Best practices in Research Data Management for Biological Sciences

  • Sheffield - 30th April 2018
  • 13:00pm - 16:30pm
  • Pam Liversidge Design Studio 1 - D06

Overview

  • How much data would you lose if your laptop was stolen?
  • Have you ever emailed your colleague a file named ‘final_final_versionEDITED’?
  • Have you ever struggled to import your spreadsheets into R?

As a researcher, you will encounter research data in many forms, ranging from measurements, numbers and images to documents and publications. Whether you create, receive or collect data, you will certainly need to organise it at some stage of your project. This workshop will provide an overview of some basic principles on how we can work with data more effectively. We will discuss the best practices for research data management and organisation so that our research is auditable and reproducible by ourselves, and others, in the future.

Who should attend this course?

Researchers wanting to know how they can organise their data more effectively and work towards ensuring reproducibility of results.

Aims:- After this course you should be able to:

  • Differentiate the pros and cons of using spreadsheets and avoid the common pitfalls in spreadsheet manipulation
  • Use an appropriate backup strategy for your data
  • Organise your files in a more structured and consistent manner
  • Known what resources are available at The University of Sheffield for Research Data Management and Data Sharing

Objectives:- During this course you will learn about:

  • Reproducible research, and why it is critical for modern research
  • Tips and tricks to make sure that your spreadsheets are readable by programming languages such as R
  • Learn how to use the OpenRefine software for data cleaning
  • Options for backing up files on your computer
  • Ideas for naming and organising your files
  • Strategies for exchanging files with collaborators

Instructors

Software

You will need to install the OpenRefine software. This is free and available for Windows and Mac OSX. Download links are provided below:-

Course Data

Feedback

  • Please use this feedback form to give us feedback after the course and help us improve it for future sessions.

Registration

Registration is now closed. If you wish to be kept informed of future dates for this, and other courses, you can sign-up to our mailing list.

References


For queries relating to collaborating with the Bioinformatics Core team on projects: bioinformatics-core@sheffield.ac.uk

Join our mailing list so as to be notified when we advertise talks and workshops by subscribing to this Google Group. You can also connect with us on Linkedin.

Requests for a Bioinformatics support clinic can be made via the Research Software Engineering (RSE) code clinic system. This is monitored by Bioinformatics Core staff, so we will ensure the appropriate expertise (which may involve individuals from multiple teams) will be available to help you

Queries regarding sequencing and library preparation provision at The University of Sheffield should be directed to the Multi-omics facility in SITraN or the Genomics Laboratory in Biosciences.