The first Colorado State University National Data Integrity Conference will be held in the Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom on May 7 and 8, with a pre-conference workshop on May 5 and 6 on how to process and analyze data.

The Data Integrity Conference aims to provide attendees with a high level understanding of data management topics including reproducibility, visualization, publishing, validity, curation, rights management and preservation.

“Across the nation, researchers are involved with projects that generate large volumes of complex data. This brings new challenges regarding research data and integrity,” said Kathy Partin, director of the Research Integrity & Compliance Review Office at CSU.  “Researchers and institutions struggle to properly manage datasets that are becoming larger and more complicated. The goal of this conference is to hear best practices from the experts, and generate conversations about innovative strategies to meet future challenges.”

There will also be concurrent gatherings on both days with different themes including the data publication landscape, data community building, data support services and data reproducibility and integrity.

A lineup of 19 nationally acclaimed speakers scheduled to present include:

• Philip Bourne, associate director for Data Science, National Institutes of Health;
• Elizabeth Lorns, co-founder and CEO, Science Exchange;
• James Kroll, director of Research Integrity and Administrative Investigations, National Science Foundation;
• Veronique Kiermer, director of Author and Reviewer Services, Nature Publishing Group;
• John Dahlberg, deputy director, Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;
• Michael Kahn, co-director, Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI).

Preceding the conference is a two-day, hands-on Data Carpentry Workshop on May 5 and 6. The goal of the workshop is to teach basic concepts, skills and tools for working more effectively with data. This workshop is for learners with little to no prior knowledge of programming, shell scripting or command line tools.

Data Carpentry topics include:

• How to use spreadsheet programs (such as Excel) effectively and the potential limitations of such programs.
• Getting data out of spreadsheets and into more powerful tools using R or Python.
• Using databases, including managing and querying data in SQL.
• Workflows and automating repetitive tasks, in particular using the command line shell and shell scripts.

Conference sessions on May 7 and 8 cost $200. The Data Carpentry Workshop on May 5 and 6 is $75. Both registrations include lunch and refreshments.

Register for the conference or pre-conference. For more information about the conference or the pre-conference contact Carolyn Broccardo, responsible conduct of research coordinator, or Shea Swauger, CSU data management librarian.