Research Ready Workshop Series
Complete any 3 workshops in this series to earn a "Research Ready" digital badge for your LinkedIn profile!
Struggling with assignments or research projects? The Research Ready workshops are here to help! Through a series of engaging, hands-on sessions, you’ll learn smart ways to generate research ideas, search effectively, navigate business databases, and evaluate online information.
This workshop series was designed by Xia Wei, Principal Librarian, Melody Chin, Senior Librarian, Sumita Govindan, Senior Librarian, Li Zhenyan, Librarian, Samantha Lim, Senior Librarian, Instruction & Learning Services. If you have any questions please contact liblearn@smu.edu.sg.
Workshop materials:
[Research Ready] “Spark to Insight”: Leveraging Tools to Ignite Ideas for Assignments and Projects
Learn about the concepts and tools of ideation, focusing on generating ideas for assignments, presentations, projects, and research.
[Research Ready] Level Up Your Internet Search
[Research Ready] Keep Calm and Read Laterally!
Learn about Lateral Reading and put your learning into practice with this self-directed Lateral Reading Tutorial!
Description of workshop:
This hands-on 90-minute workshop introduces you to Qualtrics - a powerful online survey platform used by researchers and professionals to design, distribute, and analyze surveys with advanced features for data collection and participant management. SMU subscribes to Qualtrics.
In this session, we will learn:
- Essential question types and when to use each for optimal data collection.
- How to implement randomization and question order to mitigate bias in your surveys.
- Best practices for survey design that streamline data cleaning and analysis workflows.
- Setting up automated thank you emails and creating public reports for sharing.
Who Should Attend:
This workshop welcomes participants of all experience levels - no prior Qualtrics experience necessary. The session will be conducted online with hands-on activities, so participants should ideally come prepared with survey questions or a research topic in mind to practice with during the workshop.
This workshop was designed by Bella Ratmelia, Senior Librarian. If you have any questions, please contact Bella at bellar@smu.edu.sg.
Please refer to the related materials and recording (if available) for this workshop below.
Description of workshop:
Curious about what all those research metrics really mean—and when (or whether) you should care? This 90‑minute workshop is a practical, introduction to the world of bibliometrics and citation indicators, designed especially for researchers who want to make sense of the numbers often found in dashboards, grant reports, or journal rankings. We’ll walk through the big ones—think citation counts, Journal Impact Factor, h‑index, field‑normalized scores, and altmetrics—and unpack what they actually measure (and just as importantly, what they don’t).
We’ll also touch on emerging signals of broader impact like policy citations, mentions in patents, or appearances in course syllabi etc—just enough to know what’s out there without going down the rabbit hole. The focus here is more on building your conceptual literacy than using specific tools, though we’ll show a few quick examples. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed or skeptical about research metrics, this session will give you the clarity and confidence to engage with them critically and constructively.
This workshop was designed by Aaron Tay, Head, Data Services. If you have any questions, please contact Aaron at aarontay@smu.edu.sg.
Please refer to the related materials and recording (if available) for this workshop below.
Description of workshop:
Curious about how to use information responsibly in your assignments? This workshop will guide you through the essentials on how to avoid plagiarism, cite sources correctly, and understand copyright rules when working with both traditional and AI-generated content. You will also hear practical advice on common academic integrity issues, what happens when standards are breached and how to stay on track with best practices.
Who Should Attend:
This workshop will be particularly useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
This workshop was designed by:
Rajen Munoo (Advisor, Learning Programs and Global Relations)
Nazimah Ram Nath (Principal Librarian, Instruction & Learning Services)
If you have any questions, please contact the librarians at nazimah@smu.edu.sg or rajen@smu.edu.sg
Please refer to the related materials and recording (if available) for this workshop below.