Opening doors to open data at #scidata16

Want to embrace open data but don’t know where to start? The tools are out there, says Matthew Edmonds.

The Publishing Better Science through Better Data conference, or #scidata16 for short, took place at the Wellcome Collection in London at the end of October. This one-day event organised by the journal Scientific Data, Springer Nature and the Wellcome Trust explored the challenges facing early-career researchers as we enter the era of open data.

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As a data novice, I arrived without really knowing what to expect. The types of experiments I perform generate only small datasets needing a simple statistical test, easily summarised in a graph in the manuscript. The original data can be safely left to gather dust in a shared drive. Continue reading

How can better data sharing and management improve a career in science?

Taking the time to plan how raw data will be recorded and shared can make all the difference when new research directions appear, says Matthew Edmonds.

In many research projects, there tends to be three major interested parties. The first is the researcher who actually performs the experiment and collects the data. The second is the scientist overseeing the research project, who may be collating related data from several researchers. Finally, there is the institution, which supports the research financially and provides a space in which to do it.

To_deposit_or_not_to_deposit,_that_is_the_question_-_journal.pbio.1001779.g001

{credit}Roche DG, Lanfear R, Binning SA, Haff TM, Schwanz LE, et al. (2014) Troubleshooting Public Data Archiving: Suggestions to Increase Participation. PLoS Biol 12(1): e1001779. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001779, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30978545{/credit}

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