Morgan Library is all about data, and can help Colorado State University faculty, staff and students learn how to manage their research data. Good data management makes your life easier, improves research quality and reproducibility, and helps you comply with funder and journal requirements to share data.
Two workshop series will be offered Fall semester: Data & Donuts and Coding & Cookies. All sessions take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Computer Classroom 175 in Morgan Library. Sessions are free, but space is limited to 30 participants. Register for either or both series at lib.colostate.edu, under the News & Events tab.
Coding & Cookies
Coding & Cookies teaches participants how to code in R, a programming language for statistical computing and graphics.
This series of four workshops – the Basics class will be offered twice – is presented in collaboration with the Department of Statistics and led by experienced statistics graduate students, facilitated by the Morgan Library Data Management Specialist.
If you are unfamiliar with this programming language, you should attend the first session, R Basics. A basic working knowledge of R and RStudio is helpful to get the most out of the rest of the sessions.
R Basics
Tuesday, Sept. 10 and Oct. 22
This session focuses on tabular data in RStudio. By the end of the session, you will be able to read data into R, calculate summary statistics and create exploratory graphs using the R’s basic graphic package. This is a class aimed at beginners, so if you have previous experience using R, this class may be a refresher course.
Data Cleaning Using R
Tuesday, Oct. 8
Generating data can become a complex, messy process, especially when data is being collected by different people. This workshop will teach you to organize messy tabular data using R. After this session, you will be able to import tabular data into R, convert data to an appropriate type, recode categorical variables, convert dates, manipulate strings, and detect and fix errors in your data. A basic working knowledge of R and RStudio is recommended to get the most out of this session.
Data Visualization Using ggplot2
Tuesday, Nov. 5
Now that you’re familiar with R, you can use your plots to do more than just work with the base graphics package. After the ggplot2 session, will be able to create a variety of plot types, alter their aesthetics, and create custom themes. A working knowledge of R and RStudio and dplyr would be helpful for you to get the most out of this session.
Version Control Using Git
Tuesday, Nov. 19
Version control is a method to record changes to a file or multiple files over time so that you can return to specific versions later or collaborate with others on the same files. Formal version control systems have been developed to streamline this process and prevent file bloat. In this month’s Coding & Cookies session, we will cover version control using git with RStudio. After this session, you’ll be able to create a git repository, make and add changes to the repository, and use GitHub to remotely store your repository.
Data & Donuts
Good data management practices are becoming increasingly important in the digital age, especially when sharing your research with others. Data & Donuts gives participants tools and strategies that can maximize research impact. This series will be presented by the Morgan Library Data Management Specialist.
How to Write a Data Management Plan
Tuesday, Oct. 1
The first session of Data & Donuts will discuss the importance of data management and how to write a data management plan.
Tidy Data in Excel: Spreadsheet Do’s and Don’ts
Tuesday, Oct. 29
One element of good data management keeping your data “tidy” — that is, organized so that it is easy to understand by both humans and machines. Following tidy data practices makes it easier to analyze your data, share it with others, and make sense of it in the future. This month’s Data and Donuts will discuss best practices for organizing tabular data in spreadsheets.
Research Collaboration Strategies and Tools
Tuesday, Nov. 12
Our access to the web makes collaborating with colleagues at other institutions easier, but it is not without its challenges. This session will cover some general principles of good research collaboration and present strategies for developing and documenting workflows as well as methods for storing and sharing data. We will also look at some tools (e.g., the Open Science Framework) that can be used to support these types of projects.
Selecting Journals and Sharing Data to Maximize Your Research Impact
Tuesday, Dec. 3
Part one of this session focuses on scholarly publishing and increasing research impact. With thousands of academic journals currently in publication, deciding where to submit can be challenging. We will discuss tools and resources that can help make that process easier. We will also discuss ways you can increase your publication’s impact.
In the second part of this session, we will discuss the benefits of sharing research data, strategies for making your data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable), and factors to consider when choosing a data repository.
