What You Need to Know About Data Management

Today, the world’s hottest commodities are technology and information, and as scientists and researchers, we not only use technology to consume information, but we are also major users and producers of this information. When so much information is being produced, how is an information consumer supposed to 1) find the relevant information, 2) determine its quality, and 3) build and test hypotheses based on this data? The answer to all these questions is fairly straightforward: academic librarians. Academic librarians are expertly trained in information organization, retrieval and evaluation of information in physical and digital formats.

The librarians who work at academic and health sciences libraries are what make the difference between researchers using a “satisficing” versus an “optimal decision” approach to their literature searches. Many believe that academic librarians deal only with literature – articles, books and dictionaries – but this is simply not true. Librarians deal with all forms of information and all the ways it can be described, stored, organized and shared. They can help researchers to efficiently navigate the deluge of information available today, evaluate the quality of that information, and thus allow researchers to search more efficiently and to form better arguments, hypotheses and conclusions. Additionally, academic librarians are trained in the ethical reuse of information and can help researchers avoid violating copyright in their presentations and publications. Librarians welcome the chance to teach their skills and impart their knowledge to anyone who seeks information so that they can become self-sufficient, informed and experienced searchers throughout their careers and in their personal lives. For example, librarians are well-informed on how researchers can 1) measure their scholarly impact in traditional and non-traditional ways, 2) use tools and technologies from tablets, mobile apps, RSS feeds, citation management software and web design, 3) utilize many of the bioinformatics tools available to researchers, and 4) maintain and manage their research data.

The interactive workshop titled “Conquering Chaos in the Age of Networked Science: The Importance of Data Management” on Monday June 4th between 10:30-12:30pm at the 2014 World Forum of Biology will be focusing on data management. New mandates from the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the bipartisan Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) introduced in 2013, and the new teeth added to PLoS’s data policy for all of their journals point to a new focus on providing access to research data used in publications. Providing the data is just the tip of the iceberg, though! Think for a minute about the following questions: Do you know where all of your data is stored and if it’s up-to-date? Would your neighbor across the hall be able to find and interpret your latest experimental results on your computer? Would you pass safely through an NIH audit of your research? If you cannot provide a positive and definitive answer to any of these questions, learning more about proper data management would be a wise use of your time! This interactive and informative workshop will be using a real lab’s research project as an example to cover the steps for good data management, the seven common issues you will likely encounter, and resources to assist you along the way. It is aimed to provide you with the knowledge and tools to better manage your data and how to create the 2-page data management plans required by NSF and NIH grants.

For more information about librarians and how can they help you please visit the following link that was created by the presenter of the “Conquering Chaos in the Age of Networked Science” workshop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsQVBuaYOws

Submitted by Kathryn M. Houk and Addy Alt-Holland, Tufts University, Boston MA.

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