SI Resources for Managing Data

Training and tutorials

From the Smithsonian Libraries

• Data Management Best Practices - Sue Zwicker (NH and SERC science librarian) offers periodic in person classes. Contact Sue at: ZwickerS at si dot edu.
• Data Carpentry - Smithsonian  is a member of The Carpentries (comprised of Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Software Carpentry) --a project whose mission is to teach foundational computational and data science skills to researchers and others who create, manage, and use data. Library staff are among the cadre of certified Carpentries instructors. Smithsonian offers several workshops per year throughout the institution on software for Genomics and Ecology. For more information, &/or to join the Carpentries-announce mailing list, visit  https://datascience.si.edu/carpentries

From other Smithsonian Units

• Online training for software, programming, and web design is available through OCIO.
  • Courses available through Lynda dot com include R, Python, SPSS and Tableau among others
• Training from the Office of Sponsored Projects - OSP provides or coordinates periodic training on
  • Responsible Conduct of Research (CITI)
  • Human Subjects in Research (IRB-CITI training)
  • Animal Care & Use in Research (IACUC - CITI)
  • Export Compliance
  • Training related to grants, contracts, funding, and financials

Software, tools, and computing

A list of centrally provided research technology resources is available on PRISM intranet including:

• Information about the Hydra high-performance computing cluster
• The Data Science Lab
• GIS software and training
• Licenses or discounts for research-related software (bibliographies, data analysis, genomics, etc.)
• Collaboration and file sharing tools like Confluence and GitHub
  • Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free, non-SI specific platform for sharing and collaborating on research. Accounts are free.

Planning and Funding

• DMPTool -  provides templates for data management plans following requirements of major funders like NSF and allows you to save and export your data management plans. If you have an SI email address, you can log into the DMPTool using your SI credentials.
• The PI Portal,  grant award financials, and training for finding grant funding are managed by SI's Office of Sponsored Projects.
• Best practices for data management plans.

Publishing tools and services

• SI data repositories - SI currently has three centrally managed data repositories: Figshare for Institutions, SIdora, and SRO (Smithsonian Research Online)
  • Figshare for Institutions is best for sharing data that need a DOI including those that underlie peer-reviewed publications; bounded datasets of mixed formats; or data that is periodically updated and needs to be versioned. See the Figshare Confluence site for more information.
  • SRO is best for smaller, fixed (inactive) datasets that accompany or support peer-reviewed publications deposited in SRO.  See the Research Online FAQ or contact Research-Online at si dot edu.
  • SIdora is best for larger, or more complicated datasets, including actively updated datasets. To deposit in SIdora, contact Beth Stern or email the Research Computing group at si-sidora at si dot edu.
• Recommendations for choosing a repository.