Sunday, August 7, 2016: 12:00 PM-5:00 PM
305, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Amber Budden, DataONE
Co-organizer:
Heather Soyka, DataONE
Speakers:
William Michener, University of New Mexico;
Dave Vieglais, University of Kansas;
Courtney Soderberg, Center for Open Science;
David Mellor, Center for Open Science; and
Stephanie Simms, California Digital Library
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/open science, and data re-use. We will explore different open source and proprietary software that support these tasks including demonstratons of DataONE (www.dataone.org) and the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/). Workshop participants must bring their own laptop to participate in hands-on activities. A related Special Session on “Creating Effective Data Management Plans for Ecological Research” may also be useful to participants.
