First orientation with data managment done

Today is the first of a series of orientations. My colleges are in session and classes start on Monday. I have spend some serious time since RDAP thinking of how to incorporate an introduction to data managment into their sessions. Conceptually I thought this was important because I wanted the seed of these practices, and the ways we could support them in this effort to be there in the begining.

The harder part was figuring out what to cut. I already have a full plate with a basic orientation to accessing materials, and I usually hit PubMed pretty hard since that is their main database. Typical session send them thorugh a series of exercises that use filters, find MeSH headings, and pick through the MeSH options.

With the session being an hour and a half, I cut PubMed in half. I construted a systematic search framework (define your question, decide on your databases, find your index terms, find your synonyms, search concepts individually without review, group concept synonyms, combine concepts) and we worked through it as a group. It worked well and they had some interesting questions about construction by the end.

For the data management portion, I altered a “quick tips” talk the data management group had given. I took the basic framework (have a DM plan or write one, know your policies, have some structure, document your work, store things well), rearranged it to follow the research workflow better, and fleshed out some examples. I asked pointed questions along the way to keep engagement up, but they were already a great group.

Overall the session went a little long, but they were engage and the feeback was positive. I have three more of these sessions to do, so I’ll have a better picture of things once those are done; but I already feel validated by including data managment from the beginning.