Zertifikatskurs "Data Steward" an der Universität Wien

2022 hat die Universität Wien erstmals den Zertifikatskurs "Data Steward" angeboten. In diesem Kurs arbeiten Teilnehmer*innen aus der ganzen Welt gemeinsam daran, kritisches Wissen über Data Stewardship aufzubauen und Kernkompetenzen für Data Stewards in Forschungseinrichtungen zu erwerben.

Die Lehrbeauftragten sind Expert*innen für Forschungsdatenmanagement und kommen aus verschiedenen Ländern und fachlichen Hintergründen. Besonderer Wert wird auf das Netzwerken, die Zusammenarbeit der Teilnehmenden und das Voneinanderlernen gelegt. Der Kurs ist berufsbegleitend und dauert zwei Semester. Die Kennenlernwoche findet vor Ort in Wien statt, die anderen Kurse sind online. Tiefergehende Informationen dazu gibt es auf der Kurs-Website. 

Wenn Sie wissen möchten, wie die Arbeit eines Data Stewards oder einer Data Stewardess in der Praxis aussehen kann, lesen Sie unten unseren Bericht "Eine Woche im Leben eines Data Stewards"! 

Montag von Emily

Grants, Publications, and Archives

8:30am- At the office a little early today to get ready for a meeting about a data management plan (DMP). No one wants a frazzled data steward.

9:00am- It's meeting time! Heading upstairs to a professor's office. Even in this digital era, people still like to meet in person. We discuss the DMP template for a funded project. The professor has some questions about buzzwords like "Interoperable" and "Metadata". They also have questions about assigning licenses to their research outputs. After much discussion and some cookies, the professor feels comfortable with creating a DMP draft. They'll send it to me next week and we can work on the edits together.

10:30am- Uh-oh. When was the last time I watered the office plants...?

10:45am- Let's check the univie RDM ticket system. Looks like there are a few requests for assistance. Someone needs help choosing between two archives. That can be tricky! There's another DMP waiting for review. I'll work on that tomorrow. I think I can handle the repository question now, though.

11:00am- I look at the two repositories the researcher was considering. They are both very active, but only one offers persistent identifiers. Actually, there seems to be another repository the researcher hasn't considered that's certified! That looks like the best option. I'll send my recommendations and some helpful web links.

12:00pm- Time for lunch. Pad Thai or curry? Life is so full of choices.

12:30pm- Ring! Ring! Someone's on the telephone. A postdoc is trying to upload data to the univie archive for a recently accepted paper, but is feeling a little intimidated. I answer some questions and suggest they try out the archive sandbox. It's a risk-free way to test the tools.

1:00pm- Logging onto a seminar about updates to a repository that handles imaging data. The large file size makes uploads challenging, but it looks like they created some new tools to help! This should make several people in my faculty happy.

2:30pm- I was having a coffee and someone stopped me in the kitchen. They wanted to know if FAIR data and Open data were the same thing. It's a popular question. We talked longer than I expected, but that's okay.

3:00pm- Hop on the tram to go to another building. My faculty is actually split between three locations.

3:30pm- Maintenance of data systems is a never-ending process. I have a meeting with five collaborating researchers about a database they are building and the problems they are experiencing. I was able to point them to some resources from the IT department they didn't know about. Hopefully, that will help.

4:30pm- Turn off the email, because it's time to go home!

Dienstag von Monika

Problem Solving and Custom Solutions

8:30 am- A researcher asked me to meet them early to ensure bearable temperature in their office, so I start the day with a meeting at the Campus. They are preparing a digital edition. We discuss about what infrastructure the university offers and what they should consider to facilitate long-term preservation. We arrange another meeting with their web designer and the ZID to delve into the more technical details. Long-term preservation of dynamic websites and web applications has turned out to be one of the most pressing issues at my faculty, so I currently focus on this in my daily work. I am happy that the researcher contacted me timely.

9:45 am- Back in my office. Finally coffee.

10:00 am- We share data management memes in our data steward chat group. As we work at different locations, much of our conversation is online. Working in this team means fun, peer-learning, and support, and I love it.

10:30 am- I received a question through our RDM ticket system - the researcher wants to know if their collection of 5000 photos is too large for our repository PHAIDRA. Good thing: it can be handled! I clarify what metadata they have and refer them to the PHAIDRA colleagues to arrange for a bulk upload.

11:00 am- We have the monthly meeting of our university-wide working group on research data management where all departments involved in RDM services exchange news and discuss strategies. As data stewards, we receive first-hand reports from researchers on how they use our services and what they are missing, so we can contribute vital information to this working group.

12:30 pm- Lunch with my colleagues from the Dean's Office. Today, we had Indian food delivered.

1:00 pm- I add a page about digital editions in my draft guidelines for researchers about archiving websites and polish the introduction. Weighing sophisticated design on the one hand and preservability on the other hand is not always easy. 

2:00 pm- The second part of my introductory course for PhD students of my faculty takes place. Feedback shows that organising data - from file naming and folder structures to readme files and version control - is something the students want to hear more about in an advanced course. I will address this in the group of RDM trainers.

3:30 pm- While having some coffee, I keep myself up-to-date by skimming the most important mailing lists and newsletters. There is so much going on, it's difficult to follow.

4:00 pm- We have been invited to present our data stewardship program in a coffee lecture at the European level later this month. I prepare my slides and include some of the memes my colleagues shared with me.

5:15 pm- Oh, overlooked the time again. I need to catch my train. I pack my laptop as tomorrow I will be working from home.

Mittwoch von Tereza

Team Building and Program Development

8:30 am - Arrive at the office, and I'm the first one here. I like having a bit of quiet time to organize my thoughts before the hustle and bustle begins.

9:00 am -  Dedicating an hour to finalizing the onboarding plan for a new colleague. They will spend the first two months on the job getting to know the RDM team, our services, and workflows. This takes quite a bit of coordination, we are all very busy and important these days!

10:00 am - I check the Data Steward course inbox. Two potential participants are worried about meeting the requirements for the coding module. I reassure them that the course is designed for absolute beginners and as long as they can switch on a computer, they'll be golden.

10:30 am - Coffee and more emails!

11:00 am - Time to attend a meeting of an international working group. It's so important to stay informed about what's going on in other countries to make sure we are heading in the right direction. 

12:00 pm - Lunchtime! I join my colleagues from the u:cris team for a sandwich and a chat.

12:30 pm - Back to work for my favorite part of the week – the weekly Data Steward meeting! Our team is spread across different locations. It's great to see familiar faces and catch up on everyone's progress. This time, I am heading to Emily's office in the Biology building in the 3rd district. Fingers crossed she baked us a cake, as she sometimes likes to do!

1:00 pm - The meeting begins with a discussion of ongoing projects and sharing updates. We throw around ideas for a new guide on data documentation and start drafting an abstract for an upcoming conference.

3:00 pm - Back at the office, I realize my trip to the Research Data Alliance plenary is coming up. I create engaging slides for my talk on the Data Steward course.

4:00 pm - As the day winds down, I catch up on a few more emails. A researcher is curious about our guest lectures on RDM, and I provide a few possible dates for the upcoming semester. 4:15 pm - Before I wrap up, I update our internal knowledge base with the latest resources and insights from today's interactions. It's essential to keep my team well-informed and equipped to assist researchers effectively.

4:30 pm - Time to head home. As I close the office door, I feel a little tired but glad to be able to work with such a brilliant team.

Donnerstag von Michael

Training and RDM Mentorship

7:00 am- Starting my day early to do some final preparation for the second day of our RDM workshop for doctoral candidates that we are teaching today. But first, coffee.

8:30 am- Energized and ready for the workshop, I answer some emails before heading towards the seminar room.

8:45 am- The doctoral school coordinator has provided us with a variety of snacks for the workshop. It's going to be great!

9:00 am- The workshop begins, and I am excited to get to know the participants of the course and share my knowledge.

10:30 am- First break, a student approaches me about versioning and sharing their code on GitHub. We discuss the advantages and challenges. Soon after, I help them overcome their fears of operating GitHub, and they plan to tackle it after the course. I remind them that my door is always open if they need any further support.

12:00 pm- We manage to finish the workshop on time but had to rush a bit over the legal issues associated with data creation and re-use due to many questions on repositories. I note down that we have to adapt our planning a bit for the next iteration of the workshop.

12:30 pm- Enjoying lunch with the admin team of my research center. There is no better way to get updated on the newest gossip and happenings.

1:00 pm- Can't wait to check the feedback forms from our workshop. It seems like the participants enjoyed the workshop and agreed that they learned something useful in our course. I don't know that I have been this professionally proud in quite some time.

1:30 pm- Grabbing another coffee before logging into the IT meeting. It's a valuable exchange where I get updated on the newest IT developments at our research center and provide the IT team with input and questions I received from researchers. We also discuss the technical side of implementing an electronic lab notebook.

2:30 pm- On my way back to the office, I run into a student who attended our course in the morning, and we discuss how they can identify licenses of source code they want to reuse for their project. I ask them to send me the links to the repositories, and we plan to meet at my office to look them over. Turns out the information on the licensing was quite hidden in some of these projects, and some of them had no information at all.

3:30 pm- Ending the workday with some chit-chat about the newest Diablo game with my office colleague before heading home.

Freitag

Sondermeldung

Wir lassen den Freitag vorerst offen. Wir arbeiten auch freitags, aber diesen Platz lassen wir für mögliche künftige Kolleg*innen offen!