At a glance

Recommended for SMU postgraduates and researchers.

About this session

Every semester, the SMU Researcher Club brings together researchers and research students at SMU to connect, network, and get to know one another. In this August 2026 edition, get a taste of new resources for researchers:

• Altmetric Explorer — Discover where research is being discussed beyond traditional citations, including news, policy documents, and social media.
• Sage Campus and Sage Research — Online resources for research methods and research skills.
• CLOAK — Anonymise personal information and free-text data for safer research and data sharing.
• Instats — Advanced training in statistics, research methods, and GenAI-enabled workflows, taught by leading researchers and domain experts from around the world.
• LIB002 Graduate Researcher Essentials — A self-paced online course introducing key research skills, resources, and support available at SMU.
• Agentic Coding Series — A sneak peek at SMU Libraries’ upcoming workshops on AI-assisted coding and agentic workflows.

With agentic AI rapidly changing the way research is conducted, there has never been a better time to explore what’s available and discover new ways to work more effectively.

Come with questions, stick around for the discussion and demos, and hear from fellow members on how they’re using these tools in their own research!

Registration

Registration is required. Sign up on LibCal.

At a glance

About this session

Are you working on a systematic review, scoping review, survey-based review, or structured literature review? SMU Libraries organised this Covidence 101 webinar for faculty, research staff, and PhD students who wanted to learn how Covidence can support the review workflow.

The session provided an overview and live demo of key features, including:

• Importing references
• Title and abstract screening
• Full-text review
• Data extraction
• Export and PRISMA reporting

The session was suitable for new users as well as those who had used Covidence before and wanted a refresher. Participants were given trial access to Covidence from the webinar until the start of SMU’s official subscription period.

Trainer

• Dr Julie Brown — Consultant Systematic Reviewer, Covidence. With 20+ years of experience in evidence synthesis and over 180 publications across healthcare and clinical practice guidelines.

At a glance

Co-organised by the SMU Researcher Club and the College of Graduate Research Studies (CGRS).

About this session

How are researchers actually using AI in their work — and what have they learned along the way?

This Structured Dialogue brought together PhD students, early-career researchers, and practitioners to share their candid experiences with AI tools for writing, coding, analysis, publishing, and literature discovery. Rather than a technical demo, the session gathered diverse voices to explore questions such as:

• When does AI truly add value in the research process?
• What trade-offs or ethical concerns arise?
• How is AI reshaping the way we think, write, and collaborate?

Moderated in a conversational format, the dialogue invited honest reflection and constructive exchange — spotlighting how researchers and practitioners are navigating the promises and pitfalls of AI in practice.

Panellists

• Dr Tamas Makany — Associate Professor of Communication Management (Education), SMU
• Anders Kirstein Moeller — PhD (Urban Geography), NUS
• Leow Yi Jin — PhD student in Business (OBHR), SMU
• Kayoung Shin — PhD student in Information Systems, NTU
• Seow Wei Yeng — AI Lead, AI Innovation & Technology, IITS, SMU

Moderator

• Dr Pak Hui Ying — Research Fellow, College of Integrative Studies, SMU

At a glance

About this session

As AI continues to reshape the academic landscape, understanding the boundaries of research integrity and publishing ethics is more critical than ever. This comprehensive two-part seminar provided researchers with direct insights into how major publishers handle AI declarations, evolving peer review processes, and the ethical challenges facing the industry today.

The first session focused on current trends and industry-wide challenges in research integrity, while the second session delved into the specific opportunities and risks of Generative AI. Participants gained practical knowledge on Elsevier’s approach to AI tools, ensuring they remain compliant with global publishing standards. The event concluded with a networking session and refreshments, allowing for further discussion with the guest expert.

Speaker

• Dr Mihail Grecea — Senior Expert in Publishing Ethics, Elsevier

At a glance

About this session

What does it take to build a fulfilling and sustainable career as a research professional? This session featured an honest and practical conversation with experienced Principal Investigators (PIs), Research Fellows, and industry professionals. The discussion dived into the realities of research careers, offering strategies for professional growth and identifying the essential skills that hiring managers truly value.

The panel was designed to support researchers at all stages — from PhD students and Research Staff to Undergraduate Assistants — while providing PIs with insights into building strong, sustainable research teams. The event concluded with a networking lunch to foster further exchange between academia and industry.

Panellists

• Dr Terry Van Gevelt — Associate Professor of Urban Sustainability; Urban Fellow, SMU Urban Institute
• Dr Ven Paolo B. Valenzuela — Research Fellow, College of Integrative Studies
• Anna Surgenor — Senior Consultant, ARUP
• Moderator: Dr Pak Hui Ying — Research Fellow, College of Integrative Studies

About this session

In today’s competitive academic landscape, exceptional research alone isn’t enough. This 3-hour workshop was designed specifically to help academic researchers open doors globally by tapping into the power of LinkedIn to build a digital presence and showcase research impact.

Participants learned how to build meaningful professional connections and position themselves as thought leaders in their field beyond traditional publications.

Speaker

• Cindi Wirawan — LinkedIn Top Voice and Career Coach

At a glance

About this programme

Do you struggle to find time and focus to work on your papers amid daily distractions? This structured nine-week programme was designed to provide researchers with a supportive and high-productivity environment to make tangible progress on dissertations, manuscripts, and research papers.

Each three-hour session used the Pomodoro technique to ensure deep focus, allowing participants to work alongside a community of like-minded peers for mutual accountability. To further assist the writing process, an on-site librarian was present at every session to provide immediate guidance on literature searches and information management.

To foster long-term writing habits, the series included a “Bonus Perk” where participants who attended six or more sessions were eligible for a mystery prize. This initiative successfully helped researchers stay fuelled — with provided snacks and drinks — while conquering the isolation of academic writing.

About this session

A platform for researchers to pitch article concepts and connect with potential collaborators. Teams that form here go on to a subsequent 9-week writing bootcamp.

What happens

1. Introduction & opening remarks
2. Individual pitches — 5 minutes each to share your article idea
3. Table discussions — form teams around shared interests
4. Open pitch slots — spontaneous ideas welcome

Taking part

Want to pitch? Submit your article concept via the pitch submission form ahead of the session.

At a glance

About this session

In an era of information overload, organising and synthesising research effectively is crucial to a successful literature review. This panel discussion brought together researchers and experts from diverse disciplines to share their approaches and strategies for managing information in research.

Panellists discussed common practices, unique methods, and the evolving role of AI tools in supporting the literature review process, followed by a networking session with peers, faculty, and librarians.

Panellists

• Lau Kwan Ho — Assistant Professor of Law, SMU
• Ashok Kasthuri — PhD Student in Computer Science, SMU
• Nadyanna Binte Mohamed Majeed — PhD Student in Psychology, NUS
• Aaron Tay — Head of Data Services, SMU Libraries

About this session

In this final workshop of the series, participants explored how to leverage Quarto Pub and GitHub Pages to create engaging websites for their research — transforming Quarto documents into web content for free.

The session covered the basics of hosting static websites on GitHub, site organisation, and customisation options. By the end, participants had the skills to create a professional online presence for themselves or their research lab.

About this session

Building on the previous workshop, this session explored Quarto’s features specifically for academic writing and presentation. Participants learned to manage citations efficiently, utilise Quarto templates for academic journal submissions, and create dynamic RevealJS presentations.

This workshop introduced skills to efficiently produce publication-ready manuscripts and engaging research presentations, streamlining the academic communication workflow.

About this session

Always wanted to learn how to use LaTeX? In this workshop, participants used Overleaf to learn the basics of formatting text, writing mathematical formulae, inserting figures and tables, and adding references to create their first LaTeX document. Beginners and non-coders were welcome!

About this session

This hands-on workshop introduced researchers to Quarto in RStudio. Participants learned Markdown and Quarto basics, enabling seamless integration of narrative text, R code, and citations into a single document.

By the end of the session, participants were able to produce polished documents in HTML, DOCX, or PDF formats that weave narrative and code into reproducible research documents for their intended audience. This workshop was suitable for beginners and those looking to refresh their skills.

At a glance

About this session

The talk aimed to help faculty and researchers understand the process of bringing their research results from the university to society and businesses, where results are developed into new products and services that bring benefit to all.

It offered insight into the pathway from research to discovery, invention to invention disclosure, and intellectual property (IP) protection to commercialisation or licensing — to established companies or through a start-up. The talk introduced the Knowledge Transfer & Commercialisation (KTC) unit at IIE and how IIE/KTC can support faculty and researchers to navigate this path from academic discovery to successful commercialisation, including resources and funding to accelerate the journey.

Agenda

At a glance

About this session

The journey of academic research is fraught with challenges, and one of the most common and disheartening experiences for researchers is the rejection of their academic papers by journals. This panel discussion explored the issue of paper rejection, focusing on the impacts on researchers and strategies to move forward while preserving and optimising their work.

Featuring a panel with varied experiences (academics, journal editors, and early-career researchers), this event sought to provide insights on how researchers can turn rejection into a stepping stone for future success.

Speakers

• Dr Andree Hartanto — Assistant Professor of Psychology (Education), SOSS
• Hari Chittoor — Research Scientist, SCIS
• Panchali Guha — Research Fellow, SOSS
• Moderator: Dr Jude Kurniawan — Postdoctoral Fellow in Sustainability and Governance, SOSS

Resources

• Read the recap of this event

At a glance

About this session

Many researchers would agree that writing the research manuscript is one of the most time-consuming aspects of a research project. AI could certainly help speed up this process — but to what extent and at what cost?

In this session, researchers from various disciplines shared how they have used AI to augment their manuscript writing and other parts of their workflow, including best practices and things to watch out for.

Speakers

• Heng Su Li — Research Associate for Cooling Singapore 2.0; Co-founder, SMU Researcher Club, Singapore Management University
• Dr Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano — Research Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University
• Dr Rick Lee Chi Wai — General Manager, World Scientific Publishing
• Moderator: Marc Astbury — Head of Product, Jenni AI

Resources

• Watch the recording here

At a glance

About this session

A physics paper with 5,154 authors has — as far as anyone knows — broken the record for the largest number of contributors to a single research article. While this is an extreme case, research nowadays is increasingly collaborative, and the list of authors for a published work gets longer.

In this session, we explored what it takes to be an author, whether you should be listed as an author, and how to negotiate your authorship.

Speakers

• Dr Andree Hartanto — Assistant Professor of Psychology (Education), SOSS
• Dr Jude Kurniawan — Postdoctoral Fellow in Sustainability and Governance, SOSS
• Emma Grimley — Research Assistant, CIS
• Moderator: Heng Su Li — Research Associate, CIS

At a glance

About this session

As knowledge sharing and research becomes increasingly fast-paced and interdisciplinary, we need to regularly evaluate the venues where we can reference and publish our research. These venues could be journals, conferences and proceedings, and even platforms such as GitHub or Twitter.

In this session, the panel discussed some ways to evaluate these venues, and the considerations that panelists account for when doing so.

Speakers

• Dr Jude Kurniawan — Postdoctoral Fellow in Sustainability and Governance, SOSS
• Yang Zhou — Research Engineer, SCIS
• Yeo Pin Pin — Head of Research Services, SMU Libraries
• Moderator: Heng Su Li — Research Associate, CIS

Resources

• Read the recap of this event

At a glance

About this session

Presented by Sean Rife, co-founder of scite.ai and Head of Academic Relations for Research Solutions, Inc.

Given the large number of text-generative AI tools, which is best suited for scholarly research? In this webinar, scite co-founder Sean Rife demonstrated the power of scite.ai for the discovery and evaluation of scholarly literature. He focused in particular on scite Assistant, an AI-based text-generative tool designed with researchers in mind, and highlighted a number of new features added to Assistant over the past year.

Resources

• Watch the recording here

At a glance

About this session

Presented by Jungwon Byun, Cofounder and COO of Elicit — an AI research assistant using language models to scale high-quality reasoning. Over 200,000 researchers from universities like Stanford, Yale, University of Cambridge, and HKUST use Elicit every month to search more than 125 million papers in natural language.

Researchers use Elicit to extract data for systematic literature reviews, to find datasets or techniques commonly discussed in literature, and to map concepts across papers.

Resources

• Watch the recording here
• Read the recap of this webinar