Services For Researchers

Each subject area has dedicated liaison librarians who can help you save time and introduce you to the range of resources and services available for your area of research.

Liaison librarians can:

• Assist with literature searching, including the identification of suitable search tools and the development of effective search strategies.
• Show you how to find usable datasets by identifying relevant datasets or data repositories or introduce you to the wealth of primary source material available via Rare Books & Special Collections and University Archives and Recordkeeping.
• Help you explore the options for managing your research data and publishing, including open access.
• Introduce you to the range of tools available for increasing, and monitoring, your research profile and impact.

Find my liaison librarian

Researchers enjoy generous borrowing time periods and access to the library's requesting system (whereby we deliver books and other items in the library's collections to the library location of your choice - or you can have a scanned copy emailed to you). Learn more about borrowing & requesting.

The interlibrary loan service is available to source books, articles and other materials not available in the library. It is (usually) free, and the turnaround times are quick. You can also recommend the library purchase the key books required for your research.  

The library has a range of different collections designed to support research (and teaching), while the carefully curated How Do I guides provide a handy pathway into relevant resources and literature and how to find the right information. Depending on your field of research you may also like to talk with Rare Books & Special Collections or University Archives and Recordkeeping to discover the wealth of primary source and other materials held in their collections.

Keep track of everything you read with EndNote. EndNote is the University's preferred reference management software and lets you easily store and manage your bibliographic references. Most importantly, EndNote integrates with Word and other programs to let you insert citations and generate bibliographies in the referencing style of your choice.

Download the software | View the guide to using EndNote

Planning good research data management will help ensure your data is safely stored and your research outcomes can be verified. It can support future research based on your data, and helps ensure that you comply with the requirements of the University, research funding bodies and publishers.

• About data management plans

Go direct to: 

• Create a data management plan
• Organising and storing your data

Your liaison librarian can step you through the creation of a data management plan, as well as provide advice on organising and storing your data.

By making your data available you increase the discoverability of your research and enable others to cite your data. Publishing and sharing your data also provides enhanced credibility for your research outcomes as the data is available for others to view and analyze. 

• figshare is the University's default institutional data repository. It is a safe, secure and easy-to-use cloud-based repository in which University staff and HDR students can store valuable research data for private research use, or expose it and share with others. Learn more about figshare.
• There is a large number of different data storage and sharing options. View the guide to sharing and publishing your data.
• Your liaison librarian can provide advice on storing and sharing your data.

As a researcher you will be both a user and creator of copyright material, so it is important to know how you can use material and what your rights are. Visit the copyright website.  

For more information on copyright and open access contact the Coordinator, Copyright and Open Access.

AR&S is an open digital archive of scholarly and research outputs of the University of Adelaide. Learn more about AR&S.

Get all of your work attributed to you by signing up for ORCiD, a permanent (and unique) identification number that you can use when publishing, on research grant applications and in numerous other places. ORCiD is recommended by the University and the sign up process takes less than 5 minutes. If you already have an ORCiD, make sure that it is linked to your University ID.

Get an ORCiD

Aurora lets you keep track of all of your publications and other research outputs in one place. It is integrated with the University's Researcher Profiles, and lets you add in additional information about your qualifications and research-related activities. You can also use Aurora to export publication lists for grant applications, calculate your h-index and lots more.

Your liaison librarian can provide advice and assistance with using Aurora effectively.

Go to Aurora

Once you've claimed all of your publications and set up all of your information, login and fine tune your public University of Adelaide profile in Researcher Profiles.

Go to Researcher Profiles

Create a Google Scholar Citations profile, then claim your publications, view your citation metrics, and view other profiles. Your profile will appear in Google Scholar search results if you make your it public. 

Go to Google Scholar

Create a ResearcherID to manage your Web of Science publications and make yourself discoverable. It's free to join and is viewable by anyone. Use of ResearcherID solves author identity issues and  includes citation metrics and collaboration.

Go to ResearcherID

Scopus creates a unique author identifier for you within Scopus. It includes citation and author metrics and collaboration networks, similar to ResearcherID. It is free to view but more information is available via the Library subscription.

Go to Scopus

There are many other researcher profile sites. Some also enable research collaboration and article uploads where copyright permits.  Join the profile(s) used by your discipline to increase visibility. Some popular sites are:

• Academia
• Mendeley
• ResearchGate
• SSRN

There are several tools which provide citation information. Commonly used ones include:

• Google Scholar/Google Scholar Citations
• Scopus
• Web of Science Core Collection (includes links to other Clarivate products including InCites, Journal Citation Reports, and  Essential Science Indicators)

A newer database called Dimensions is provided by Digital Science and is providing an innovative alternative to established citation providers. You can access the free app for basic citation information. 

Alternative metrics

Alternative metrics, also known as altmetrics, measure online attention to your work.

Altmetric Explorer is a dashboard which aggregates online attention to the University's research publications, and to all tracked publications worldwide.

You can look at mentions for individual items, as well as viewing all your mentions in one place. Or you can look at your school/faculty/institute mentions and create spreadsheets and reports.

Go to Altmetric Explorer

Alternative metrics, also known as altmetrics, measure online attention to your work.

Altmetric Explorer is a dashboard which aggregates online attention to the University's research publications, and to all tracked publications worldwide.

You can look at mentions for individual items, as well as viewing all your mentions in one place. Or you can look at your school/faculty/institute mentions and create spreadsheets and reports.

Altmetric Explorer

Benchmarking tools provide deeper analysis of research impact, often using a world average of 1 to measure if research impact is above world average. Benchmarking can be of individuals, groups, disciplines or institutions. The main benchmarking tool available at the University is:

• InCites (uses Web of Science data)

Other tools NOT available at the University include:

• Dimensions (an all in one product including literature, citations, and benchmarking - access the free app for basic citation information)
• SciVal (uses Scopus data, not available at University of Adelaide)