My Research Essentials

Library for Educators
3 min readJul 16, 2021

Supporting Researchers at the University of Manchester Library

My Research Essentials (MRE) is the University of Manchester Library’s programme of researcher development and support. It is a blended offer of online resources and live sessions designed to be inclusive and accessible with a focus on supporting research staff and postgraduate researchers to work together to develop and refine skills in community with one another.

All MRE resources are openly available and designed to to support researchers with skills in relation to writing and publishing, effective communication, wellbeing, data management and research metrics. We emphasise the importance and value of creating a supportive research community in all our teaching and materials. Library staff work with researchers to ensure they are supported, empowered and connected no matter what stage they are at in their research career.

Researchers working together

Structure of MRE resources and sessions:

MRE support is focused around three core areas:

  1. Asynchronous materials — MRE support and guidance is available via asynchronous, online, open educational resources. We are committed to ensuring all resources are available via self-selecting online materials and interactive resources. We deliberately centre our support around materials that are open to all.
  2. Synchronous support or ‘live’ sessions — where appropriate, we sessions which can be delivered live on campus or virtually depending on the request and the available resource. In order to take advantage of time spent together, the live sessions have a community-focused and interactive structure that invites participants to work together or alongside one another. There is also some opportunity for one-to-one support in a variety of areas.
  3. Research led and community focused support — all of our materials, interactive resources and synchronous sessions are developed in partnership with researchers with an emphasis on creating a positive and supportive researcher community at the University of Manchester. We use attendee feedback to respond to the demands of our audience and work with current researchers and support structures across the university to ensure MRE support and resources are relevant and responsive.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

What is available from My Research Essentials?

MRE is designed to support researchers at any stage of their career. The programme is focused around skills that are useful for research and on providing information researchers can use to enhancing their research for the future. Resources fall into three main groups:

  1. Dedicated support from our Research Services Team: this ranges from guidance drawing on the team’s expertise in open access publishing to research data management support and advice
  2. Support with developing knowledge and skills applicable to writing and reference management software from our Teaching, Learning and Students team.
  3. Support from our partners within and outside of the University of Manchester with e.g. Publishing your Research and using PURE

MRE offers community-focused skills support sessions, advice and guidance in relation to professional practices (and current policy) and the opportunity for researchers to engage with publishers to ensure they are on track to disseminate their research in line with the University’s policy on open access.

Check out our MRE blog to find out more.

If you have any questions about what is available, please contact us here: mre@manchester.ac.uk

You can access the MRE website which hosts our range of synchronous and asynchronous support here: MRE Library webpages.

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