Deciding on where to share your data can be difficult. The current universal expectation for data sharing is swiftly becoming: put shared data in a data repository. The challenge for researchers is that the data repository landscape is still evolving. Given the number of data repositories available and how many of them specialize in a particular type...

I’ve been reviewing data management books recently and picked up a copy of “Ecological Data: Design, Management and Processing,” edited by William K. Michener and James W. Brunt. Despite this book being published in 2000, meaning it references outdated technology, this little book is a gem. One section in the second chapter of the book, written...

I’m extremely honored that Caltech Library won a 2023 DataWorks! prize from FASEB/NIH. These awards recognize efforts that promote data sharing and reuse in biological and biomedical research. The Library won our award for my file naming convention worksheet, which first appeared on this blog in 2020. I’m amazed by the large scale projects that...

I really appreciate the blog Retraction Watch. I used this source heavily in writing my first book, Data Management for Researchers, and regularly cite stories from the blog in my teaching. It’s a fact of science that errors occur, and Retraction Watch makes those errors – both accidental and intentional – transparent. The transparency brought...

It’s well past time we discuss living data management plans (living DMPs). Somehow, I’ve been running this blog for over 10 years and I don’t have a post specifically discussing this important document type. I obviously need to fix this right now. You’re probably wondering what a living DMP is and how it differs from a more “traditional”, grant-related...

This post is aimed at the graduate students, post docs, and research scientists who have established good data management practices in their own work and now want to make a positive impact on their peer’s data management. It can be challenging to talk to others about data management when you don’t have the authority to direct everyone in your...