Thing 1: Getting started with research data

Research data comes in many shapes and sizes. Kick off your research data journey and start sharing your stories.

• Getting started: is for you if you are just beginning to learn about research data
• Learn more: is if you know a bit but want to know more
• Challenge me: is often more technical or assumes that you are familiar with at least the basics of managing and wrangling research data.

Do I have to do them all? No - you can pick’n’mix a different stream each week, or stay in the one stream. You can do as much or as little as you want to do, or need to know.

Getting started

What is research data?

What “research data” are we talking about?

1. Read the Defining Research Data from the University of Oregon library - note that for data to be reusable the data collection often needs to include algorithms, scripts or software. It’s not ‘just data’.
2. Then open up this record of research data collected during a CSIRO voyage which explored the sea floor (i.e. Benthic zone) of the Marmion Lagoon located just off Perth in 2007. Click on the Files tab to see the rich variety of data formats contained in this one research data collection.
3. If you have time: have a look around the CSIRO Data Access Portal and see what different formats data comes in.
4. Share an idea about how we could help others understand the complexity of data formats so more people (not just scientists) can access and reuse research data. See below for ways to share your ideas.

Consider: how the complexity and range of data formats affect access and reuse possibilities.

Learn more

Data across research disciplines

1. Choose one of the four specialised data repositories below, or find another data repository of interest - particularly one in a discipline you are unfamiliar with, and spend some time browsing around your chosen repository to get a feel for the data available.

• Virtual Astronomical Observatory
• RCSB Protein Data Bank
• Australian Data Archive
• USGS Water Data for USA

2. Think about how the data here differs from data you are familiar with, for example, in format, size and access method.

Consider: how cross disciplinary research could be affected by discipline data conventions, and also think about one way cross disciplinary data access can be facilitated.

Challenge me

Let’s talk tech!

Get the ball rolling to introduce yourself and expand awareness of the technical aspects to data management and this rapidly growing community of tech-aware data enthusiasts.

What is:

• your favourite research data tech or software story or experience? (for example GovHack or Melbourne Science Hackfest)
• a software tool or service for research data you think others might be interested in?
• a question or research data problem that needs a crowdsourced solution?

Consider: a personal audit on what data technical skills you have, and what skills you want to learn.

Do you have a question? Want to share a resource?

• Post to the Data Librarians Slack group to connect with the community.
• Tweet to @ardc_au using hashtag #23things

Keep on going to the next thing: Issues in research data management or return to all the things