Research Support

The Libraries provide access to and/or training for a number of tools to make research processes and collaboration easier. These include Citation Managers (to collect, track, sort, and cite research sources) such as EndNote or Zotero; authoring and formatting tools, such as Overleaf, a collaborative online LaTeX editor; and the Open Science Framework, a project management platform that helps researchers manage and share their research and integrates with a variety of other research tools. 

Our Team Science and Collaborative Research guide will point you to essential resources to improve your knowledge and practice of collaborative research, and, more importantly, Team Science: the collaborative effort to address a scientific challenge that leverages the strengths and expertise of professionals trained in different fields. 

Evidence Synthesis Services provide support via training, consultation, and collaboration for synthesis methods, such as for: systematic reviews, meta analyses, scoping / mapping reviews, and systematic or comprehensive approaches to literature reviews, and other evidence synthesis methods. Evidence synthesis methods are a great tool for researchers to organize and synthesize all available evidence to answer a question. Findings are ultimately intended to inform future research, policy, decision-making, and practice guidelines. 

Visit our guide for more information, including options for training, consultations, and other support such as collaboration or partnership.

The University Libraries offers specialized research data services to support data-intensive research at Virginia Tech. We specialize in using best practices for working with data across the research lifecycle: from the data management and planning stage, through data collection and analysis, to support for visualization, publication, long-term curation and reuse. We are working to integrate these new services into the varied research environments at Virginia Tech so that they can be efficiently found and used by researchers. Need help? Email us at dataservices@vt.edu.

Interested in publishing your research data? Check out the Virginia Tech Data Repository, the data repository at Virginia Tech or email us at vtdatarepo-g@vt.edu.

The University Libraries' Research Impact and Intelligence (RII) services support Virginia Tech with understanding and growing its global impact and reputation. RII offers customized support to individual scholars / researchers, administrators, units, departments, and colleges. Attend an upcoming workshop, or request a custom workshop tailored to your group or department. For questions and support, email us at: researchintel@vt.edu 

• Research gap analysis and benchmarking for research, program, and proposal development

• Research impact metrics analysis, dashboards, and visualizations

• Research collaboration/competitor discovery and candidate research intelligence

• Consultations and workshops centered on boosting global impact, understanding research metrics, optimizing researcher profiles for global visibility, and understanding and analyzing rankings methodologies

• Support for optimizing researcher profiles to grow global impact

• Training for leveraging research analytics tools, including open and proprietary

In partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), the Library’s Undergraduate Research Services provide training, such as the Advanced Research Skills Program, and resources to students and the UR community that are engaged in formal mentored research experiences. Through instruction, outreach, collaboration, partnerships, and scholarship, students and faculty are supported in high-impact experiential learning that models real world research and enables career readiness. For questions and support, email: abmacdon@vt.edu

To support the impact, dissemination, and visibility of research, the University Libraries partners with the Provost's Office and other stakeholders to manage and implement Virginia Tech’s Scholarly Activities and Research Information Management System to collect and manage information about research and scholarship, creative works, teaching, extension, outreach, and service activities. This system combines automated sources of data from within and outside the university with data that is manually entered into the university's instance of Elements to feed the University Data Commons for: annual electronic faculty activity reports (efars); promotion and tenure dossiers; and individual, department, college, and university level reports.

Those with an Elements account, faculty and graduate students (as well as staff by request), may deposit scholarly works in the VTechWorks institutional repository for open access (when our Open Access Policy or copyright permissions allow, and after consideration of potential patent application impacts). They may also display a profile on Virginia Tech Experts, a public, searchable expertise database where potential collaborators and the public can connect with Virginia Tech researchers and scholarship across disciplines, broadening our reach and impact. Visit our guide to learn more about Elements and how to display your Virginia Tech Experts profile.

Explore options for Profile Curation Services for Elements and Virginia Tech Experts for colleges, departments, centers, institutes, and other groups or units. Contact: experts@vt.edu for more information or to request a meeting to discuss profile curation services for your area.

The Libraries provide Scholarly Communication services to empower researchers to utilize, create, and develop new modes of scholarship. Scholarly Communication is the process in which researchers create, review, and disseminate their work, including through managing the VTechWorks institutional repository. Scholarly Communication in the library provides funding opportunities, workshops and events, general consulting, and more.

We are Virginia Tech’s digital-first, open access publisher. Based in the University Libraries, Virginia Tech Publishing (VTP) is committed to increasing the visibility, reach, and impact of research produced at the university. We publish scholarly and educational materials in multiple formats for wide dissemination and permanent preservation. In addition to full-service publishing, we offer a variety of specialized services to support the publishing needs of the Virginia Tech community. Contact publishing@vt.edu for more information. 

Health and biomedical research at Virginia Tech involves faculty, students, and partners from all disciplines. Get a start on key information resources and consultation support via our Health Sciences guide. Or, learn more about service offerings via our three Health Sciences Libraries:

• Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Health Science and Technology Library (Roanoke)

• Veterinary Medicine Library (Blacksburg)

• Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Library (Roanoke)

The Library provides various areas of support for faculty and students working in digital humanities. We offer workshops, consultations, and more. For more information visit our research guide or email dhlibsupport@vt.edu. To see some of the projects supported by the library visit publishing.vt.edu.

Subject Librarians (or Subject Specialists), provide information services tailored to the needs of faculty, staff and students within each of Virginia Tech's academic colleges. These services vary depending on the area of focus and may include: being an area’s Library Liaison contact for questions and referrals to library services; Purchasing subject-specific materials; Providing subject specific research assistance or partnership; or helping Design realistic assignments that will deepen and test discipline-specific information skills. Subject Librarians may serve on departmental committees, partner in grants and research, assist graduate degree candidates with literature reviews, or prepare class-specific web pages. Find your subject specialist today!