Research Resources

The Office of Research Integrity oversees the polices and integrity related to research at USM which includes oversight of:

• Institutional Review Board for approval of use of human subjects
• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for research utilizing animals

Check the library’s list of Research Guides to find helpful resources (e.g., databases, journals, books, websites, and videso) by discipline.

• How to Be a Good Researcher: A strategic guide for academic success, Evans
• When to use What Research Design, Vogt, Gardner, and Haeffele
• Designing and Conducting Survey Research, Rea and Parker
• Basic Statistics for Social Research, Hannema, Kposowa, and Riddle
• How to Construct a Mixed Methods Research Design, Schoonenboom and Johnson
• Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods, free online course

Additional free online courses that may be useful can be found at edx.org.

• See the Scholarship of Teaching Learning Program library guide containing links to helpful books, databases, and videos
• Guide to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning by the Center for Educational Innovation at the University of Minnesota
• Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Bishop-Clark and Dietz-Uhler

• USM Office of Research Support and Development (ORSD)

Per its website, the Office of Research Support and Development (ORSD) serves as the University’s central hub for advancing research and creative activity through external funding. ORSD supports faculty and staff throughout the entire research lifecycle—from identifying funding opportunities and developing competitive proposals to ensuring compliance and managing post-award activities. ORSD also oversees research integrity and security efforts to protect and promote ethical and responsible research practices.

All proposals seeking external funding must be submitted through ORSD, unless designated for submission via the Office of Technology Development (OTD).

• ORSD Directory & Services 

• ORSD is organized into six core service areas to assist with securing and managing external funding:

• Funding Identification: Supports researchers in locating external funding opportunities aligned with their scholarly goals.

• Proposal Development and Submission: Provides assistance with proposal preparation, budget development, timeline coordination, and compliance review.

• Post-Award Administration: Offers guidance on grant implementation, budget management, and reporting throughout the life of the award.

• Research Development and Outreach: Fosters collaborative partnerships, promotes high-impact research, and supports strategic initiatives to enhance the university’s research capacity.

Compliance and Integrity: Coordinates with specialized offices to ensure adherence to institutional and sponsor policies, including conflict of interest, export controls, and research security.

Research Integrity and Oversight: ORSD houses the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which promotes ethical research practices and oversees key compliance areas such as:

o   Institutional Review Board (IRB) – Human subjects research
o   Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) – Animal research
o   Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC)
o   Research and Scholarly Integrity Assurance Program – Includes required CITI training
o   Oversight of authorship, open access, and predatory publishing concerns

ORSD also works closely with the Office of Research Security to safeguard the university’s research enterprise from foreign interference, export control violations, and other national security risks.

In support of research development, ORSD now provides full access to GrantForward, a comprehensive funding opportunity database available free of charge to anyone with a USM ID. GrantForward promotes federal and private sponsored funding opportunities and allows users to search by discipline, keyword, or sponsor. Our office also offers training and guidance on how to effectively use GrantForward to identify funding matches and build competitive proposals.

• College of Education and Human Sciences Office of Research Support Services

Available to faculty, staff, and students in the CEHS, the Office of Research Support Services provides more tailored pre-award support for preparing and submitting funding proposals and acts as a liaison to ORA.

• Grants.gov

grants.gov is a comprehensive source of information about grants. It includes a database to search for all federal funding opportunities as well as resources for applicants.

• National Institute of Health

The NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world which includes 27 separate institutes or centers all with their own mission and foci and funding opportunities.

NIH’s Grants and Funding website includes resources to find funding, assistance with the application process, and information on pre- and post-award processes.

• National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states.

NFS funding resources include finding funding, support for preparing and submitting a proposal, as well as the ability to search and review funded projects.

Data from these sources can help identify the impact of scholarly works by author. For each database search by author to cultivate list of publications and citations.

• Google Scholar Citations: Search by author name to generate citation list, number of citations, and h-index.
• Web of Science (log-in via USM Library): Search by author name, and then select “Citation Report” to generate a summary report of publications, citations (total and average per publication), and h-index

• Journal Citation Reports (log-in via USM Library: Provides the most comprehensive list and metrics on journals. Can gather 5-year impact factor, total citations per year, journal citation indicator (citations compared to average citations of journals in the category), journal ranking by impact factor as well as other metrics.
• Google Scholar Metrics: Provides a list of top 100 journals, that can be refined by subcategories, and provides h-index metrics. Includes the most basic information on journal metrics.
• Scimago Journal & County Rank: Includes journals and country specific information drawing from information in the Scopus database.