In the month of February, our minds may turn to those we cherish: the ones we spend so much time looking at and thinking about, dreaming of the day we might present them to the world and proudly proclaim them ours. I’m speaking, of course, about our data. Join the Health Sciences Library System from February 12 to 16 to learn about data management, data analysis, and more for International Love Data Week!
HSLS instructors are teaching two data-focused classes for general audiences during Love Data Week:
- Introduction to Research Data Management, noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, February 14. This one-hour online session covers the basics of planning for data management, organizing files, setting up storage and backup, and archiving and sharing data. Registration required.
- Writing a Data Management and Sharing Plan with DMPTool, noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, February 16. This one-hour online session demonstrates how to use the templates available through DMPTool to write a Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP), like those required under the NIH’s new Data Management and Sharing Policy. Registration required.
For researchers who use R in their data analysis workflow, Love Data Week is a perfect time to try out the Molecular Biology Information Service’s new R drop-in hours:
- R Drop-In Hours, Thursdays, 1 to 2 p.m. Alexis Cenname, Data Scientist for MBIS, will provide online consultations and assistance on R. Registration required.
Pitt faculty and students may also be interested in Love Data Week events happening outside the university. ICPSR and Johns Hopkins University are both holding public events:
- ICPSR, the data repository from the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan, is hosting webinars on “data equity and inclusion, disciplinary communities, and creating a kinder world through data.” The ICPSR schedule lists daily events including presentations on three unique data archives hosted at ICPSR: the Child and Family Data Archive (CFData), the COVID Measures Archive, and the Social Media Archive (SOMAR). As Pitt is an official ICPSR member institution, all Pitt affiliates can access data at ICPSR by creating a new account with their Pitt email address.
- Johns Hopkins University is hosting a full week of symposium-style panels and workshops. Some sessions are only available to JHU affiliates, but many are open to the public (including hands-on workshops); check the details for each event in the free registration process.
If your schedule is too full for live events, consider trying out HSLS’ asynchronous learning opportunities during Love Data Week. The following data courses are available on Canvas:
- Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge: This course, co-created by HSLS and University Library System librarians, will guide you through making your scholarly output more publicly available and increasing the effect of your work on policymakers, the public, and your citation count.
- Applying Probability and Data with R to All of Us Datasets: This course, developed by the Molecular Biology Information Service, shows learners how to use R to explore and analyze a synthetic dataset that will prepare them to work on data from the NIH All of Us Research Program.
This year’s theme for Love Data Week is “My kind of data,” because no one’s data is exactly the same as someone else’s. If you would like to have a one-on-one conversation about your unique data, please contact a data librarian.
~Helenmary Sheridan