Author Archives: Amy Koshoffer

Intro to GIS workshop

Posted on by

HamCo

Want to work with a geographic information system (GIS) but are not sure where to start?

This workshop is for individuals who want to visualize spatial patterns in data but have no experience with a geographic information system (GIS) software or who want to learn about resources available to the UC community through UC Libraries and the Department of Geography.  Workshop instructors will guide participants as they create a GIS using the software ARCGIS to visualize a dataset and create a map providing further insight into the data.

Monday March 14       1-3 pm GIS Lab – 415 Braunstein Hall

Friday March 18           12:30- 2:30 pm HSL Classroom

To register visit: http://webcentral.uc.edu/hslclass/home.aspx

 

LOVE YOUR DATA Day 5 – LOVE that Data Reuse

Posted on by

The final day of LOVE YOUR DATA week and it all comes together. Well documented and organized data kept safe and shared with researchers continue the scientific conversations.   A brilliant example of this is the Human Genome Project. This 13-year project funded by public and private efforts opened access to genetic data that led to the discovery of 1800 disease genes and over 2000 tests for human conditions. Countless research projects can get off the ground because their time and resources can focus on next steps instead of reinventing the already sequenced wheel. What is really going on is DATA REUSE.

Continue reading →

PolicyMap is now available

Posted on by

PolicyMap is a cloud-base data and mapping platform enabling government, commercial, non-profit and academic institutions to access data about communities and markets across the U.S. It may be used for research, market studies, business planning, site selection, grant applications and impact analysis.

 http://uclid.uc.edu/search~S9/?searchtype=X&searcharg=policymap&searchscope=39

Available data includes demographics, home sale statistics, health data, mortgage trends, school performance scores and labor data like unemployment, crime statistics and city crime rates. ( Jan. 26, 2012)

Full listing of datasets http://www.policymap.com/our-data-directory.html

LOVE YOUR DATA Day 4 – Data Shhharing

Posted on by

Post by Tiffany Grant PhD, Research Informationist based at Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library

Data Shhharing

“Data” and “sharing” are two words that we don’t like to juxtapose in the scientific community. I mean, who wants to share their hard earned data? It’s the equivalent of sharing ones salary with the world- a group of strangers. The data generated via the scientific process is extremely personal, and is intrinsic to the life and legacy of the researchers who create it. Researchers don’t have a problem with publishing their work once completed, as it adds to their scientific credibility. But, therein lies the problem. Publication does not always equal access.

It is the publisher, not the researcher who owns the rights to the articles published in their journals. Access to these journals typically only comes through a paid subscription. So, while researchers can often get access to journals through their institution, access is not granted to all without paying for individual articles at a time, a process which can prove quite costly. Thus paying for access to online content makes sense only to publishers who profit from it. But, as a researcher, do you really want your hard work under this veil? Is that really what you worked for?

Continue reading →

LOVE YOUR DATA Day 3 – Data Documentation

Posted on by

I say to you….slow down, smell the agar plates, take the time to document your data. Your future self will thank you, profusely.

Proper documentation provides the context that your data needs to persist through time, to integrate into new systems and to give you credit for your contributions in the form of data citations. Where possible, you should consider contributing the following information along with your dataset.

Continue reading →

LOVE YOUR DATA Day 2 – Organizing your data

Posted on by

Post by Tiffany Grant PhD, Research Informationist based at Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library

Organizing Data

When you’re generating data at a rapid pace, it can be easy to label files with names that seem good at the time, but that will have very little meaning to you later. This practice may save time in the present, but it will ultimately lead to great frustration in the future when finding these exact files seem nearly impossible.

A good practice for data organization is to give your files meaningful, descriptive names, but avoiding long file names. Files names should allow you to identify a precise experiment from the name.

How meaningful are the following file names?

  1. Test_data_2013
  2. Project_Data
  3. Design for project.doc
  4. Lab_work_Eric
  5. Second_test
  6. Meeting Notes Oct 23

Continue reading →

LOVE YOUR DATA Day 1 – Keep your data safe

Posted on by

Let’s kick off LOVE YOUR DATA week with KEEPING DATA SAFE.

First a sad story – in one of my first Top Ten Tips for Data Management workshops, I had a workshop participant who I thought was bored out of his skull. He had a glazed look in his eyes and kept shaking his head as if he was saying no, no, no. I approached him, though with some reservations after the workshop, and asked what he thought about the topic and my presentation. His words and I quote were “if only I had known this 6 months ago…I just lost my dissertation work and I am still getting over the shock”. Not bored, but in shock. He had lost 6 months’ worth of work. Sadly he is not the first. If only he and others had known about 3-2-1 or Here-Near and Far.

3-2-1 stands for

3 copies (1 primary copy and two backup copies of your data)

2 formats for storage (use a computer hard drive and an external hard drive)

1 remote copy (cloud storage or geographically separate from your other copies)

These three tips will help keep your data safe and protect your valuable time.

Here, Near and Far is another way of thinking about the same tips. Set up an automatic back up for your data to make it even easier.

At UC we have a few tools that can help you back up your data:

1) Use your Box account. You have 50 GB available to you. IT@UC also has other data solutions available.

2) You can track your work with the Open Science Framework developed by the Center for Open Science or use GitHub.

3) Attend a data management workshop offered by UC Libraries. We have several coming up particular a workshop called Managing Research Data from Generation to Preservation on April 19th.

Fun Fact: Did you know we can still look at Darwin’s original notebooks through the Darwin Online project. Someone took extra special care for those files. Let’s do the same for your data.

Check out this fun video about data back-up and learn how the movie Toy Story 2 was almost lost, but was saved by the 3-2-1 rule.

Visit the Love your Data website for more tips to help keep your data safe. Follow the event on Twitter at #LYD16.

Love Your Data Week Feb 8-12

Posted on by

Join us for LOVE YOUR DATA WEEK February 8 – 12 2016. This week long social media event will celebrate your biggest research asset – your data. Each day will highlight tips and resources around a specific theme.

Monday: Keeping Data Safe

Tuesday: Organizing Data

Wednesday: Documenting Data

Thursday: Data Sharing – Data Citations

Friday: Open Data – Reusing Data

 

Website: https://loveyourdata.wordpress.com/

Twitter: #LYD16

Instagram: #LYD16
Facebook:  #LYD16

 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/coateshl/love-your-data-2016/

https://www.pinterest.com/coateshl/the-changing-face-of-data/

Open Science Framework Webinar

Posted on by

OSF 101 Webinar

The Open Science Framework is a free, open source web application created by the Center for Open Science built to help researchers manage their workflows. The OSF is part collaboration tool, part version control software, and part data archive.

Learn how to make the most of your free OSF account by participating in our upcoming webinar. Make managing your research easier with these features:

  • Centralized file storage to organize all of your materials in one place
  • Collaboration space to keep coworkers on the same page
  • Fine-grained privacy controls to manage public and private workflows
  • Built-in version control to maintain access to file history
  • Add-on connections to the tools you already use to streamline your workflow

Wednesday, February 3, 2016 – 11a -12p EST

Click here for details and to register.

To learn more about the Center for Open Science, visit their website: https://cos.io/