Open Science and Data Management: Introducing Graduate Students to
Research Workflows in a Local Context
Abstract
The Engineering & Physical Sciences Division of the UC Berkeley Library
partners with researchers to support the entire research life cycle.
Since 2016, the division’s Science Data Librarian has offered Research
Data Management training that covers data management, storage,
documentation, and sharing. Based on this established work, division
librarians piloted a series of open science workshops in 2019. The Earth
& Planetary Sciences (EPS) Department was chosen as the target
department for this work. Librarians began by replacing their
traditional orientation session, focused on library procedures and
resources, with an approach that highlighted local support for open
research workflows. Scheduled throughout the fall semester of 2019, the
sessions focus on trending methods and workflow tools relevant to
students as they launch their research including: Introduction to
Research Workflows and Literature Searching Dynamic data management,
publishing and citation Citation Management Collaborative writing in
LaTeX with Overleaf Jupyter Notebooks best practices Approaches to
Github and reproducible code Publishing and authorship trends in the
Earth Sciences The workshops draw together expertise from the EPS
department and around campus, offering students a scaffolded
introduction to local resources. Unlike a bootcamp or one-time workshop
model, students learn material over the course of several months giving
them the opportunity to attempt, adapt and develop new methods. The
workshops also fill a need expressed by earlier graduate cohorts–domain
specific sessions that take place within their building–making this an
effective approach for reaching students and introducing foundational
research methods. Trainers benefit by encountering a cohesive audience
and creating content that will can be applied to other disciplines.
Pilots such as this build communities of practice, test methodologies
and provide an opportunity to scale trainings to a broader audience.