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Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

 

Love was in the air from the 10th to the 14th February. That's because it was Love Data Week 2020. (Twitter: @CamOpenData #datachampcam #lovedata20).

The aim of the week was to help us get to know our data specialists. Here in Chemistry we're lucky enough to have four volunteer Data ChampionsClair CastleDr Paul GriffithsEnnio Lavagnini; and Dr Sergio Martínez-Cuesta. (See Paul, Clair and Ennio pictured above. Sergio, unfortunately, was not available for the photo.)

To promote their services during Love Data Week, our Champions sent out emails, displayed posters and digital signs, left Data Champion cartoons and Research Data postcards in the Cybercafé and tweeted from @chemlibcam. "As Chemistry Data Champions, we are trying to make the research culture more open," Clair Castle explains, "particularly as there are now open research policies in place at the University and researchers must work within them."

And though there are challenges, she adds, "such as finding the time to get together and plan, and engage people," the role also brings benefits.

"For me, being a Data Champion has given me the opportunity to collaborate directly with our researchers, who have a wide range of data needs and expertise. From a career development perspective, I have been able to upskill considerably in Research Data Management (RDM). This, in turn, has enabled me to better support our researchers in this area, and also to gain experience in writing for and presenting on RDM at conferences, for example."

Former Data Champion Quentin Peter also found it a positive experience: "It allowed me to share and extend my knowledge on research data handling. I was able to improve my science and help others in my group and department do the same." And current Chemistry Data Champion Paul Griffiths says it is also helping him: "I applied to be a Data Champion to help people work more reproducibly and more openly. Incorporating ideas of reproducibility and openness into my own work has really helped. It saves time, lets me track my work more easily, and I can more easily build on work I did a while ago."

Watch this space for information on sessions that our Data Champions will be delivering over the next few months: introduction to GitHub for chemists; using InkScape to create open format images, and; getting funding for research with a good Data Management Plan. And please contact them with questions or if you have suggestions for data-related topics you'd like them to address in resources, training or drop-in sessions.