University of Houston Libraries announces its spring 2020 research workshop series for faculty, staff, and students, offering a variety of research tools and practices. Register

Tableau I – Introduction
Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R
In this workshop, participants will use Tableau Public to create interactive data visualizations. It will cover an overview of the program and provide hands-on experience creating basic charts and maps, as well as creating interactive web-based visualization dashboards. It will also discuss publishing to the Tableau Public web server.

Core Data Management Practices for UH Researchers
Thursday, January 30, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R
This workshop presents the basic elements of data management that are essential for UH researchers in all disciplines. Topics include: Data management plans, file organization and documentation, storage and backup, security, compliance with funder and university policies, data preservation, and archiving.

Tableau II – Calculations and analytics
Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R

In this workshop, participants will use more advanced features in Tableau to manage data, such as join, union and edit data. Participants will also use calculations and parameters to make views more interactive. It will cover analytics to help spot trends and forecast data. Taking Tableau I prior to this workshop is strongly encouraged.

Finding Social Science Data
Thursday, February 6, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R
Participants will be introduced to some library-subscription sources for social science data (including business and sales data) as well as some portals for open data (such as census and demographic data). Participants will also learn tips for finding data and discuss how to evaluate the quality of data sources.

Tableau III—Logical functions and customize dashboard
Tuesday, February 11, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R
In this workshop, participants will learn to use logical functions to determine if certain condition is true or false. It will also cover building customized dashboard to make your visualization more appealing. Taking Tableau I and Tableau II prior to this workshop is strongly encouraged.

Data Archiving and Sharing
Thursday, February 13, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R
Increasingly research funders and academic publishers request or require that we share a portion of our data. This workshop covers a spectrum of sharing and archiving options, discusses considerations for choosing an option, and presents tips and tricks for preparing data for sharing and archiving. The content will be focused on a broad understanding relevant for researchers of all disciplines and at all stages of their academic career.

Introduction to R for Absolute Beginners
Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 10:00am – 12:00pm
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R
R is an open source software for statistical computing and graphics. This workshop is for individuals who want to begin to learn this powerful analysis tool but have little or no experience in any programming languages. The first half of this 2-hour workshop will focus on some basic concepts of coding and the second half will feature hands-on activities to learn basic R skills, such as installing R packages, importing files, and exploring data. Some troubleshooting tips and R resources will also be provided.

Finding STEM Data
Thursday, February 20, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 106-R
Participants will be introduced to some library-subscription sources for STEM-related data as well as some portals for open data. Participants will also learn tips for finding data and discuss how to evaluate the quality of data sources.

Selecting Journals for Publishing Your Research
Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 10:00am – 11:30am
MD Anderson Library Training Room 10-G
This hands-on workshop discusses factors that could influence your choice of journals for academic publishing, including journal impact, publish frequency, review process, and other factors. Participants will leave the workshop with resources, handy tools, and strategies for making a good choice for publishing your research.