Tag: Researcher

Find the Funding Your Research Needs with Mendeley

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The second article in the series about Mendeley described how Mendeley Careers can help you manage your own research career or help you build an excellent research team. But no career or team can move forward without money to make the research happen. As you’ve undoubtedly seen, the landscape for research funding is changing. While local funding is still dominant, global funding is beginning to gain ground, especially in Europe. In addition, a larger percentage of funding is being directed towards emerging markets, adding to the competition for every dollar. You – and your institution – have to work more diligently than ever to identify and pursue financial opportunities to support your research. Did you know that Elsevier has a valuable tool to help you succeed in this quest? Mendeley Funding, part of the unified Mendeley ecosystem, can raise your batting average in finding and keeping the resources you need.

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The Odds Make Funding as Challenging as Your Research

Every researcher’s hypothesis has the potential to fundamentally change science, technology, engineering or medicine; unfortunately, many of them will never see the light of day. As you probably know, an average of only one in five grant proposals is funded. Most gamblers wouldn’t be crazy about those odds, yet you are forced to seek funding under that pressure throughout your research career. In addition, once you finally obtain funding, you have to work to sustain it throughout the life of your project. Knowing the odds you’re facing, why wouldn’t you want to use a free resource to gain a competitive advantage – and make your professional life a bit easier?

Mendeley Funding Aggregates Thousands of Options to Streamline the Process

Research, in general, is becoming more collaborative in nature, spanning domains and regions. In order to advance your science and your career, you need to succeed in – and fund – a collaborative environment. Mid-career researchers, in particular, experience this change as you shift from doing the work to leading teams. Mendeley Funding enables both individuals and team leaders to more easily acquire necessary funding, allowing you to increase your focus on the research itself.

So go to Mendeley Funding and start by creating a free account. You’ll find a collection of timely and relevant grant information from more than 2,000 organizations worldwide including US government agencies, the European Union, and UK Research councils. Each funding organization has its own Mendeley Funding page, which you can easily browse to view details about the most up-to-date opportunities: when they were posted, the deadlines for applications, the types and amounts of funding, and any restrictions on submissions. If you like what you see, bookmarking opportunities are easy; you just click the star to save your favorites for future reference.

With Mendeley Funding, You Don’t Need to Spend Money to Get Money

Mendeley Funding gives you access to a future-forward view of funding opportunities. Elsevier’s Mendeley team, which consists of former researchers, data scientists, and process engineers, is continuously gathering the latest information from funders, to offer you a unique collection of pertinent possibilities to finance your research. They know what you need and made Mendeley Funding robust and easy to use for funding searches. You know there won’t be a research career without proper funding, so let this tool from Elsevier help you make your dreams become reality. Take a look at Mendeley Funding today, and start to go for that funding that will move your research forward!

 

 

 

Mendeley Advisor of the Month: Narendra Kumar

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Narendra Kumar is an Assistant Professor at The Institute of Technology Gopeshwar, Uttarakhand (India). He teaches Technical Communication. He is also enrolled as a PhD student at The Language and Cognition Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (India). He obtained his M.A degree in Linguistics from Banaras Hindu University Varanasi (India). Kumar’s research work focuses on the Neurophysiological correlates of semantic prediction during language comprehension.

How did you get into your field and what is your research story?

 The question ‘how the human brain knows, what it knows?’ has always intrigued me. Here when I say the term ‘know’, I specifically mean ‘information’, not in the sense of knowledge as a whole in human beings. It is quite apparent that the prime carrier of information is natural language. In our everyday life, we comprehend a sentence so easily and smoothly that no one questions how the human brain processes various linguistic information viz. phonological morphological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic etc. of every word in milliseconds. I started my PhD in 2013 to explore similar questions on the basis of electrophysiological (Event-Related Potentials) evidence from Hindi, a split-ergative and verb-final language. My research is focused on investigating the processing of semantic information during on-line language comprehension of Hindi sentences. The neurophysiological studies on processing syntactic information in typologically different languages have exhibited substantial differences. So, my research work aims to explore if the processing of semantic information also exhibits neurophysiological differences cross-linguistically.

Where do you do your research/work the best? What kind of environment suits you?

I love to work in the lab or the library. I need a peaceful environment to work dedicatedly. Indeed, I enjoy working in a creative and challenging environment where I can push myself beyond the comfort zone to learn new things.

How long have you been on Mendeley? 

I have been using Mendeley since October 2014. I learnt about Mendeley when I was learning inserting Bibliography in LaTeX from the youtube channel of Chandra Has.

What were you using prior to Mendeley and how does Mendeley influence your research?

In the first year of my PhD, I used Endnote but didn’t feel comfortable using it, within few months I came across Mendeley. After using Mendeley once, I realized it was a one-stop solution to organize every research activity. Infact, Mendeley saved a lot of time which I used to waste in renaming and keeping PDF files in different directories according to their use.  Mendeley organizes all these PDF files in a library format and helps to retrieve them easily. Apart from citation and reference writing, I use Mendeley as a tool for reading as its PDF viewer allows me to highlight texts, adding notes and tags which has helped me keeping notes organized in the article itself. Moreover, I love two other features of Mendeley the most, they are Mendeley Web Plugin and the suggestion of article based on the documents in my library.

Why did you decide to become an Advisor and how are you involved with the program?

 I believe in the philosophy of sharing and spreading of knowledge and information, as mentioned in the following Sanskrit shlok (couplet):

अपूर्व: कोऽपि कोशोऽयं विद्यते तव भारति !

व्ययतो वृद्धिमायाति क्षयमायाति सञ्चयात् ॥ (सुभाषितानि)

[Translation: O Bharati (Goddess of learning)! This indescribable treasure of yours is unique – by expending it grows and by hoarding it diminishes! – Subhashitani (Sanskrit: dated back 5000BC)]

Once realised Mendeleys importance for a research student, I started sharing its features with my PhD pursuing friends. Within a few months of joining Mendeley, I attended a Mendeley event in a nearby institute and as a result decided to become an advisor to organize workshops myself. I have organized a number of workshops in my institute and nearby institutes.

What researcher would you like to work with or meet, dead or alive?

In today’s world every linguist has a dream to meet Noam Chomsky at least once. He is a living legend as the “father of modern linguistics” and one of the “makers of twentieth century” (London Times 1970). In addition, I would like to meet Steven Pinker (Harvard University), Marta Kutas (University of California-SD), Angela Friederici (MPI, Leipzig), Peter Hagoort (MPI, Nijmegen), David Poeppel (NYU) and Ray Jackendoff (Tufts University) whose works have contributed a lot to the discussion of language, mind and brain.

What book are you reading at the moment and why?

These days I am reading two books Neurosemantics (2016) by Plebe & Cruz and Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week?

This week, I reviewed research articles based on the prediction approach of language comprehension. Prediction is one of the essential attribute of language comprehension system, yet researchers do not agree on what prediction is or what constitutes evidence for it.

What is the best part about working in research?

As a researcher, I have started believing in the philosophy of Albert Einstein: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” What I like the most about working in research is that one can enjoy his/her whole life as a student/learner where there is always something new to learn and new problems to solve.

And the worst/most challenging part about working in research?

The most frustrating thing for a researcher is when you do not get the results as expected after spending months/years on a problem. In such case also, supervisors/PIs don’t look at your hard work/labour, instead they start criticizing your potentials and working styles.

What is the one thing you want people to know about Mendeley?

Mendeley is the best on-stop solution for all research activities. Every academician/researcher should use Mendeley as it makes the life of a researcher organized and smooth.

Biography in Brief

Narendra Kumar is an Assistant Professor at Institute of Technology Gopeshwar, Uttarakhand (India). He teaches Technical Communication to the students of B.Tech. Along with he is also enrolled as a PhD student at Language and Cognition Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (India). He obtained his M.A degree in Linguistics from Banaras Hindu University Varanasi (India). Kumar’s research work focuses on the Neurophysiological correlates of semantic prediction during language comprehension.

Mendeley: Everything a Researcher Needs to Succeed

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Researchers work very hard, often for little reward, and usually under considerable stress. While the satisfaction of discovery, and the prestige of developing a scientific breakthrough are certainly fulfilling, you can rarely sit back and celebrate. Have I shown independent thought? Does my discovery stand out? What if someone else is working on this same problem? Will the results of my research make a difference to society? Am I building a career here? Will funding sources consider this exciting enough to merit financing? Am I working as efficiently as I can?

Elsevier understands that you’re forced to do more with less. You have to chart your own course, promoting yourselves to a multitude of people and seeking recognition wherever possible. As your career progresses, you have to succeed both as individuals and team leaders. But you don’t have to do it alone, thanks to Elsevier’s online research workflow ecosystem known as Mendeley. Mendeley adds value to every step of your career, whether you’re a doctoral student, post-doc, assistant professor or principal investigator. It makes you feel empowered, organized, confident and connected. And best of all, it’s free!

The Research Landscape is Changing

The life of a researcher is a study in contradictions. You have more opportunities than ever to discover, to make an impact and to interact with their peers. But with all the conveniences that have made research easier – online resources, technology-driven tools, open access, virtual professional communities – you still face many of the same challenges…some with a new twist. First, while there is still a scramble for research funding, it is beginning to shift from local to global. While Europe is ahead of the United States in this trend, it’s a factor to be considered when you’re seeking financial backing. Broad-based collaboration is also more prevalent, especially among younger researchers. Depending upon the problem being explored, the location and the source(s) of funding, a collaborative approach may be best for a new research project.

Research from emerging markets is increasing in volume and value. Researchers from these areas are more egalitarian and likely to collaborate, and need more resources in their own languages as well. Open science continues to be a priority among researchers, as it enables you to collaborate and see a shared impact more easily. However, you also continue to search for more entry points to open science. In addition, the increasing importance of using new technologies, like artificial intelligence, challenges you to keep up with the latest developments without losing focus on your research topics.

Many universities also are changing their model relative to research, with entrepreneurship becoming a growing initiative. Forming companies out of research initiatives is a draw to younger researchers, and an investment for the institutions. It can provide them with a revenue stream, a partnership with outside corporations or both. At the same time, universities are competing harder than ever for every research dollar. They need to attract, and keep, top-tier faculty and students, whose success stories will in turn propel them into the forefront for the next generation of researchers.

When You’re Leading the Charge, Choose a Multi-Faceted Tool

Given this scenario, it’s more important than ever for you to be supported in all facets of your career, from organizing your research and collaborating with other researchers worldwide to sharing datasets and seeking career opportunities. Think of Mendeley as the Swiss Army Knife® of resources for a research vocation. Just like a Swiss Army Knife, Mendeley is a single entity with multiple parts, a unified environment. And it’s likely that you will use the “knife” portion of Mendeley, Reference Management, most often. But there are other convenient tools within Mendeley – Research Network, Data, Careers and Funding – that are unique and equally valuable in enabling your success. For every research need, Mendeley has a solution.

Focus on Doing Your Research, Not Managing It

While you’re busy shaping the future, Mendeley Reference Management makes you more efficient. You spend less time on document management and more time on your research. The Mendeley Reference Manager enables you to easily organize and search a personal library, annotate documents and cite as you write. It automatically captures information such as authors, title and publisher, which makes organization and browsing easy. You can create a profile, as well as start and join groups to find inspiring people and information.

Mendeley’s Citation Plugin is compatible with Word and LibreOffice, so you can generate citations and bibliographies while you write. You can also annotate on documents as you read, or share documents with groups of colleagues and annotate them together. Reference Manager gives you the option to easily import papers and other documents from your desktop, your existing libraries or websites.

Communities Keep You Connected – and In the Know

Mendeley Research Network hosts a global community of more than eight million researchers in every field from institutions worldwide. You can create a research profile, including a curated list of your publications and affiliations, and discover others in your research network. Then you can join groups or start one of your own – either public or private – to engage with your peers.

Based on your interests, Mendeley delivers personalized suggestions for articles to read and people to follow. You can also set alerts to make sure you don’t miss any activity in your network, keeping you connected and informed.

Do You Know Where Your Data Is?

Mendeley Data optimizes the discoverability of your data and fosters teamwork, by facilitating the improved management of your datasets. It’s a secure cloud-based open science repository, so your data is easy to share, access and cite from any location. When you use Mendeley Data, you control who gets to use your data; you can share your data only with colleagues and co-authors before publication, or publish your data to the world. Mendeley Data also supports versioning, simplifying longitudinal studies. Best of all, your data is accessible and archived for as long as you need it by Data Archiving & Networked Services.

Move Up or Move Out

Realistically, that’s the mantra of a researcher’s career.  Mendeley Careers is the world’s largest free online search engine for career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and medicine. It enables you to match your profile and expertise to more than 200 thousand posted opportunities. You can upload your CV and get job alerts via the smart notification system, ensuring that you don’t miss any golden opportunities. You can also use Mendeley Careers to identify the top talent you’d like to add to your team.

Show Me the Money

How much time do you spend trying to find the funding that you and your team members need? If you use Mendeley Funding, it could be a lot less. Elsevier aggregates and catalogs relevant grant information from more than two thousand organizations worldwide – including US government agencies, the European Union, and UK Research councils – to help you find the right fit for your research. Each organization has its own Mendeley Funding page, and you can easily browse and bookmark favorites for future reference. Timely opportunities are key; Elsevier constantly updates the Mendeley funding index to ensure that you have the latest opportunities at your fingertips.

It’s a Personal Assistant, a PR agent and a Milestone Enabler

As your research career advances, you take on more managerial responsibility, leaving you less time to devote to hands-on work. But to move your research forward, and succeed in your career, you need to focus more on the success of your work with your collaborators and less on personal “doing.”

Mendeley is designed to assist you in making this shift. The Elsevier team behind Mendeley is made up of former researchers, data scientists, and process engineers, who are dedicated to empowering you and taking the friction out of teamwork. Mendeley can help you organize your work, assemble a talented team, connect and collaborate, share data, get funding, and stay up to date on trends – so you can maximize the value of your work with your collaborators and the impact of your research.

You’ll form many partnerships during your career, and Mendeley should be one of them. If you haven’t tried Mendeley yet, what are you waiting for?

Get Started!

Meet the Team: Adrian Raudaschl

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Name: Adrian Raudaschl

Job title: Product Manager

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Intro bio (background): I originally trained and worked as a doctor in the NHS before transitioning into a product role for a medical start-up. My love of solving hard problems in the world of medicine and academia led me to my current role at Elsevier.

When did you join Mendeley? I joined in August 2017

What do you love most about your job? The opportunity to work with smart and talented individuals from a range of background on valuable problems in academia.

What book did you most recently read? Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

What’s the one thing you want people to know about Mendeley? Many people at Mendeley come from or are connected with people from academic backgrounds. We care deeply about the work we do here, and really want to help make things better in academia. This is not only limited to reference management, but also helping people find a job, build their professional network, discuss the latest research and store research data easily and securely. It is all part of a bigger picture of trying to make researcher lives better.

How would you explain your job to a stranger on a bus? I try to understand what the biggest pain points people are experiencing and build things to make their lives better. After defining what is important, it is about working with a team of engineers and designers to build out something which aims to solve the problems you have identified in the simplest way possible. If it works you iterate and make the solution better, if not we go back the drawing board and question our assumptions.

What’s the most exciting part of your job? Getting to meet and speak with academics about their profession and understanding their problems is a great part of my job. I also enjoy the challenge of taking a bunch of ideas and trying to work with my team on how best to apply our knowledge and resources to solve these problems. When it works well its incredibly satisfying.

What keeps you awake at night? Questioning myself that we are working on the most valuable problems for our users.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week? That we may be able to prevent cavities by colonising a genetically engineered variant of Streptococcus mutans. Interesting paper (https://www.mendeley.com/papers/modification-effector-strain-replacement-therapy-dental-caries-enable-clinical-safety-trials/).