Digital Scholar Series Trainings for Semester 1 2022

12 Jan 2022
12 Jan 2022

The Digital Library Services (DLS) department of UCT Libraries will be continuing their Digital Scholar Series in the first semester of 2022. Presenters from DLS will showcase some of the practises and tools available to enhance your research skills, with an ongoing focus on managing your research data efficiently.

These sessions are open to all postgraduate researchers and staff working within any field of study at UCT. The topics covered deal with the management of digital materials for research (what some of us call ‘data’) and touch on digital topics throughout the research lifecycle. The sessions are aimed at making your digital scholarship more efficient, so that your data  gives you less hassle and you have more time to focus on your teaching, learning and research. Our primary focus in the first half of the year will be on topics covering the beginning stages of the research process, such as data management plans (DMPs) and best practises for efficiently capturing and managing research data.

After registering for the event, you will receive an email with a calendar invite attached. All sessions will start at 1 PM with the topics and dates listed below. The sessions will be hosted on MS Teams and will last 45 minutes, with an extra 15 minutes for questions or discussion. DLS staff will be present to moderate the chat and to help answer your questions as they come up.

See the full schedule and register. 

  • Creating Data Management Plans with UCT DMP
    • Wed 2022-02-16
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-plan-dmp
    • "If you fail to plan you plan to fail” is the age-old phrase and this is where Data Management Plans (DMPs) are really helpful. Rather than just being another box to tick in your MoU, a DMP actually helps you to figure out how you will work with, and manage, your data throughout your research project. You may not have all the answers yet, and some questions will be tough, but taking the time to try to answer them will save you from moments of failure in the future. This session takes you through UCT DMP, our online tool that guides you through creating your data management plan. After this session, you will no longer fear the DMP. If you cannot make it to this session, look out for the repeat that will happen soon.

  • A Repeat: Creating Data Management Plans with UCT DMP
    • Wed 2022-02-23
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-plan-repeat
    • In a repeat of our ever popular Data Management Planning webinar we look at using the UCT DMP tool to create your own DMP. Rather than just being another box to tick in your MoU, a DMP actually helps you to figure out how you will work with, and manage, your data throughout your research project. You may not have all the answers yet, and some questions will be tough, but taking the time to try to answer them will save you from moments of failure in the future. This session takes you through UCT DMP, an online tool that guides you through creating your data management plan. After this session, you will no longer fear the DMP.

  • Revising your Data Management Plan with UCT DMP
    • Wed 2022-03-02
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-revise-dmp
    • Completing a Data Management Plan at the start of your research project is the best way to start managing your data. But at some point during your project it might be time to do some updates and rethink your answers. As the UCT DMP platform always keeps your living document in editable form, this session takes you through updating your DMP with the information you learned so far during your research project. 

  • Keeping it tidy: Capturing and Discovering your Data Efficiently
    • Wed 2022-03-23
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-capture
    • Taking the right steps at the start of a research project can make all subsequent work much easier. How you collect and capture the information that you need to do your research (your data) is one such step. This session looks at ways to organise what you collect and how to best capture it. We cover subjects from using forms for data capture, to file naming and recognizing the value of metadata. After this session, you may well see the world in rows and columns.

  • Never name it “final”: Guides on Managing and Storing your Data
    • Wed 2022-04-06
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-manage
    • It is great to have a lot of data, but where and how do you store it so that you can easily manage it? This session presents several options on where to store data during your research projects and offers some handy guides on how to organise it. After this session, you won't have to spend hours looking for that elusive file.

  • Thinking spatially: How to put your research on a map
    • Wed 2022-04-13
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-spatial
    • Do you need to make a simple site map for a publication? Or create a complex, repeatable spatial data analysis? Or perhaps you would just like to find out more about Geographic Information Systems (GIS)? In this session you will find out about some of the GIS resources available to you at UCT as well as where and how to find help when working with spatial data.

  • Is this thing on? Getting your data ready for Analysis
    • Wed 2022-05-04
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register:https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-data-prep
    • Once your data is captured, it is time to start analysing it. No matter what your research project is, it helps to make sure that the data is ready to be wrangled, re-formatted, examined, queried, etc. In this session we look at how you can ensure that your data is ready for the rigorous process of turning it into information. 

  • Attached to data: Working Collaboratively on Research Projects
    • Wed 2022-05-11
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-collaborate
    • Research projects don't have to be a lonely process, frequently many different researchers work together towards generating new knowledge. Making sure that the right information is used by everyone and making sure it stays original and current is a challenge. We look at a few relevant, collaborative spaces and tools online that can help you work together. After this session, you will never look at files attached to emails the same way again.

  • To DOI or not to DOI? Sharing and Publishing Research Openly with ZivaHub
    • Wed 2022-05-18
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-publish
    • Research outputs become more valuable once they are shared, allowing others to use them to glean information and build knowledge, and to acknowledge the original authors in a scholarly manner. In today's academic landscape you get credit for publishing the data you produce and share, leading to new opportunities for study. To do so, your data must be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). We look at how you can make your data FAIR by sharing and publishing it on  UCT's data repository ZivaHub. After this session, DOIs might be your new best friends.