Research Data Management in Five Easy(ish) Steps

Presentation given to the UW-Madison Biocore Undergraduate Honors Program. Fall 2015.

Transcript

1. Brianna Marshall + Cameron Cook | UW Libraries! research data management in five easy(ish) steps Image courtesy of Flickr user lofaesofa (CC BY)!
2. about us Brianna Marshall! Lead, Research Data Services! UW Libraries! ! Cameron Cook! Digital Curation Assistant! UW Libraries!
3. data horror stories! Image courtesy of Flickr user wolfgangfoto (CC BY ND)!
4. https://i.imgflip.com/ntnjb.jpg you can’t find it.
5. or you can’t understand it. http://cdn.meme.am/instances/58392702.jpg
6. or it’s long gone. https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/813225- best-backup-recovery-memes
7. combat these data tragedies! 1. Use open file formats when possible. 2. Organize + name files meaningfully. 3. Document your research process. 4. Back up your data. 5. Have a plan and stick with it.
8. USE OPEN FILE FORMATS (WHEN POSSIBLE) 1.!
9. use open file formats   •  Some file formats are less susceptible to obsolescence than others –  Open, non-proprietary formats •  pick TXT over DOCX •  CSV over XSLX •  TIF over JPG –  History of wide adoption, backward compatibility
10. http://www.teachscience.net/2014/04/04/dont-accept-corrupted-files/ (yikes!)
11. ORGANIZE + NAME FILES (IN MEANINGFUL WAYS) 2.
12. organize your files   •  Lots of possibilities, so consider what makes sense for your project! – File type! – Date! – Type of analysis! ! ! ! EXAMPLE ! MyDocuments\Research\Sample12.tiff ! vs. ! C:\\NSFGrant01234\WaterQuality\Images\LakeMendota_20141030.tiff!
13. name your files   •  Use file naming conventions any time you have related files! •  Consistent! •  Short yet descriptive! •  Avoid spaces and special characters! EXAMPLE! File001.xls ! vs. ! Project_instrument_location_YYYYMMDD.xls!
14. DOCUMENT YOUR RESEARCH PROCESS (RIGHT AWAY) 3.!
15. document your research process   Project- & folder-level! ! •  Create a readme file. (Good example located here: http://hdl.handle.net/2022/17155)! •  Document any data processing and analyses.! •  Don’t forget written notes!! Item-level! ! •  Remember the importance of file names for conveying descriptive information.! https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f2/95/3d/ f2953de758beb5974486e2a193b2d4eb.jpg
16. so what’s in a good readme file?   •  Names + contact information for people associated with the project! •  List of files, including a description of their relationship to one another! •  Copyright + licensing information! •  Limitations of the data! •  Funding sources / institutional support! ! tl;dr !! Any information necessary for someone with no knowledge of your research to understand and / or replicate your work.!
17. BACK UP YOUR DATA (ALWAYS) 4.!
18. storage vs. backup   storage = working files.! ! The files you access regularly and change frequently. In general, losing your storage means losing current versions of the data.! ! backup = regular process of copying data separate from storage.! ! You don’t really need it until you lose data, but when you need to restore a file it will be the most important process you have in place. !
19. rule of 3   •  Keep THREE copies of your data –  TWO onsite –  ONE offsite •  Example –  One: Laptop –  Two: External hard drive –  Three: Cloud storage •  This ensures that your storage and backup is not all in the same place – that’s too risky!
20. evaluating cloud storage   •  Lots of options out there – and not all are created equal •  Read the Terms of Service! •  While at UW, use your free UW Box or Google Drive accounts.
21. HAVE A PLAN (AND STICK WITH IT) 5.!
22. have a plan (and stick with it)   •  There is no one perfect plan for managing data - HOWEVER, any plan is better than none at all •  Ideally, set aside time at the beginning of a project to plan for the basics: –  Where stuff lives + how it is named. –  Roles and responsibilities. Does everyone have equal access to the data? Do specific people need to do certain tasks? (As projects get bigger, this gets trickier.)
23. GET CREDIT FOR YOUR DATA (WHY NOT?) BONUS!!
24. get credit for your data   •  You can publish your data! –  MINDS@UW –  Figshare –  Find disciplinary repositories at re3data.org •  Data is not copyrightable; best practice is to apply a Creative Commons 0 license •  There’s even a proven citation advantage to sharing your data* *Piwowar HA, Vision TJ. (2013) Data reuse and the open data citation advantage. PeerJ 1:e175 https://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.175
25. GOOD DATA MANAGEMENT + SHARING BETTER, FASTER SCIENCE   =  
26. have we piqued your interest?   Learn more through these fall workshops: Project Management + Productivity Tools SEPT 24 Crafting Your Digital Identity OCT 22 Research Data Management + Sharing NOV 19 An Introduction to Open Research DEC 10 Steenbock Library BioCommons | 4-5pm
27. thanks for listening! Brianna Marshall! brianna.marshall@wisc.edu! ! Cameron Cook! cccook3@wisc.edu ! ! ! Research Data Services! researchdata.wisc.edu! @UWMadRschSvcs!