Support services

The Office of Research Services and Graduate Studies is the central point of contact for researchers, research students, supervisors, managers and research agencies and will provide information and support for the administration and management of research and higher degrees by research (HDR) at Charles Sturt.

The Office of Research Services and Graduate Studies Faculty Liaison Officers are members of the Office of Research Services and Graduate Studies and are embedded within each of the Faculties working closely with the Associate Dean Research, Sub-Dean Graduate Studies and Faculty Operations Team.

The Graduate Studies Liaison Officers provide support for Higher Degree by Research students candidates within the Faculty, from the point of initial enquiry to completion of candidature. They are the first point of contact for HDR candidates and their supervisors on matters relating to candidature.  A major part of their role is to ensure candidates have a rich doctoral experience within a supportive, vibrant and academic environment:

The Division of Library Services offers a range of support for Research Candidates:

• Search Tools
• Publishing & Promoting Research
• Funding Opportunities
• Research Methods
• Research Output and Publications
• Endnote
• Induction, Consultation & Training

Other support services and resources include:  Interlibrary Loans;  Copyright;  Referencing;  Information Literacy; and CRO, plus a host of Professional Development opportunities available through the Research Professional development calendar.

As part of University and Government reporting processes you are required to list your research publications on the MyResearch system via our online forms.

Research Outputs Collection (ROC)

The Research Outputs Collection (ROC) is the annual reporting of both traditional and non-traditional research outputs generated by CSU staff and students. It is essential to inform our research planning and support mechanisms and is relevant to:

• The Employee Development and Review Scheme (EDRS)
• The inclusion of research outputs data for the purposes of academic promotion
• External funding proposals: research environment
• Maintaining profile against the Definition of Research Active
• Faculty and School Reviews
• University Research Centre reviews
• Performance-based funding from DVC RDI including Compacts and Research Centre annual operating budgets
• The publications component of ERA
• Meeting the Higher Education Standards Framework requirement for maintaining a system for “accurate and up-to-date recording of the research outputs of staff and research students” (section 4, 4.1)

All of the research outputs that are submitted will be verified to determine whether it meets the criteria for research. Please check the criteria and advice when you are planning to publish to ensure that your work can be included as part of CSU’s research collection.

MyResearch

Submission to the collection can be made electronically via our online forms.

CRO – CSU Research Output

CRO – CSU Research Output is closely linked to the MyResearch data collection as they both use the same information. The publication information that is entered into MyResearch is transferred to CRO. CRO is the ‘public face’ of our research and anyone in the world can access the publication information and full text of the article if it is open access. Please contact cro@csu.edu.au for further information on increasing the visibility of your research.

Uploading your Thesis

After finalisation of your thesis, you must submit the digital copy of your thesis to the Charles Sturt University Research Output (CRO) repository as one of the conditions to graduate. Submission of your thesis should be done by completing the online form and attaching an electronic copy of your thesis to the form submission. The Research Outputs team will enter your thesis into the repository and advise the Research Office once this step has been completed. If you have any questions about this please contact the Outputs Team.

Research Skills provides support for research candidates including:

• Workshops on many topics for research writers – e.g. writing a literature review, overcoming procrastination, writing more clearly
• Regular writing group meetings – e.g. bootcamps, research and write, peer writing circles
• Individual consultations
• Resources on the Research Writing Resources site in Interact2 – e.g. examples of research proposals, recorded workshops, event announcements
• Special sessions for specific groups in schools or faculties

Everyone is welcome to join the Research Writing Resources site, to receive announcements about upcoming workshops and events and to access many useful resources, such as recorded workshops and examples of successful research proposals. Here are the steps to join:

• Login to Interact2 here: http://interact2.csu.edu.au/
• Click on 'organisations'
• Look under 'my organisations'. If you're already a member of Research Skills, it will show up in this list on the page
• If not, search 'Research Skills'
• Then hover over the title code, 'O-RWR', and a drop down arrow button appears
• Click on this arrow and 'enrol'
• After this, it will show up in 'my organisations' whenever you click 'organisations' in I2

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO)

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) -SRMO is an online research tool that should be of interest to anyone engaged in qualitative or quantitative research. It includes a comprehensive collection of full text resources that introduce a variety of research methods; it can assist in the selection and application of different research methods.

Quantitative Consulting Unit

The Quantitative Consulting Unit (QCU) is located in the Office of Research Services and Graduate Studies on the Wagga Wagga campus. Our service provides statistical assistance to Honours, Masters and PhD research students and staff across CSU.

Some of the services the QCU can provide are:

• General statistical consultancy.
• Design of experiments - Sample size, Power analysis etc.
• Analysing data – conventional statistical analysis and machine learning.
• Workshops for people looking to enhance their statistical skills.

Spatial Data Analysis Network (SPAN)

The Spatial Data Analysis Network (SPAN) is a research support unit. SPAN's primary role is to support academic research by staff and post graduate students of the university in the areas of:

• Survey and questionnaire design
• Geographic Information Systems
• Remote Sensing
• Spatial Statistics
• Modelling
• Research computer system
• Processing and interpreting large digital data sets

Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated

Charles Sturt University is a member of Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated (ACSPRI) who offer week long courses in a variety of research methods/statistics. Research Students are able to fund attendance at these workshops using their resource funding. Academic Staff may be able to use consultancy funds or request funding support from Heads of School or from the Office of Research Services and Graduate Studies.

Guidelines

Good practice in Research Data Management (RDM) is a crucial part of maximising research investment and leveraging your research efforts. RDM includes but is not limited to data retention, accessibility, storage, and security. By adopting good RDM practices you ensure:

• Security of your research data
• Greater ease in data sharing and thus increasing outputs/use of data/research impact
• Less risk in loss of key information following staff changes
• Compliance with research funding bodies regulations

RDM is a recommendation of the Australian Code for Responsible Conduct of Research as well as being required by many funding bodies. Many funding bodies require RDM to be specifically addressed in the applications.

To ensure Charles Sturt researchers follow good RDM practice the University has established a RDM policy which requires all active research projects (whether funded externally or not) to have a RDM Plan.

All researchers and HDR students will be expected to undertake RDM training and assessment (in the form of an ELMO module). A simple straightforward template has been created to help researchers develop a RDM plan. RDM plans will be stored centrally and the RDM plan template also contains advice on data storage options as well as where to get help. Introductory training will also be available for those students and researchers who are unfamiliar with the concept of RDM.

A Research data management (RDM) plan provides an opportunity to think about and plan how your research data will be managed throughout the life of the research and what will happen to the data after the research is completed.

Good research data management practices include:

• Considering naming conventions and structures of folders and files
• Managing access to the data
• Completing regular, secure backups of data files
• Assigning descriptive information about the data so that they can be found and interpreted
• Managing data in accordance with ethical obligations, including privacy, confidentiality, cultural sensitivities
• Meeting any legal obligations related to intellectual property, licensing agreements, copyright, etc.
• Making the data available to others on completion of the project

When you should complete the plan:

• When you are addressing ethics requirements for your project
• When you are requesting space at Charles Sturt for storage and backup of the data
• When you are applying for a grant
• When you are completing your HDR proposal (from 2017 a RDM Plan is a mandatory requirement for the proposal)

Contact researchsupport@csu.edu.au or your HDR supervisor if you have any questions about this.

Charles Sturt University is a member of Intersect, a not-for-profit organisation set up to support research in Australia. Intersect extends the technology services of the university and provides services such as:

• HPC on Raijin
• Cloud Computing
• Cloud Storage
• Consultation and Advice
• Training
• Software Engineering
• Data as a Service

HPC on Raijin

Intersect provides access and technical support to the National Computing Institute's high performance computing facility called Raijin. Raijin comprises of:

2395 x 32 GB nodes; 1125 x 64 GB nodes; 608 x 128 GB nodes; 32 x 192 GB nodes (KNL);& 268 x 256 GB nodes; 10 x 1 TB nodes; and 30 x NVIDIA K80 GPU nodes.

New User. Email for more information.

Cloud Computing

Intersect is the NSW node for Nectar cloud computing infrastructure. The sizes for the virtual machines range from:

• Small: 1 CPU, 4GB memory, 30GB ephemeral disk, 10GB system disk
• Medium: 2 CPUs, 8GB memory, 60GB ephemeral disk, 10GB system disk
• Large: 4 CPUs, 16GB memory, 120GB ephemeral disk, 10GB system disk
• XLarge: 8 CPUs, 32GB memory, 240GB ephemeral disk, 10GB system disk
• XXLarge: 16 CPUs, 64GB memory, 480GB ephemeral disk, 10GB system disk

Nectar allows researchers to easily start virtual machines with a wide range of pre-built images, from bare Linux operating systems, to specialised images for genomics, characterisation and web-based content management. Little experience is required with using Nectar, however Intersect does provide technical support should you require it.

Charles Sturt University and its researchers receive a 20% discount on storage. Dashboard. Email for more information.

Cloud Storage

A large scale, high performance, collaborative and cost effective digital storage. The data centre is highly secure, located in Sydney and backed up in multiple copies. "Space" comes in types of storage offerings, suited to the range of needs of researchers.

Charles Sturt University and its researchers receive a 20% discount on storage. Email for more information.

Consultation and Advice

Specialists in providing advice and support to researchers in applying digital methods and tools to research. Intersect's staff also work with universities to help set appropriate institutional policies and establish researcher-focused business workflows. Email for more information.

Training

Intersect can provide on-line data management training as well as on-campus training on a host of applications, all centred around a research problem.

Check the Office of Research Services and Graduate Studies PD calendar for any training scheduled, or email Research Professional Development or Intersect.

Software Engineering

Our team of software engineers based in Sydney develop applications for a range of purposes in research. Email for more information.

Data as a Service

Intersect and other State-based eResearch organisations are driving a suite of national projects that help support the increasingly collaborative nature of Australian research. We provide research domain data platforms, services and expertise across a range of disciplines, including: Medical & Health; Life sciences and omics; Image Publishing; and, Culture and Community. Email for more information.

• Endnote Software and Support. EndNote can help you manage the literature that you discover in the course of your research, enables you to to insert citations into documents and produces reference lists in a range of styles; includes FAQs and Charles Sturt Endnote Blog.
• NVivo is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) package, used to code and analyse qualitative data, such as open-ended surveys, transcriptions of focus groups, or other text-based data.
• SPSS is among the most widely used programs for statistical analysis in social science

A wide variety of software is available on all University Desktops and additional software is available via software download or through the Computer Shop.

For further assistance, students please contact Student Central. Staff please contact the DIT Service Desk for support in accessing Research Services. Ensure that you include the word ‘Research’.

The Division of Student Success offers a range of support for Research Candidates including:

• For indigenous students
• International students
• Student mentoring
• Equity and Diversity
• Access and Disability

And support with:

• Health and wellbeing
• Jobs and Careers
• Information technology
• Printing
• Legal advice
• Study whilst caring for children

A collection of external sites, blogs and media that may be of interest to Charles Sturt University researchers and research students.

Please note Charles Sturt has no control over or responsibility for external sites.

If a link is not working or you’d like to suggest a new link to share here, please email research@csu.edu.au

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