Managing and Sharing Research Data (Thurs 19 Jan, 10am)

In an ideal world, all research data would be stored securely, documented clearly and backed-up regularly. Researchers would also make data more openly available to enable others to verify and re-use the results. These practices would encourage scientific rigour and integrity and they would maximise the value and impact of the data.

In fact, these 'ideals' are currently being integrated into all disciplines, from Arts to Engineering, in order to improve the quality of research outputs. Many public funding bodies now require a Data Management and Sharing Plan (or Technical Appendix) to be included in grant applications. But how can researchers balance these requirements with other administrative burdens, the pressure to publish, restrictions on confidential and commerically sensitive data, and concerns about intellectual property?

Come along to the BMS Conference Room on Thursday 19 January for practical guidance on these issues provided by Martin Donnelly from the Digital Curation Centre, University of Edinburgh.

For further information and to register for this free event, please visit the webpage below.

Information related to this message is available at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/other/gov-ethics/grp/education/managingdata-info.

PG Café Forum talk by Alexander Schauer

Come along to the PG Café Forum December event to enjoy our exclusive hot drink and muffin deal for £2.85 courtesy of the Jessop West Cafe and hear what other postgrads are investigating!

Due to the Christmas holidays this event will take place a little earlier than usual on Tuesday 13th December at 6pm in the Jessop West Exhibition centre.
The following speakers hope to leave us with new ideas to think about over the holidays!

Lost urban rivers beneath our feet, and what to do with them - Adam Broadhead
A cross cultural study on factors affecting knowledge sharing - Alexander Schauer
Typing: When consciousness can't keep up - Cigir Kalfaoglu

Don’t forget to reserve your ticket beforehand via our website www.pgcafeforum.co.uk

Research Seminar: Alexander Schauer

You are warmly invited to attend the following research seminar, to be given by Alexander Schauer, iSchool PhD student, as part of his upgrade from MPhil to PhD.

A cross-cultural study on individual, team, organisational and institutional factors affecting knowledge sharing willingness in the IT services industry.

Thursday 8th December at 13:00, Information School lecture room (RC-204)

No need to book.

Talk:
What factors affect knowledge sharing willingness? Prior studies explored individual, team, organisational and institutional factors. However, most research investigated only one or two levels. The presenter argues that none have examined all four levels in a single research setting, which this present study aims to address. Secondly, almost all enquiries focused on one country and a select few on two countries. This study aims to analyse an organisational setting that spans across five countries and across three continents. The presentation on 8 December will introduce knowledge sharing willingness and provide an insight into the research setting, pilot data collection and analysis. Initial results, namely the identification of 98 factors, are discussed. Details of the next phases and anticipated timetable conclude the presentation.

Research Seminar: Alice Schofield

You are warmly invited and encouraged to attend the following research seminar which will be given by Alice Schofield, iSchool PhD student, as part of her upgrade from MPhil to PhD.

Evaluating the Intellectual Assets in the Scholarship and Collections Directorate at the British Library.

Location: Regent Court Lecture Room (RC-204)
Time: Wednesday 30th November at 1pm

Talk:
This presentation will give an overview of the progress made thus far in the evaluation of the intellectual assets in the Scholarship and Collections directorate at the British Library. A summary of the background to the project will be made, including a definition of intellectual assets, key themes from the literature, and an introduction to the British Library. Next, the researcher will explain the methods being used for the data collection and analysis process, and how they were employed during the pilot study earlier in the year. The researcher will then discuss the data which have already been collected, and the conclusions drawn. Finally, the anticipated course of the project will be explained, including the eventual results that the researcher hopes to produce.

KIM - next meetings

Dear all,

Following the previous meeting, where we had an update of everybody's activities and had a look and fed back on a preview of the KIM site prior to its release, we will be holding two further meetings prior to Christmas.

These will be under the general topic of mixed methods and you can find the dates and times below:

Tuesday 29th November 11am to 12pm - led by Alexander Schauer

Wednesday 14th December 2pm to 3pm - led by Alex Peng


Best wishes,

Ana

Dr. Inaam Idrees

Dear all,

As you all know, Inaam has successfully defended her thesis in her viva and I am very happy to announce that her (very minor) amendments have now been approved. So, she's Dr. Idrees for us from now on!

Many congratulations, Inaam!

Ana

iSchool Event - Question Time! 2nd December at 10am

Dear Information School student,

You are warmly invited to attend an iSchool event where you, the Information School students, will get to put Information-related questions directly to a panel of our senior academic staff in a question-and-answer session.

The event will take place on Friday 2nd December 2011 at 10am, in the Arts Tower Lecture Theatre 4 (AT LT-04). The event will last one hour.

We hope that the event will turn out to be a lively, interesting and engaging discussion on Information-related themes. But first, we need you to tell us what questions you would like to ask!

If you would like to ask a question to the panel, please reply to me and let me know what you would like to ask by 25th November. Four questions will be selected to be put to the panel. Even if you don't want to ask something, please make every effort to come along and join in. We hope to get as many iSchool students along as possible to join in the debate (Undergraduate, Postgraduate and PhD/MPhil).

To kick off the session, the panel will attempt to answer the question "...is Google all you need?".

A poster for the event is attached. If you have any questions about the event, please let me know.

Tim

IWP International Conference 2012

The IWP International Conference 2012 is being held from 26th to 28th June at the Mercure St. Paul’s Hotel, Sheffield City Centre. It is hosted by the Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, a distinctive community of researchers focused on work psychology and related areas, such as organisational behaviour and human resource management.

This conference follows our extremely successful events in 2008 and 2010 each of which attracted over 200 delegates from 36 different countries.

The scientific committee invites contributions in areas including knowledge management and sharing. For more information, please visit http://conference.iwp.dept.shef.ac.uk/

KIM meeting

Dear all,

The next KIM meeting will be Wednesday, 2nd November, 16-17h in the Common Room.

See you then,

Ana

Research seminar 20th October 13h

This week's departmental research seminar, on 'Knowledge absorptive capacity in SMEs',  will be given by KIM group member Farshid Golzadeh.


Abstract:

Knowledge Absorptive Capacity (ACAP), as presented by Cohen & Levinthal (1990) is a new perspective on learning and innovation.  Much of the work on ACAP has focused on groups and on integration within organisations (Maaninen-Olson, Wismen and Carlsson, 2008) or between organisational dyads (Grant and Baden-Fuller, 2004). However, there is still a gap on the study of the absorption of knowledge from the broader environment and its integration into and across organisational processes (Kraaijenbrink and Wijnhoen, 2008). There is also gap in identifying how knowledge absorption, translation and integration practices occur in smaller organisations with flexible, informal and overlapping boundaries on an everyday basis and on identifying the ways in which transformed knowledge is disseminated back into the environment and the communities companies engage with and influences adaptation in the environment. The main aim of this research is to fill this recognized theoretical, methodological and empirical gap (Kraaijenbrink and Wijnhoen, 2008) and to develop a theoretical framework for ACAP development in context of small firms.  This seminar presents the results of a pilot study that has been carried out in a community of small firms in the insurance industry in Iran, following a qualitative inductive approach.

Venue: Regent Court, level 2, room 204.

Welcome from the head of KIM, Ana Vasconcelos

Belated happy new academic year.

We start the year with very good news:

- Inaam Idrees has passed her viva with very minor amendments - many congratulations!

- Ana Rosa and Soureh Shabgahihas finally joined us formally - welcome, Ana and Soureh!

- two of the group members, Farshid Golzadeh and Alex Schauer, are due to do their upgrade presentations this Autumn.

We had a break in the schedule of meetings this Summer, but now is time to resume it. I will schedule a meeting shortly.