Our Research & Instruction librarians provide a wide range of informational, instructional, and research support services to the Tufts community individually, in small groups, and through course-related instruction. For help with research projects, please schedule a consultation with one of our Research & Instruction Librarians.
Looking for teaching/curriculum support? Liaison librarians are available to work with course directors to design web-based guides, presentations, and exercises that develop students' research skills. We can also place items on reserve or find and recommend course-related materials. See teaching support for more information.
Orientations
We are happy to provide a brief overview of the library and its services to new students, staff, and faculty on campus. We can give tours of the library or come speak during your scheduled orientation sessions. Please contact your liaison librarian to schedule a session.
Training Sessions
We can create customized sessions tailored to specific topics you suggest for your class, lab, or program. Sessions could cover:
- Searching for evidence
- Searching PubMed and other databases
- Overview of electronic and print resources on a topic
- Introduction to citation-management programs (like Endnote)
- Introduction to systematic reviews.
For more information, please schedule a consultation with one of our Research & Instruction Librarians or contact us to schedule a session.
Open Workshops
We provide workshops in the fall and spring semesters covering a variety of topics of interest on the Health Sciences Campus. Previous topics have included:
- Impact factors
- Searching for systematic reviews
- Introduction to Ovid
- Resources for health statistics
- Citation management tools
View our schedule and course descriptions.
Data Management
We can help you with best practices for naming, organizing, storing, and depositing your research data, as well as creating a Data Management Plan. For a consultation, please contact rdm@tufts.edu or review the data management team webpage.
Publications and Presentations
Grants
Visit our Find Funding guide to identify funding sources for your research and resources the library has available to help you succeed in gaining funding.
Publishing
We have a guide on Citing Information with examples of common citation styles and descriptions of various citation-management programs and a guide on Measuring Research Impact with information about journals, authors, and altmetrics. Thinking about publishing Open Access? Consider applying to our Open Access Publishing Fund.
Reusing Images & Other Content
Research and Instruction librarians are familiar with copyright law and Tufts’ license agreements. We can identify helpful resources and tools for your presentations and publications.
There are important copyright considerations before using images or video in your presentations, or videos:
Visit Tufts’ Scholarly Communications website to learn more about issues in copyright, fair use, and open access. Research & Instruction librarians are members of this institution-wide group.
Organization & Preservation
Tufts Digital Library, in its e-scholarship section, provides space for archiving your publications. We can help you keep track of your papers and advise you how to amend copyright agreements so that you retain some rights to your published works.
Literature Reviews
Contact your liaison librarian to discuss topics including, but not limited to, approaching the literature review, citation management, and advanced searching techniques.
Not specifically searching for literature? We can also help you find grey literature, data and statistics, information about Tufts history , and more.
Systematic Reviews
Research & Instruction librarians are trained in searching for systematic reviews and have experience performing complex, time-consuming searches. Experienced in formulating search syntax, we can suggest MeSH and help you select which of our many databases would be best for a particular topic.
We provide three tiers of service for systematic reviews:
Basic
We can meet with you several times to:
- identify databases and resources to search for your topic
- suggest MeSH terms for Ovid Medline or PubMed searches
- assists with creating a flexible, comprehensive search suited to your needs
- review your search history for missing terms and structural challenges.
Comprehensive
At your invitation, we may become a review author who:
- selects appropriate databases
- selects MeSH and keyword terms
- designs a search strategy in collaboration with your team
- performs and saves searches
- transfers citations into reference-management software
- writes/edits the methodology section relating to search process.
Updates and Revisions
We also can help with updating search strategies to:
- review the published search
- suggest modifications
- rewrite or amend search methods for publication