The University Library offers a wide range of support services, which have been specifically designed for the institution’s researchers. These services, which are outlined in the four sections below, are in addition to the general library services related to finding subject literature, the use of reference tools and access to databases.

Our ambition is to offer support to researchers in all phases of research, from the idea phase, project description and application through to implementing the research and publishing and archiving of the research results.

Examples of specialised services:

• Development of data management plans
• Management of research data
• Support for open access publishing
• How to fulfil the funders’ requirements for OA publishing and archiving of research data?
• Identifying literature and systematic searches

See the content in the sections below for more information.

If you have any questions or wish to be contacted about our services, please ask your subject librarian or contact us at forskning@ub.uit.no.

What, why and how?

• Research data management (RDM) – deals with making the right assessments at the right time during the whole lifecycle of research data, from the planning of the project through to archiving after the project is completed.
  Read more about the support UB can offer to help you achieve effective research data management.          

• Data management plan (DMP) – is a formal plan outlining how you will collect and handle the data. UB can help you to write a DMP that satisfies the requirements of your research funder and - perhaps even more importantly - makes it easier for you to keep track of your project.
  Read more about DMP and the support UB can offer you.  
  
  
• Data archiving services – are services that can archive research data in a proper manner and over a longer period. The research funder generally makes it a requirement that data resulting from the research project they have (part-)financed are archived in such archives. There are a variety of archiving services for research data. 
  Read more about the guidance and support UB can offer to help you achieve good archiving of research data.
  
  
• UiT Open Research Data – is an archiving service for open research data for researchers at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, which makes its research data accessible for reuse, citation, replication and archiving.
  Read more about UiT Open Research Data.
  
  

If you have any questions or wish to be contacted about our services, please ask your subject librarian or contact us at forskning@ub.uit.no.

Background

In many ways, research data are the foundation of the research process. It forms the basis for drawing new conclusions about what we are studying, which we can disseminate in the form of publications or in other ways.

Knowledge sharing and open access to research data is key to other researchers being able to check our findings. By sharing research data, we ensure that others can build on our work, or take advantage of it in other areas than we initially envisaged. Good research data management makes the research process more efficient for the individual researcher or research group as well as the whole field of research. Generally speaking, we can say that good research data management promotes cumulative knowledge building.

Implementing this vision of Open Science, the Research Council of Norway (NFR) and the EU have now sat requirements for research data management for projects which they fund. In 2007, the OECD adopted Principles and guidelines for access to research data from public funding. Norway has committed itself to following up these guidelines and, on commission from the Ministry, the Research Council launched The RCN policy on Open Access to Research Data (PDF - 1.6 MB)  in 2014. Similarly, the EU has clear goals and regulations concerning open access to and sharing of research data, which is outlined in Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020. A minimum requirement by both NFR and Horizon 2020 is the drawing up of a data management plan. It is also becoming more common for journals to set requirements relating to accessibility of the research data on which the articles they publish are based. Read more about this in the section below.

Work is in progress at UiT and several other higher education institutions to ensure that research data are managed and archived in a proper manner, in line with relevant legislation and regulations, and general principles from research funders.

Some useful links:

• OECD: Principles and guidelines for access to research data from public funding.
• The Research Council of Norway: The RCN policy on Open Access to Research Data (PDF - 1.6 MB)
•  EU: Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020

Open access (OA) deals with making scientific documents openly and freely available to everyone. For you as an author, this will mean that more people read and cite your work. For you as a student or researcher, this means you will enjoy immediate and barrier-free access to all works that have been published or otherwise made available as open access. To make a document open access, you can choose to publish open access and/or self-archive in an open repository.

More info about what open access is, the motivation behind it and ways to achieve it

• Munin – UiT’s institutional repository

  Munin is UiT’s institutional repository, where UiT’s researchers and students can make their scientific documents openly accessible to the world without any barriers. The Munin archive contains master’s and PhD theses, as well as published articles and books. Master and doctoral theses are submitted through the theses submission portal in Munin. Articles and other documents may be uploaded through the document’s CRIStin record.
  Link to Munin – More info about Munin
  
  

• Self-archiving via CRIStin

  You can make your articles openly accessible in Munin by self-archiving them via CRIStin. As soon as an article is registered in CRIStin, you will find an upload button. Simply upload and UB will undertake the job of checking what the journal permits. Generally, we are allowed to make available the final manuscript version of the article. If you have published the article as open access, you can upload the published version.
  More info about CRIStin
  
  

• Septentrio Academic Publishing –UiT’s service for digital publishing
  

  UiT supports OA by running a number of journals academically associated with the university. All content can be read for free and there are no publication charges for you as an author. As of January 2016, the publishing service Septentrio Academic Publishing contained 14 publication channels, of which seven are journals approved at level 1 in NSD’s register of authorised publishing channels.
  More info about Septentrio Academic Publishing
  
  

• The Munin Conference on scholarly publishing

  The Munin Conference on scholarly publishing is an annual international conference that also covers open access. It is organised by the University Library of Tromsø and is held at UiT annually in November. It has gained a very good reputation in Norway and internationally. The conference was first held in 2006, and has evolved to be a very important conference on publishing and related topics such as open research data.
  More about the Munin Conference on scholarly publishing
  
  

• UiT’s policy on open access

  UiT aims to make research results available to as many as possible. The University Board resolved as early as October 2010 that: “UiT aims to ensure that all academic publications from the university shall be made available either in open access journals or in open research archives.” Open access-related initiatives at UiT include the research archive Munin, publishing fund for open access, Septentrio Academic Publishing and the Munin Conference on scholarly publishing.
  More about UiT’s policy on open access
  
  

• UiT’s publishing fund

  UiT offers support to authors by helping to finance the article publishing charges in open access journals. A requirement for such funding is that the corresponding author must be affiliated with UiT. The published full text must be uploaded in CRIStin no later than at the time of publication. The journal must be registered at level 1 or 2 in NSD’s register of authorised publishing channels and in the Directory of Open Access Journals. You should apply before submitting the manuscript to the journal for review.
  More info about the publishing fund

What, why and how?

• Systematic search – survey – involves getting an overview of existing research literature in your chosen field. It is an important element in most applications for research funding, but it can be an extensive and challenging task. UB can provide assistance to individual researchers and research groups to perform systematic surveys of research literature.
  
  
• Data management plan (DMP)– is a formal plan outlining how you will collect and handle the data. Such plans are generally required in project applications. UB can help you to write a DMP that satisfies the requirements of your research funder and – perhaps even more importantly – makes it easier for you to keep track of your project.
  Read more about this in the section below
  
  

• Archiving of result data – involves archiving research data in a proper manner and over a longer period. The research funder generally makes it a requirement that data resulting from the research project they have (part)financed is archived in a suitable archive. There are a variety of archiving services for research data.
  Read more about this in the section below
  
  
• Quality assurance of publishing plan – Project applications generally include a plan outlining how research results will be published. It is now often a requirement that publication should be Open Access. UB can provide assistance to individual researchers and research groups to quality assure that the publication plan meets the requirements of the relevant funders.

If you have any questions or wish to be contacted about our services, please ask your subject librarian or contact us at forskning@ub.uit.no.

The University Library runs a seminar series  aimed at PhD students under the title “Take control of your PhD journey: From (p)reflection to publishing”. The courses were first held in the spring semester in 2015, and we aim to run such courses once per semester.

Course material from previous courses is available on slideshare.  

Read more about the content at Take control of your PhD journey.        

We also offer other courses that are open to anyone, but may still be  useful to new researchers. 
See  all courses at UB

We can run courses on the same or similar topics on request and customize themes as required. You can also suggest other topics that may be of relevance to PhD students. Please contact us by sending an e-mail to takecontrol@ub.uit.no. 

Database searches – find quality resources for your research

The University Library possesses a high level of competence in the use of all databases in our portfolio, and we have broad experience in the development and implementation of systematic searches in these.

We offer assistance to researchers and PhD students with the following requirements:

• Refresher courses in the use of various databases
• Assistance with literature searches in the early stages of new projects
• Quality assurance of literature searches in connection with project applications
• Assistance with literature searches for PhD students in connection with disputations and given topic.

Please contact your subject librarian for guidance.

Efficient reference management

UiT has a software licence for the reference management tool EndNote.

Go to EndNote for more information about the software and UB’s EndNote courses.
Go to Reference management for information about other common tools.

Publish and reach out with your research

The University Library can  offer advice on the choice of publishing channels and the use of social media to promote publications and network with other researchers. Useful channels  may vary from subject to subject. Please contact your subject librarian.

Social media and research visibility

Social media can be a useful tool to expand research networks and gain greater awareness of your research. New platforms for networking aimed at researchers are steadily popping up, but the most popular ones are ResearchGate and Academia.