Scholars receive data support

An online training course developed at Edinburgh will help scholars manage data more effectively.

The free course is targeted at PhD students, early career researchers and digital data users at all UK universities.

Course

The course is funded by JISC, the technology consortium for UK further and higher education.

Materials for the course have been produced by the Data Library team at EDINA, a JISC-funded UK national academic data centre based at Edinburgh.

To produce the materials, the EDINA team worked closely with Edinburgh researchers in Social and Political Studies, GeoSciences and Clinical Psychology.

Data management

The online initiative outlines good practice in research data management.

It backs it up with real life stories and scenarios and is designed to be fun, relevant and interactive.

Exercises

The course features interactive units focused on the key concepts of data management and includes video clips of senior academics giving expert advice.

It also offers practical exercises in handling data using four popular software packages, which learners can download.

Many universities feel the need to embed good practice much earlier in the careers of their researchers than they do currently. The fact that this course is available through an open license will help other universities benefit from the good work that Edinburgh has already done.