ways you can open up your research practices. See, in particular, the "What is Open Research?" page.
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What if your research could reach wider audiences, create greater impact, and help to solve problems beyond your discipline?
In this session, presenters from Digital Stewardship (Research) and Scholarly Communications will provide an overview of open research principles and benefits, exploring how open practices can be applied throughout the research lifecycle.
Attendees are invited to vote on aspects of open research to explore in more depth. Topics include preregistrations, open notebooks, open-source software and code, open data, preprints, and open peer review. (Note that open access publications are explored in a separate webinar, "Exploring Open Access").
This session is open to all University of Melbourne staff and students, but would be most beneficial to early career researchers and graduate researchers.
Recommended resources
Open Scholarship. The Library's Open Scholarship website explores some of the ways you can open up your research practices. See, in particular, the "What is Open Research?" page.
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This session is for graduate research students and academic staff who are new to digital preservation.
Delivered by the Digital Preservation Program Manager, the webinar introduces key ideas and simple, practical steps individuals can take to help safeguard digital research materials over time.
Topics to be covered include:
- Common risks to digital materials
- Choosing sustainable file formats
- Using University-supported storage
- Identifying unplanned changes to digital materials
- Seeking specialist advice
Latest session
View the latest recording of this session from 6 November 2025:
Recommended resource
Digital Preservation guides. These web guides introduce essential strategies to help you protect your digital materials for the long term.
Further Training Resources
File Management 101
File Management 101 is an Open Educational Resource (OER) designed to guide people in the practical understanding of what good file management looks like, applying a consistent file naming scheme and developing directory structures that makes sense in your context.
Reference Management Software
Get started with reference management software supported by the University of Melbourne.
Contact
Scholarly Development (Research) Team