Tag Archives: Research

Xin Gu Joins RDS Team as GIS Research Consultant

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The UC Libraries Research and Data Services Unit is pleased to welcome Xin Gu to our team as the GIS Research Consultant.

Xin Gu is a doctoral candidate from the Department of Geography and GIS at the University of Cincinnati (UC). Before joining UC, he received master’s degrees in Criminal Justice and GIS, respectively. His current research examines the impact of business closure and mobility reduction during COVID-19 on crime. Xin has several research papers published in Cities, Social Science Computer Review, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, and ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. He also serves as a research fellow for the Institute for Research in Sensing and a GIS research consultant for the Geology-Mathematics-Physics library at UC, enabling him to spread geographical knowledge to the rest of the campus and beyond. In his spare time, he likes to play badminton and practice Yoga.

His consultation hours will be Tues, Wed and Thurs from 10:30 to 5 pm. Xin is here to help you understand how to use GIS software, think about project plans, and find data for your project.  He can share information, offer advice, and even partner on certain projects (on a case by case basis). Please come by the Data & GIS Collab, located in the Geology Math and Physics Library (240 Braunstein Hall).

Image of Man standing next to a sign. The sign reads Data and GIS Collab

Read Source for the news, events, people and happenings in UC Libraries

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source graphic

Read Source, the online newsletter, to learn about the news, events, people and happenings in UC Libraries.

In this issue of Source, we bid goodbye and fond farewell to Dean Xuemao Wang as he ends his tenure at the University of Cincinnati. We celebrate the announcement of Lori Harris as interim dean and university librarian and ask her some questions about her aspirations and hopes for her new role. We feature the work of P. Alfred Marchand, one of the first Black librarians in the United States, and the design work of 1911 UC graduate Valentine Barker. Finally, we spotlight the excellent resources and services available in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) Library.

Read these articles, as well as past issues, on the website. To receive Source via e-mail, contact melissa.norris@uc.edu to be added to the mailing list.

 

Library resources in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

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May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI), a celebration of the culture, history and contributions of Asian and Pacific Islander people living in the United States. In celebration, the University of Cincinnati Libraries presents the following resources from our collections. Some resources may be for the UC community only.

For more on Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has created a list of events, news stories, blog posts, resources and exhibits from ARL member libraries.

The Present Crisis in Ukraine Research Guide available

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flag of ukraineLooking for resources about the present crisis in Ukraine? The University of Cincinnati Libraries can help. Librarians have created a Research Guide that includes library resources, including books, journal articles, news reports and more.

The Present Crisis in Ukraine Research Guide includes both public and UC-only resources focusing on the historical background, geopolitical information, politics and international affairs, newspapers and more.

UC Libraries Research And Data Services Team is here to help you

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Welcome back to campus and a really big Welcome

to new students, staff, and faculty.

After you settle in and start to plan and implement your research projects, you may have questions about doing research here at UC.  The UC Libraries Research & Data Services is one of many support groups on campus to help you. We have information professionals and physical locations within various UC Libraries locations on East and West Uptown campuses to help all UC researchers.

We have vast and varied expertise and we can help you by

  • Supporting you throughout the research lifecycle
  • Helping you use tools such as:
  • Supporting Bioinformatic resource
  • Teaching and consulting on Data and Spatial analysis tools
    • SPSS, R, QGIS, ArcGIS (Desktop and Online)
  • Supporting data preservation and sharing resources
  • Explaining, finding, and using scholarly metrics i.e. impact factor, H-index, etc.
  • Explaining, finding, and using persistent identifiers such as ORCID and DOIs
  • Encouraging you to register for our workshops in Faculty OneStop
  • Teaching workshops focused on research and data recommended practices
  • Coming in for a consult at one of our locations.
  • Partnering with you on projects in scope with our mission and skill set.

We sponsor signature events such as Data Day (Nov 5th) and GIS Day (Nov 17th) through our Data and Computational Science Series and invite you to attend.  Here is a brief list of upcoming events and workshops focused on research.

August 31: Machine Actionable Data Management Plans And The Dmptool

September 8: R Introduction Workshop

September 14: ESRI’s StoryMaps

We are here to help you develop research efficiencies and make the most of your research.  We look forward to meeting you and hope to see you at our workshops and events.   And we are here so you get the information and resources you need, and we hope to partner with you on your research projects.

Contact us at:

Email – ASKDATA@UC.EDU 

Website – https://libraries.uc.edu/rds.html

Follow the Cincinnati Business Beat with the Business Courier!

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Did you know that UC Library has a subscription to the Cincinnati Business Courier Online? The Business Courier is a weekly newspaper that covers Cincinnati business news. It also covers politics and the local economy. The weekly journal is read by more than 50,000 business professionals. The Courier also produces special reports on topics and trends of interest to the business community, including the annual compilation of Top 25 Lists called the Book of Lists. 

The business courier is also a helpful research tool. It can be difficult to find information on smaller local privately owned companies. However, many times these companies are mentioned in news articles, top 25 lists, and executive’s profiles. It can also be searched to find out local industry trends and the local laws and regulations that are impacting business. Try searching for local companies like Skyline or Rhinegeist and see what you can find compared to other company databases! 

UC affiliates can access the full online version of the Cincinnati business courier through the library website. To find out more on how to access and search the Business Courier as well as where to find the Book of Lists check out this research guide. 

Do You Miss Statista?

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Last Fall, UC Libraries made the tough decision to break up with our Statista subscription.  The decision came down to two reasons: 

  1. Statista’s price rose over 200% in the past two years
  2. More importantly, Statista’s data is accessible from other vendors and resources.  The Statista  platform serves as a portal to finding statistics. Basically, subscribers pay for ease of access to a  lot of statistics. Most of these statistics come from government resources, industry associations, and other vendors of statistical information.  

A few examples:  

  1. Data Planet
    Touted as the “largest repository of standardized and structured statistical data”. It has 13.5 billion datasets, pulls from over 90 data providers and covers 16 major subject categories. It also provides users with tutorials on how to analyze data and incorporate it into their research. 
  2. US Census
    One of the largest producers of social and economic data and statistics. The economic census includes Trade, Manufacturing, Construction, Financial, Insurance and Real Estate statistics. 
  3. FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
    Economic data out of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank including inflation rate, consumer price index, unemployment rate, and more. FRED also provides a lot of teaching resources for economic data.  
  4. Market Research Reports from IBIS, Mintel, Euromonitor and many more!
    UC Libraries subscribes to many market research databases.  These reports provide domestic and international industry level data as well as consumer demographics and statistics. 

These databases and resources are accessible through UC Libraries and UC’s research guides. These resources are being updated these through the Summer, so please check back to see what’s new. 

If you are looking for something specific, please think of Maggie Patel (UC’s Business and Data Analytics Librarian) as your statistical matchmaker and she will work with you to find the appropriate resource.  You may contact her through email.

Please don’t despair if you loved Statista, there are plenty of other statistical databases in the sea.  You will improve your research skills and discover new statistical resources. Fall in love again with something new! 

UC’s Digital Scholarship Center presents “Digital Integrator and Transdisciplinary Research Partner”

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This Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Spring 2021 Digital Scholarship Section featured “Digital Integrator & Transdisciplinary Research Partner,” a virtual panel highlighting the University of Cincinnati’s Digital Scholarship Center’s (DSC) unique model and work with research teams focused on misinformation and missing information.

The DSC partnered with UC Libraries’ Research and Data Services Team and the Department of Journalism to research Twitter’s impact on misinformation, false information and conspiracy theories about coronavirus. Using machine learning and linguistic analysis, the team also partnered with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to understand the role of missing information in electronic health records as it relates to social determinants of health. During the presentation, the panel discussed the unique organization of the DSC and its partnerships on campus and how health information professionals and the DSC work together on research projects involving social media, social justice and social determinants of health. The recording and slides are available online.

cover slide for presentation Continue reading →

Research and Teaching Spotlight: Carla Cesare, Amy Miller and Patrick Owen

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by Lauren Wahman

UCBA Library’s Faculty Lightning Talks showcase faculty research and share different aspects of the research process. This year, we’re revisiting UCBA presenters, Carla Cesare, Amy Miller, and Patrick Owen, for an update on their research projects.  

Carla Cesare | Art & Visual Communication
Networks of Design: Women at Work 

Amy Miller & Patrick Owen | Biology
Multifaceted Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Integrative Biology Using the Rusty Crayfish 

Find out about Carla and Amy and Patrick’s research project updates via Sway or use the visual link: 


screenshot of Sway post graphic

Love Data Week, Feb 8-12, 2021.

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Love Data Week 2021

Love Data Week 2021

Love Data Week takes place the week of Valentine’s Day. Created to raise awareness of research data management, sharing, reuse, and preservation of data, it has been promoted by library and data professionals since 2016 in both online and in-person events.  You can see some of the events taking place around the world at the International Love Data Week 2021 schedule.

One of the ways we at RDS/UCL celebrate is to participate in the Adopt a Dataset program that ICPSR hosts every year.  ICPSR choses to highlight interesting data sets from their collection for individuals to explore to learn more about data. Once a dataset is chosen, you may fill out the Dataset adoption form and have your name added to the wall of adopters.  Adopters are encouraged to delve into the data by reading about the research, look at the variables, try out the analysis tools online, and read related publications.

ICPSR is a member consortium that UC belongs to that provides access to datasets from over 15,000 studies, over 5.6 million variables, which have had over 95,000 publications that cited those studies. It also provides curated data repository services for researchers, including secure data enclaves, which fulfill finding requirements for data management plans. Although most studies are quantitative in the social and behavioral sciences, there are also themed collections in the arts, humanities, and some health sciences. Teaching resources, online analysis tools, and pre-made exercise modules also are available to members.

There are a wide variety of datasets to choose from this year, ranging from education, to social media, social justice, to health. I chose to adopt one on music, Study of Jazz Artists, 2001 (ICPSR 35593). I started out by looking at the description of the study and how it was conducted. I then jumped into browsing the variables, one of the tabs found on the data set page. One of the great features of ICPSR is that you can search by variable if you are looking for specific studies to replicate or want to see if your own survey questions fit what others have asked in the past.

One variable jumped out at me – Q32- Age Began Playing First Instrument. My own children play instruments and I always wonder if we’ve started them at the right age or not. Looking at the result for this variable, I can see the unweighted results, including summary statistics and a variables chart. The median age was 9, the mode was 10, the maximum was 35, and the minimum was 1! I guess there’s still hope if you’re in your 30s to pick up an instrument to become a professional jazz musician!   The sweet spot to start your child appears to be the 8-10 year old range.

If you have questions about Love Data Week,  ICPSR, Data, Data Management Plans, Cleaning, Storing, Finding, or Using Data, contact us at Research and Data Services here at UC Libraries. We would love to help you with your projects, offer a workshop to your department or class, or discuss your data needs.