RESCHEDULED: UW Data Science Poster and Networking Session

Monday, Feb 21, 2017 | 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: Mary Gates Hall Commons 

The Data Science Poster and Networking Session is an opportunity for the University of Washington campus community and regional partners to present their activities and connect with others engaged in data-intensive discovery.

Are you engaged in research or teaching involving data-intensive discovery - either advancing the methodologies, or putting these methodologies to work in any field of discovery? Does you work require extracting knowledge from large, noisy, or complex datasets? Do you use advanced statistical techniques, advanced data management platforms, or advanced visualization methods in your work? Are you involved in inventing these advanced methods? If so, please register to present your work in this poster session!

Refreshments will be provided for all attendees. . . the costs of poster production will be covered. . . easels will be provided. . . This is an incomparable opportunity to network with others who are advancing the forefront of data-intensive discovery.

For details on poster requirements and further questions click here.

Thomson Reuters' Web of Science Presents: The Data Citation Index!

Last October, Web of Science (WoS) launched a new service known as the Data Citation Index (DCI). It allows users to track and discover data from tons of research projects. The DCI covers info for datasets from multidisciplinary and international repositories, and is housed within the WoS we already know and love. Researchers comfortable looking up papers in WoS can find related datasets, or vice versa. Collocating research data and papers is great step toward making datasets more discoverable.

Data discoverability through the DCI is good for researchers and librarians. Tracking citations of datasets gives researchers better and more consistent context of work relevant to their own. That enlarges their scope of understanding, reach of influence, and reduces the chances of performing redundant research. By tossing tons of data citations in together, the DCI also creates a context of metadata and attribution facets used for datasets. That helps data librarians create better data management plans for their repositories.

Citation tracking is a great thing for data management, but some crinkles still need to be smoothed out. An evaluative report by the University of Minnesota on their trial of the DCI highlighted some pros and cons. The metadata for different but apparently similar datasets contained equally ambiguous terms, for example. That musses up the sense of proper context and standardization the DCI intends to provide. Datasets themselves, however, are eminently discoverable thanks to WoS’s preexisting search and results refinement functions.

The DCI is notable step for data management and exposes some of its major challenges, such as: reining in variation between metadata, aggregating interdisciplinary repositories, and discoverability.

Global Health Data Exchange Updates

The Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) has announced a relaunch with enhanced navigation and additional features, including improved navigation, background information on countries, data series, and organizations. The advanced search allows users to search specific queries by geography, time, data type, keyword, and data source. Data can also be sorted on whether the actual research data is publicly and freely available. An announcement about the new features in version 2 is available online.

In addition, search results can now be sorted by the year that data collection started, and can be easily exported. Geographies now have a time component to reflect historical changes to country names or boundaries over (e.g., the Soviet Union).

Launched in March 2011 by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, the GHDx is the world’s largest catalog and repository of health-related data. It currently contains more than 8000 records with carefully researched information about data, including a standardized English title, local-language title, geography and time covered by the data, a suggested citation and information about current data providers. In addition, detailed keywords provide information about the topics that are covered by the data. Many datasets can be downloaded directly from the GHDx.

Finding the Needle in the Haystack: Discovering Research Data Online

On Tuesday February 26 (that's tomorrow, folks!) from 3-5:30PM EST/12-2:30PST, the Board on Research Data and Information will be hosting a symposium called "Finding the Needle in the Haystack: Discovering Research Data Online." As research becomes more data intensive and the amount of data produced continues to grow, knowing how to find relevant data is increasing in importance. Acknowledging the variety of solutions in use for storing and locating data, the symposium will also be looking at the issues of "pervasive infrastructure, standardization of approaches, and the usual questions of who does what, where, and how?" Speakers will include Clifford Lynch from CNI and Francine Berman from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The 2.5 hour discussion will be audiocast live; the address will be posted at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/ about an hour before the event.