Home  ›  Staff Hub  ›  Research Hub

Research Hub


Welcome to the Staff Research Hub which provides information on some of the key resources available to research staff at ATU Donegal.

Click here for the 2022 Research Calendar




The resources currently available to staff include:


Resources for Postgraduate Research Student Supervisors

Academic supervision is central to the successful completion of postgraduate research work. The supervisor(s) play a key role in designing the research project, guiding the postgraduate student in his/her work, maintaining the general direction of the research, setting and maintaining appropriate targets for academic standards along with preparing the student for submission of their final thesis for examination. Chapter 7 of the Quality Assurance Handbook (QAH) provides all the relevant information relating to Research and Research Supervision. The full QAH can be found here.

For convenience, Chapter 7, along with other forms that supervisors will need to be aware of, and that are referenced within Chapter 7 of the QAH, are available to download below:

# Documentation
1   Chapter 7 from the Quality Assurance Handbook Version 4.1
2   External Expert Report
3   Application for Registration of a Research Degree Programme
4   Record of Meeting between Research Student and Supervisor
5   Research Degree Student Annual Progress Report Form
6   Notice of Intention to Present for Examination for Postgraduate Research Degree
7   Internal / External Examiners Report Masters Degree (Research)/ Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
8   Response to Examiners Report
9   Application to Transfer to Doctoral Register


RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL FUNDING DATABASE

ATU Donegal subscribes to the Research Professional funding opportunity platform. Research Professional is an online database of research funding opportunities from all UK, Irish and EU funding agencies in addition to other global agencies too. These funding opportunities cover all disciplines and the platform provides an easy to use and efficient search interface for all researchers.
The Research Professional Database can be accessed both on and off site. At a high level you can log into the platform using your institute login details (email and password) to search for funding opportunities in your related discipline at the following link: https://www.researchprofessional.com/site/lkyit

To access the full range of features that Research Professional has to offer, users can set up their own account. This will enable users to:

  • Save key searches and bookmarks
  • Create email alerts for updates on new funding opportunities as they arise (it will return all national and international funding opportunities that you are eligible to apply for)
  • How you can promote your research activities and news on the ATU Donegal Research Twitter page

For more information on how to access the Research Professional platform you can download the 'Quick Start Guide’ here (click to download PDF)
Or
please click here where you will find a selection of videos that details how to set up your account and use the Research Professional platform.

If you have any questions regarding Research Professional please contact the researchoffice.donegal@atu.ie for further assistance.



RESEARCH INTEGRITY TRAINING



Research Integrity training is provided by ATU Donegal in the form of an online course from Epigeum. The new edition of the Research Integrity Training provides training which will cover every aspect of the research process, highlighting the potential issues that can arise while planning, conducting and reporting your research. It ultimately provides learners with a better understanding of their obligations and responsibilities as researchers. Assessment is then delivered at the end of the course with a selection of questions to ensure that learners demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge on the area of research integrity prior to being awarded a certificate of completion.

Below is a summary of the key benefits:

  • Provide evidence of consistent research integrity training to minimize the risk of misconduct and meet the commitments to the National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland
  • Reinforce the practical, real-world applications of key principles with discipline-specific content, including Ireland specific video interviews, scenario-based activities, and polls
  • Explore researchers’ professional responsibilities through a rich variety of interactive activities – building an awareness of what constitutes a healthy research culture
  • Extend learning via additional links, resource banks, and references, then test understanding via summative quizzes, which generate certificates that can evidence course completion

The training is structured into eight core modules, with an additional 5 specialist modules. More information on the modules can be found in the Course Outline Document

If you are interested in completing the Research Integrity training please contact the researchoffice.donegal@atu.ie .

For more information on Research Integrity please see the National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland.



IUA/THEA/Elsevier Agreement APCs

What is the IUA/THEA/Elsevier Agreement?

Elsevier Science Direct is a database of online, peer reviewed, academic journals, published by Elsevier. ATU Donegal, has joined with THEA, University and TU libraries to negotiate a series of subscription agreements to Science Direct.

In recent years, Elsevier have begun to offer authors the option to publish open access in some of their journals. For this, the authors, or their funders, must pay an Article Processing Charge (APC).

When the THEA/IUA/TU agreement with Elsevier was due for renewal, an additional element was added. The fee paid by the institutions includes, not only access to Elsevier journals on subscription, but also covers the cost of a set of Article Processing Charges (APCs) for open access publishing in an agreed list of Elsevier journals.

This will fund researchers/authors at the ATU Donegal, to publish a small number of open access articles in Elsevier journals each year.

How do Researchers/Authors use the agreement?

Articles are sometimes authored by individuals, or sometimes jointly authored. Where an article is jointly authored, one author is known as the Corresponding Author and the other authors are known as co-authors. To use one of ATU Donegal, APCs under the agreement requires the author (if only one) or the corresponding author (if there are multiple authors) to be affiliated to ATU Donegal (ie a researcher or staff member).

Note: For the remainder of this information block "corresponding author" is used both for and individual author and for the corresponding author in the case of a multiple authors.

The agreement applies to an agreed list of Elsevier journals.

The Corresponding Author of the article submits it to one of the journals from the list and it is put through the peer review process. An email is sent to the Corresponding Author to inform whether the article has been accepted for publication or not.

If accepted, the email has a link, allowing the Author to login to Elsevier’s publishing platform and identify the Institution to which he/she is affiliated (For ATU Donegal Corresponding Authors, this will be ATU Donegal). If the institution is covered by the Irish THEA/IUA/TU/Elsevier agreement, the Corresponding Author is offered the choice of Subscription or Open Access publishing. If the Corresponding Author chooses Open Access, he/she is asked if he/she wants to fund the APC or to apply for one of the APCs covered by the agreement. If the Corresponding Author decides to apply for one of the APCs from the agreement, an email will go to the liaison person for the relevant institution. (This might be the Librarian or the Head of Research). This email contains a link allowing the liaison person to login to EOAP (Elsevier’s Open Access Platform) and either validate or reject the APC request. The Corresponding Author will then be informed of the decision.

If the APC request is validated, the article will be published, open access, using one of the agreements funded APCs. If not, the author will be given the option to proceed with subscription publication or to use an alternative funding source for open access publication.

Note: The Peer Review process which approves the article for publication is separate from the validation process which applies the APCs under the agreement. The former is an academic/research matter for the journal editors and reviewers. The latter is an administrative issue to allow the APC allocation under the agreement to be managed locally.



RESEARCH IMPACT TOOLKIT

Impact is an area of increasing focus and importance for research. The impact from research may be immediate, while in other cases it may only become evident in the years that follow. It can be classed as academic or societal and has the potential to affect many different areas of society from culture to policy to the environment. It is important for researchers to consider the potential ways in which their research may impact and ensure that this impact is positive, while mitigating any negative impacts.

University College Dublin have developed an open access toolkit which provides researchers with the resources and tools to plan, capture, communicate and monitor the impact of their research.

This Research Impact Toolkit can be accessed here



ATU Donegal RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

The ATU Donegal Research twitter page (@LYIT_Research) has been set up in order to promote the Research and Innovation activities ongoing at the ATU Donegal. This page also aims to promote funding opportunities, and all relevant research news and events.

If there is any research news and events or research/funding achievements that you would like promoted on this page please contact the researchoffice.donegal@atu.ie. Alternatively, please feel free to tag @LYIT_Research or use the hashtag #lyitresearch on any related posts.