As the Research Engagement Librarian, I work with scholars across the University of Toledo to become the best researchers they can.  I help the students, faculty, and other researchers understand the research and publication environment, know what metrics and tools are available to track, quantify, and compare their research productivity and impact, as well as offering training on tools to become more efficient in their research workflows.

A particular method of research that I often engage in are systematic reviews, where the data for the experiment are the outcomes already reported in previous scientific literature.  As a research librarian, I construct detailed search strategies in several databases to comprehensively search for any prior publication that may have relevant data.  These lists are then screened by subject experts, and the relevant studies are selected according to criteria set up in the research question.  Outcomes data are extracted from the full text and analysed in a meta-analysis.  These reviews also characterize the research studies according to how rigorous, how similar, and how likely it is that publication bias has skewed the available data (that is, does the published data differ significantly from unpublished experimental data).