This workshop was organized to train researchers on data paper publication as a mechanism to give wider academic recognition to the efforts made by data providers. The event was run in collaboration with Francisco Pando from CSIS, Spain Held over two days from December 12-14 2017 at the Universite of Lome, Togo, the workshop provided data handlers with a wider overview of data preparation skills for publishing in data papers/manuscripts. In order to get the most out of the workshops, a call for participants was made prior to the event to select candidates at the right level of experience to benefit from the teachings.
This workshop was intended for researchers in Togo who either:
- Already have a dataset suitable to be uploaded to the GBIF data network with the possibility of it being accepted as a ‘data paper’ in a scientific journal.
- Have some proficiency in data handling (i.e. being able to sort, filter, find unique values in a table)
Through its content, the workshop provided participants with a mixture of theoretical elements and practical exercises. An IPT in a functioning “test mode” was available to provide a usable platform during the hands-on modules of the workshop.
Topics covered:
- The role of GBIF in biodiversity data use
- Importance of publishing data through GBIF
- Open science and open data
- Flow of data through the GBIF portal
- Licensing
- Data standardization (Darwin Core, Darwin Core Archive)
- Darwin Core Data Standards (Terms, concepts and examples)
- Darwin Core Archive
- Preparing a data set according to Darwin Core Data standards and practices
- Data Quality, Quality Control Concepts and data cleaning¨
- Taxonomic data
- Geographic data
- People and entities, dates
- Sensitive data
- OpenRefine /DarwinTest: Demo and Examples.
- Data Cleaning
- Geographic Data Quality control
As part of the workshop, the event organisers were available to support participants preparing manuscripts with any follow-up issues from December 18- February 2018. Documents and materials which were used and prepared for the course have been made available as an online resource.
