98th ESA Annual Meeting (August 4 -- 9, 2013)

August 03 - 09, 2013

WK 8

Managing Ecological Data for Effective Use and Re-use: A Workshop for Early Career Scientists

Although graduate students in Ecology learn about methods for collecting ecological data, there is less emphasis on managing the resulting data effectively. This is an increasingly important skill set; many funding agencies require data management plans, and journals are requiring that data pertaining to published articles be accessible. Ecologists with good data management skills will be able to maximize the productivity of their research program, effectively and efficiently share their data with the scientific community, and potentially benefit from the re-use of their data by others. The purpose of this workshop is to give attendees a set of practical tools for organizing and sharing their data through all parts of the research cycle. The target audience is early-career scientists but is open to any researchers who would benefit from developing better data management skills, including faculty who would like to teach best practices for preparing data. Topics will include data structure, quality control, data documentation, the importance of good data management practices for data sharing, collaboration, and data re-use. Workshop participants must bring their own laptop to participate in hands-on activities. This workshop is a modification of the 2012 workshop of the same title, which received positive feedback. A related Special Session on “Creating Effective Data Management Plans for Ecological Research” may also be useful to participants. This workshop will be followed by a detailed workshop on analysis and visualization using R and DataONE. Registration for both is not required though the second workshop will build upon concepts introduced here.