Digitalization in research

Module 2 of the "Digital Transformation in Research" course, December 15 & 16, 2022.

This work is usable under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 license.

Instructors

Hannah Metzler metzler@csh.ac.at, PostDoc at MedUni Vienna and the Complexity Science Hub Vienna.

Jana Lasser jana.lasser@tugraz.at, PostDoc at TU Graz and associate faculty at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna.

Introduction

In the module “digitalization in research” we will provide insights and practice experience for digital methods that are used for a broad range of activities in daily research practice. Our module is structured into four major areas of activity that reseracher's engage in in their daily practice:

1. Finding information and staying informed.
2. Managing collaborations.
3. Doing (reproducible) research.
4. Communicating research results.

Every topic will feature an introduction into the challenges and possibilities that digitalization brings in the respective area of research practice. We will show examples of best practices and introduce free and open tools that can be used by researchers to digitally enhance their workflows and make them efficient and transparent. Since learning happens best through doing, our module will be very “hands on”. We will ask participants to bring their own research projects to the lecture and implement workflows that they have learned about right away and in their own research context.

Module overview

Note: Due to the current COVID situation in Austria, we had to move the course online and shorten it a bit. The parts of the course that were cut are crossed out in the overview below.

• Introduction and Module overview [slides]

• Digitally enhanced literature search and management [slides]

  • Tools to find relevant articles [slides]
  • Ways to stay informed about new articles [exercise: staying informed]
  • Locally and collaboratively managing relevant literature [slides]

• Tools and workflows to manage collaborations

  • Living documents [slides] [exercise: using living documents to their full potential]
  • Collaborative code writing [slides] [exercise: setting up a Git repository]
  • Digital project management in collaborations [slides] [exercise: different project management workflows] [indstructions: Slack] [instructions: discord] [instructions: GitHub]

• Ensuring transparency and reproducibility through open research practices

  • Introduction to biases and reproducibility [slides]
  • Research designs and workflows to ensure transparent and reproducible results [slides]
  • Data management practices and platforms for sharing data [slides]
  • Good documentation practices [slides] [exercise: document your repositories]
  • Interactive and enriched research articles [slides]
  • Coding best practices and reproducibility [slides]
    • Alternative Zotero [exercise]
  • Licenses [slides] [exercise: license your research]

• Using digital tools to communicate your research

  • New publishing practices: preprints and overlay journals [slides] [exercise: finding out about self-archiving policies]
  • New publishing practices: exploratory and registered reports [slides][exercise: finding reproducible journals
  • Research communication opportunities on social media platforms [slides] [exercise: making a Twitter profile] [exercise: making a Twitter thread about your research]

Preparation for participants

To make full use of the sessions, please bring your laptop and charger. We will do a lot of practical exercises, which you can use to work on your own research projects if you have your laptop with you.

• If you want to follow the literature management demonstrations:

  • Make an account at Zotero, install Zotero (Standalone) and the Connector for the browser you usually use.
  • Make an account at Elicit
  • Make an account on ResearchRabbit.

• If you want to follow the Git & GitHub demonstration:

  • Make an account on GitHub (alternatively: if your institution hosts a GitLab instance, make an account there).

  • Download and install GitAhead (works for Windows, Mac and Linux). Open GitAhead and link your GitHub (GitLab) account with it: double-click GitHub or GitLab in the left sidebar and enter your authentication credentials.

  • NOTE: git can also be useful for non-coders that want to version-control their text files (for example research articles or a thesis they are writing).

• If you want to follow the project management demonstration:

  • Install the slack desktop app OR discord client (works for Windows, Mac and Linux) OR make an account on GitHub (alternatively: if your institution hosts a GitLab instance, make an account there).

• If you want to use the preregistration exercise for your own research:

  • Bring an idea for a research project or study you are about to or would like to start in the future.

• If you want to follow the good documentation practices demonstration:

  • Make an account on OSF (Open Science Framework) OR make an account on GitHub (alternatively: if your institution hosts a GitLab instance, make an account there).
  • If you want to use the exercise for your own research: think about a project (finished or ongoing) you would like to document and bring the relevant files.

• If you want to follow the research communication on Twitter demonstration:

  • Make an account on Twitter. Make sure you use an account name (the text after the “@” that is either close to your real name or sounds otherwise professional. You don’t need to fill your profile with more information about you, we will do that together.
  • Bring: EITHER a preprint/paper that you have recently published and would like to present to a larger public OR a paper that you have recently enjoyed reading and would like to review for a broader public.