Digital Scholar Series 2024 - Semester 2

01 Jul 2024
poster for digital scholar series
01 Jul 2024

The Digital Library Services (DLS) department of UCT Libraries will be continuing our Digital Scholar Series in the second semester of 2024. We will showcase some of the digital practices and tools available to enhance your research skills, with an ongoing focus on managing your research data efficiently.

All postgraduate researchers and staff working within any field of study at UCT are welcome to attend. 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 second half of the year will be on topics covering the middle stages of the research process, such as cleaning up data for analysis, working with sensitive data, automating tasks and preparing for data publication.

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 discussions. 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.

  • Visualising Spatial Data
    • Wed 2024-08-07
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-spatial
    • Sometimes you don't need a full-blown spatial analysis, you just need to show where in the world you did your research. In this session we will look at how to plot a few coordinates on a map to show your study area using the free and open source GIS package, QGIS. After this session you will know how to put your research on the map!
       
  • Working with Sensitive Data at UCT
    • Wed 2024-08-14
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-data-sensitive
    • Data is powerful and with great power comes great responsibility. In this session, we explore sensitive data, how to identify it and how it should be handled during a research project. We explore topics such as de-identification, secure storage solutions, open licenses and appropriate embargos to assist you with ensuring that you are not on the wrong side of ethics and laws. After this session, you should be more sensitive to working with data!
  • Capture and Manage Data with Forms
    • Wed 2024-08-21
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-capture-forms
    • Collecting and capturing data is likely a key part of your research project. In this session, we expand on practical ways to use forms and spreadsheet tools to make capturing and managing your data more consistent and efficient to make your life easier. After this session, all options will be dropdowns!
  • Cleaning your data in spreadsheets
    • Wed 2024-08-28
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-data-clean
    • This session will look further into using spreadsheets to tidy up your data. We will explore some of the possibilities available to you through the use of tools, formulae and basic logical operators, as well as a brief look into how to find out more about the tools available in spreadsheets. Let's formulate a plan to clean up your data!
  • Cleaning your Data for Analysis with Open Refine     
    • Wed 2023-09-11
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-data-openrefine  
    • This follow-up session will take a more detailed look at Open Refine. This data cleanup tool can be a powerful ally in organising your data and preparing it for analysis. We will explore the tools’ basic functionality and look at some of its more powerful transformation and cleanup features, such as clustering. After this session, you will be ready for analysis!

 

  • Getting ready for Data Visualisation
    • Wed 2024-09-18
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/data-viz
    • Let's tell your data analysis story using pictures! But which is the best data visualisation tool for your needs? Finding the right tool may take some trial and error, so in this session we will look at a number of options, from Excel to Tableau to ggplot, to show various possibilities. We will also share some principles for getting your data ready for visualisation, as well as outlining available choices when designing graphic data outputs. After this session you will be able to say thousands of words with your pictures!

 

  • Sharing and Publishing Research Openly with ZivaHub
    • Wed 2024-09-25
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/fair-zivahub
    • Research outputs become more valuable once they are shared, allowing others to use them to glean information, build knowledge, and 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.
  • Digital Collaboration Spaces through UCT
    • Wed 2023-10-02
    • Time: 1PM SAST
    • Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/dss-collaborate-2  
    • Working in a research group can be quite exciting, and the outputs that come out of collaborative work can be extremely valuable. However, it is not always easy to find a space to keep track of all the comings and goings of data. In this session, we look at platforms, provided through UCT, that enhance collaboration between researchers and assist them to work together. We will look at SharePoint (Microsoft), the Open Science Framework (OSF) and ZivaHub as collaboration tools to see which might suit your project best. After this session, you will transform into unstoppable digital collaborators!