Get ready for 2026!

In the final blogpost of the year, we’re looking ahead and have highlighted a few training opportunities that you might like to add to your calendars for 2026.

We’ve also included some links to talks on open research and scholarly communications related themes that you might have missed in 2025 which are worth a listen if you have some time over the festive season.

Library research workshops

The next set of library PGR  workshops are now available to book. Aimed primarily at postgraduate research students, the workshops are open to researchers at any level. So if you’re looking to develop or refresh your skills in 2026, come along!

Here’s a selection of what’s available:

30^th January 10-11.30 am Literature Searching for Researchers

3^rd February 10-11am Managing your data, part one: Data Management Plans

10^th February 10-11am Design and Create a Research Poster

17^th February 2-3pm Understanding Open Research

5^th March 10-11 am Managing your data, part two: Organising and Storing Data

11^th March 2-3pm Making your research open: Open Access Publishing

24^th March 2-3pm Copyright for your thesis: keeping it legal

Check out our webpage for further information about all the workshops on offer and to book a place:

https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/research/research-workshops/

UK Data Service sessions

The UK Data Service provide fantastic data-related training. Keep an eye on their website for new workshops or check out their YouTube channel for recordings of past sessions:  https://www.youtube.com/@UKDATASERVICE/videos

In the new year they are running the following regular sessions:

Computational social science drop-in: Get or give some help on computational social science projects.

Code anxiety club: Half hour sessions to help you navigate the world of coding with confidence. Topics they will be covering include: Getting started with Git: Version control basics, and Debugging demystified: Finding and fixing errors.

You can see all the sessions and book onto them here: https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/training-events/

The UK Data Service are also running a free event for ECRs in Manchester on 11th February titled Perspectives on Engagement and Impact: a UK Data Service event for Early Career Researchers. The event provides an opportunity to engage with a range of organisations and individuals using data to make a difference.

Information and details of how to book can be found here.

Things you might have missed…

OA14  The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication

Recordings are now available from this 5 day event from November and there are lots of interesting talks to catch up on. Themes covered include: Research security and openness, Open infrastructure, Navigating AI in Open Science, Commercialization and Open Science, and Research Integrity.

You can replay all of the sessions on their Vimeo channel which is accessible via the conference website: https://oai.events/oai14/

British Library Open & Engaged

This conference during International Open Access week in October brought together GLAM professionals, librarians, curators, technologists, and community partners to look at how power, ethics, and responsibility are embedded in how cultural heritage is created, shared, and preserved.

Recordings and slides of presentations are available in the British Library's repository and you can find them here:  https://openscholarship.gitbook.io/open-and-engaged-2025/ https://bl.iro.bl.uk/collections/55139397-7063-48f2-b123-04b3824a043e

Edinburgh ReproducibiliTea

Recordings from the Edinburgh section of the grassroots journal club initiative that helps researchers create a space for discussions on issues, papers and ideas about improving science, reproducibility and the Open Research movement.

Access them on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@edinburghreproducibilitea1277/videos

Wishing you all a very happy festive season!

The Scholarly Communications Team

Image credit: Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash