LibGuides: Research Data, Data Management & Planning: Training and Tools

Training Modules & Education Materials

If you're looking for a general introduction on best practices for research data management, check out some of these training modules. Librarians can also provide local, customized training. You can view a list of upcoming trainings from the Digital Scholarship Center.

University of Wyoming Training
A collection of workshops and presentations from the Libraries' Digital Scholarship Center. Includes topics such as poster design, data visualization, and data cleaning.
Data Management Training Clearinghouse
Search or browse for online training resources on Research Data Management.
DataONE Data Management Modules
10 PowerPoint Lessons with handouts and exercises
MANTRA
A free online course for those who manage digital data as part of their research project
RDM Handbook (from OpenAIRE)
OpenAIRE is a European advocacy organization promoting Open Scholarly Communication. Their website contains information relating to Research Data Management and Open Science.

General Resources on Research Data Management

Digital Curation Centre
Website of Internationally-recognized organization (based in the United Kingdom) providing resources and training on Research Data Management.
Research Data Alliance (RDA)
RDA has a grass-roots, inclusive approach covering all data lifecycle stages, engaging data producers, users and stewards, addressing data exchange, processing, and storage.

Additional information about Research Data Management can be found on websites and library guides of other universities. [Note that services mentioned and subscription-based resource links will not be accessible by UW users. However, subscription materials mentioned might be available via the UW Libraries website. Please ask a UW Librarian if you need help locating a desired resource.]

Data Management Tools

There are a variety of free tools and softwares available out there for anyone to use as a part of a research project. This is not an exhaustive list, but a starting point to help you explore what's available.

DMPTool
A tool to make creating funder-specific and general data management plans.
OpenRefine
A tool that helps with messy data by allowing you to clean it in a variety of ways.
Tabula
A tool that can extract data from PDFs and convert it to spreadsheet format
R and RStudio
A free, open-source programming language that can be useful for data analysis in a variety of ways, from statistical analysis to data visualization
Python
A programming language that can perform a variety of functions
Github
A website that is cloud-based, where researchers can share code, data, and documents with other people. It is also very good at version control.
Open Science Framework (OSF)
A tool that promotes the open sharing of research workflows and documents
Jupyter Notebook
A free, open-source, interactive web tool known as a computational notebook, which researchers can use to combine software code, computational output, explanatory text and multimedia resources in a single document

Data Visualization Programs

Datawrapper
Datawrapper is an extremely easy-to-use data visualization tool for plotting interactive charts. All you need to do is upload your data via a CSV file, choose the chart you want to plot. It's free and no sign-up needed.
Plotly
An open-source library for R, Python, and JavaScript, Plotly works seamlessly with its enterprise-ready deployment servers to enable easy and code-free collaborations. For those with some knowledge of coding, tutorials and further guidance enhance Plotly’s functionalities.
RAWGraphs
Raw bridges the gap between spreadsheets and vector graphics. You don't need coding experience to use it, and since the data is only processed through the web browser, your data is safe and private.
Tableau Public
With a friendly user interface and drag and drop capabilities, Tableau Public is a great free option for those wanting to visualize data. Note that data is stored in Tableau's cloud storage system, and is therefore not secure.
ggplot2 in R
ggplot2, a package within the R language, is an excellent choice to visualize data for those with coding experience. Sharing your code can make your work reproducible. If your data is sensitive, you can safely use ggplot2 to make visualizations to share without also sharing the underlying data publicly or on a public server.

Research Data, Data Management & Planning: Training and Tools

More Resources

Training Modules & Education Materials

General Resources on Research Data Management

Data Management Tools

Data Visualization Programs

Recommended Reading