Course Essential Research Skills for PhD students at Arts and Humanities

Course description

This course is provided by Aarhus University Library in Emdrup, Copenhagen, in collaboration with administrative and research staff from Aarhus University. It aims to provide PhD students in Arts at Aarhus University with essential skills in various subjects central to the research process, from collecting data, to disseminating results. This course offers practical tools and best practices that PhD students can readily apply in their daily work.

Although the course materials and examples are tailored to Arts PhD students, the course is open to all PhD students. The course consists of different sessions with presentations, discussions, cases and hands-on activities.

Experts in the following subject areas will present on

• Academic search
• Data management
• Digital tools to collect, sort and analyse literature
• Publication strategies

As Aarhus University Library supports the Open Science movement, we prioritize conveying an Open approach to the topics, including Open Access publishing and FAIR data.

Aim/Learning outcomes

At the end of this course, the student will be able to:

• - Use different search strategies and search tools, including systematic search, in their research.
• - Continuously describe and fill out their data management plan as well as confidentially administer and potentially publish their collected data in a secure manner.
• - Understand how digital tools can help optimize workflow in literature analysis.

Target group/Participants

PhD Students at Arts and Humanities

Workload

• Course/ teaching hours: 10
• Preparation hours: 10
• Written assignments etc.: 0

Language 

• English

Lecturers

• Hazel Engelsmann, AU Library (Course Organizer) hcen@kb.dk
• Ida Lunde Jørgensen, AU Library
• Karl Weis-Fogh, AU Library
• Mathias Michelsen, AU Library
• Uffe Jankvist, MSc, PhD, Professor, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University

Literature

• Circle U (2023), Open Science Passport – A Practical Guide for PhD Students https://oer.uclouvain.be/jspui/handle/20.500.12279/902
• Boote, D. N., & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation. Educational Researcher, 34(6), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X034006003
• Gusenbauer, M., & Haddaway, N. R. (2021). What every researcher should know about searching – clarified concepts, search advice, and an agenda to improve finding in academia. Research Synthesis Methods, 12(2), 136–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1457
• Holmstrand, K.F., den Boer, S.P.A., Vlachos, E., Martínez-Lavanchy, P.M., Hansen, K.K. (Eds.) (2019). Research Data Management (eLearning course). doi: 10.11581/dtu:00000047. https://medarbejdere.au.dk/en/research-data-management/e-learning-course
• Levay, Paul, and Jenny Craven. “Introduction: Where Are We Now?” Systematic Searching, Facet Publishing, 2018, pp. 1–24, https://doi.org/10.29085/9781783303755.002.
• Aagaard, K. (2025) Set research free: A broader perspective. AU.dk. https://rb.gy/10e452 

Venue

• TBA

Course dates:

• 23 September 2026 10:00 - 15:30
• 24 September 2026 10:15 - 15:00