Jocelyn McKay
I help researchers take their partially formed ideas and turn them into results by collaboratively writing research proposals, ethics applications, literature reviews, and academic papers.
I am an academic writer who facilitates research.
I Lead Initiatives
Big project? I'm the one to tackle it.
I am the Project Manager and Research Facilitator for the Designing for People Research Cluster at the University of British Columbia. This means that I communicate with over 22 faculty and find ways to help with their interdisciplinary research.
Each job requires a repertoire of diverse skills, creative thinking, and a tendency towards obsessive organization.
My tasks include:
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Manage the DFP website
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Liaise with external Partners
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Run DFP initatives (ie: Downtown Salons)
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Administer Project Stimulus Grants
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Grant writing (ie: GCRC, $200,000 / year)
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Conduct literature reviews
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Manage DFP's social media
and much more...
My "mind map" of the DFP Research Cluster
Academic Writing
I Co-Authored a Book Chapter
While completing my Masters in Library and Information Studies at UBC, I worked as Dr. Heather O'Brien's graduate research assistant. We collaborated on several published works that look specifically at user engagement with information. Our chapter in "The Handbook of Communication Engagement" focuses on the many qualities and traits that users bring to their interactions, and how these antecedents affect engagement.
See My Other Publications
Journal Articles
Huot, S., McKay, J., Barbic, S., Wylie, A., Weis, D., Sarah, B. S., & Holsti, L. (2020). Tackling complex social challenges within neoliberal constraints: The context shaping ‘Intellectual quality of life’ (iQoL) in a canadian university context. Societies, 10(1), 26.
O’Brien, H.L., McKay, J., & Vangeest, J. (2017). Learning from the news: The role of topic, multimedia, and interest in knowledge retention. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Conference Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (pp. 185-193). New York, NY, USA: ACM.
O’Brien, H.L., & McKay, J. (2016). What makes online news interesting? Personal and situational interest and the effect on behavioral intentions. In Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 53(1), 1-6.
Conference Presentation
James, V., & McKay, J. (2017). The Legal Information Needs of Women Who Experience Online Harassment. In Proceedings of the 2017 Canadian Association for Information Science Conference.
With more to come!
Research Facilitation
Literature Reviews
How can I help you with yours?
Systematic Review? Scoping Review? Narrative Review?
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Query
Review
Step 1: Literature Search
All good research is built on a solid foundation of knowledge. This often means an academic literature review. As an MLIS grad, I am an expert at conducting extensive literature reviews to meet a variety of research needs.
Once you have established a research question, I work with you to determine the study's inclusion/exclusion criteria, which databases and journals should be searched, and what keywords and search strings to use.
Then the search begins!
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Annotate
Step 2: Organizing Results
Organizing and keeping track of hundreds of articles can be a daunting task for any researcher. I have developed detailed literature organizational methods, and am well versed in citation managements systems like Zotero and Mendeley.
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Co-write
Step 3: Write, Edit, Revise
Writing a clear, succinct review that synthesizes the reviewed literature is my favourite part of the process. I have extensive academic writing experience, and have developed effective methods for writing collaboratively.
In 2019 I gave 3 Literature Review workshops to graduate students in the DFP program as part of their professional skills development. I will be offering these workshops again in winter 2020!
Faculty Interviews
I interviewed 16 DFP faculty about their design research
Storytelling is my passion. I interviewed DFP faculty from diverse disciplines (Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Library Science, Architecture, Nursing, etc.) to weave together the many narratives of design research at UBC. View all of the interviews on YouTube.
Creative Writing
I Design and Write the DFP Newsletter
One of my favourite responsibilities at DFP is creating the newsletter. With so many events, initiatives, and successes, it's important to document and share them with our DFP members and beyond!
I keep my finger on the pulse of DFP, attending events and networking with members so that when it comes time to write the newsletter, I have lots of content to draw from.
