After many weeks of work, we are ready to start writing a journal article describing the results of the ESA Data Error categorization, and making recommendations based on the results. There are a few more refinements that I need to make, but these are mostly cosmetic. Many researchers tend to Continue reading Week 10 – Writing
After many refinements to both the data repository manager survey and the email request for respondents, I made the survey active and sent email requests this past Saturday, July 21. By Friday morning, we had six responses. Bill Michener and Bob Cook sent out a reminder email later that day, Continue reading Week 9 – Data Manager Survey is active
There have been a few more refinements to the Data Paper error categories. This involved further condensing the smaller categories into one overarching category. For example, Assure had two sub-categories: assurance procedures and assuring data. We combined these into one category. Once this was complete, I was ready to start Continue reading Week 8 – Error Analysis
As the title suggests, the theme for this week has been refining both the Data Paper error categories, and the data manager questionnaire. In the first stage of condensing the number of data paper categories, the number went from somewhere over 100 error categories to just over 60 with eight Continue reading Week 7 – Refinement
It took a little longer than expected, but I completed analyzing all 53 Ecological Data Papers. This led to the addition of a few more errors. More commonly, I started noting where errors overlapped each other. There are a few errors that cross categories. I found in some cases the Continue reading Week 6 – Data Paper Analysis Complete
After discussing the survey with my mentors, Bill and Bob, we decided to make it shorter by asking for less detail on many questions. We agreed that this would both make it easier to administer online and reduce the amount of time it would take to fill out the questionnaire. Continue reading Week 5 – Refining the Survey
The data management error categorization scheme I revised last week is continuing to undergo refinements. The overall organization is now set, and Iโm just adding to it when I find new errors in data papers. At this point, it is getting quite comprehensive, especially in certain areas of the data Continue reading Week 4 – Starting a Survey
This week, I attended the Summit on Fundamental Concepts in Data Training in Albuquerque. The summit brought together a good group of people who all had different viewpoints on data management. The goal was to design a curriculum for a 10 to 12 hour class on data management. The class Continue reading Week 3 – Summit on Fundamental Concepts in Data Training
This week, I took at first pass at drafting a categorization of common errors ecological researchers make when publishing their data. The base of this categorization scheme was five classes of ecological metadata [Michener et al., 1997]: General data set descriptions Research description Accessibility information Data structure description Supplemental information Continue reading Week 2 – Draft error categorization scheme
As many at DataONE are aware, the increasing volume of data and complex global problems require increased data sharing. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on how to share data effectively. Based on this, the goal of the initial stage of this project is to identify some of the most common Continue reading Week 1 – getting started