AQMeN - Applied Quantitative Methods Network

For data sharing and sound data management in the future to become a higher priority within scholarly communication than it is now, new generations of scientists and scholars need to learn to do research in ways that support these ends. The Research Data MANTRA project (2010-2011) has developed online learning materials which reflect best practice in research data management grounded in three disciplinary contexts: social science, clinical psychology, and geoscience. The resulting materials will be embedded in three participating postgraduate programmes and made available through the Institute for Academic Development's programme of training courses for use by postgraduate and early career researchers at the University of Edinburgh, as well as made available generally through an open license and deposited in JorumOpen, a national repository for open educational resources. The course consists of three components:

• Short, topical, interactive online units that students can work through at their own pace

• Video interviews with senior academics and about data management challenges

• Practical exercises in handling data in four software analysis environments: SPSS, NVivo, R and ArcGIS

The project was a partnership between EDINA and Data Library in Information Services and the Institute for Academic Development, at the University of Edinburgh and was funded by JISC as a part of its Managing Research Data programme. The talk will cover the project background and drivers, course dissemination via the IAD, our experience of creating open learning materials, and a short demo of the contents. The project website is available at http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library-projects/mantra.

Speakers
Jon Turner, Institute for Academic Development
Robin Rice, EDINA and Data Library
Stuart Macdonald, EDINA and Data Library
Cuna Ekmekcioglu, Information Services

Venue
University of Edinburgh Business School,
Board Room, 4th Floor,
29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh