SOS 598: Research Data Management

This course will provide students with foundations of sound research data management. Upon completion of the course, students will be aware of tools and approaches to effectively manage research data from project inception through publication of both findings and data. Topics include sound data management principles, version control, database concepts, metadata generation, data management plans, research collaboration, and project organization. This is a hands-on course in which students will perform exercises with sample data and/or their own research data. We strongly recommend that students come prepared with their own laptop computer to maximize the learning experience.


course details

lectures

  Tempe Wrigley Hall WGHL 102

  Friday 12:15 - 13:30

instructor

Stevan Earl

  •    
  • phone: 5-1851
  • office: ether

prerequisites

There are not any formal prerequisites for this course. However, scripting is an integral component of the course and, though not required, students will benefit by having some familiarity with a data-centric scripting language (e.g., R, Python, Matlab).

reading

Course readings consist of academic papers and some blog posts. The instructor will provide links to all reading materials, which are open access or accessible through your ASU Library affiliation. Though not required, R for Data Science (R4DS) is an excellent companion to the course. R4DS is available in print and in full text (for free) on the author's website.

materials

  • We will use Git and GitHub extensively throughout the course. Please install Git. Once installed, all Git functionality is available through the command line. However, there are several graphical user interfaces (GUIs) available if you are unfamiliar with the command line or simply prefer a GUI. GitHub has its own desktop application, but we recommend and will use the version control functionality provided by RStudio for most in-class examples and demonstrations.
  • Students are welcome to use the tool(s) or programming language of their choice to address assignments and class activities, but most in-class examples and assignment templates will be presented using R and RStudio.
  • DB Browser for SQLite.
  • You should have access to a laptop and bring it to every class.

additional resources