Collecting, analyzing, and managing data is the bread-and-butter of any research project, and standard tools like Microsoft Excel are the go-to apps as they're omnipresent and easy to use. But these start to show their limitations when one needs to handle tens of thousands of rows or merge data from multiple sources. Using a relational database, such as SQLite, can meet this gap and is the logical next step for bigger data projects.

This class will discuss the fundamentals of structured data, introduce you to using SQLite (a lightweight database available on all most computing platforms), and teach you the basics of querying and summarizing data with SQL. Meeting these objectives could open up new opportunities for research and help you with your research data management goals.

Notes and materials for this workshop are available on our Training Materials page.

• Audience: Harvard Faculty, Students, and Staff are all welcome
• Pre-Requisites: None; some familiarity with databases is helpful
• Software Version: SQLite
• Cost: None
• Late Drop/Cancel Fee: None

Version control software allows you to save “versions” of files -- scripts, text files, web pages, data, etc. -- which show the changes that were made to the files over time, and allows you to backtrack if necessary and undo those changes. The ability alone – of being able to compare two versions or reverse changes, makes it fairly invaluable when working on larger projects. Even more so when collaborating in research groups.

This hands-on workshop will take you through the steps of using git and Github, to track changes, revert to older versions, and share your files with other people. Ultimately, to keep you organized, to reduce the clutter, and maintain an intelligible history of files in your projects.

Notes and materials for this workshop are available on our Training Materials page.

• Audience: Harvard Faculty, Students, and Staff are all welcome
• Pre-Requisites: For the GUI class, this workshop is appropriate for those with little or no prior experience using Git, GitKraken, or Github. Some familiarity is helpful. For the command-line class, this workshop is appropriate for those with some prior experience using the Unix command line: in particular navigating the filesystem and using basic commands like cat, head, and nano.
• Software Version: GitBash (Windows), Git (Mac/Linux), GitKraken (All Platforms)
• Cost: None
• Late Drop/Cancel Fee: None

The Unix shell (command line) has been around longer than most of its users have been alive. It has survived so long because it’s a power tool that allows people to do complex things with just a few keystrokes. More importantly, it helps them combine existing programs in new ways and automate repetitive tasks so they aren’t typing the same things over and over again. Use of the shell is fundamental to using a wide range of other powerful tools and computing resources (including “high-performance computing” supercomputers). These lessons will start you on a path towards using these resources effectively.

Notes and materials for this workshop are available on our Training Materials page.

• Audience: Harvard Faculty, Students, and Staff are all welcome
• Pre-Requisites: None
• Software Version: Unix bash shell
• Cost: None
• Late Drop/Cancel Fee: None

Want to be more efficient and save time doing your research and collaborating with others? Looking for new ways to promote your work and make a worldwide impact? Then come to this workshop to learn techniques and services to help you manage your research data. You will learn practices that ensure that your research is documented, reproducible, and accessible long-term. This includes how to acquire specialized data for your research, resources and tools to support your use of data throughout your research lifecycle, complying with internal and external data policies and regulations, and making data from Harvard researchers available to others where feasible.

This class, a combination of seminar and discussion, will highlight robust data management and documentation practices to help you, your future self and fellow researchers be successful in these areas.

Notes and materials for this workshop are available on our Training Materials page.

• Audience: Harvard Faculty, Students, and Staff are all welcome
• Pre-Requisites: None
• Software Version: None
• Cost: None
• Late Drop/Cancel Fee: None