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DataLab

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Consultation, Training, and Collaborative Services for Feinberg

The DataLab is focused on collaborative innovation, training & development, and connecting faculty, staff, and students in the Feinberg School of Medicine to data-related resources here at Northwestern. Through our free DataClinic service, we provide consultation and training for all stages of the research data life cycle and link researchers with experts who can help to resolve issues. We engage the research community by teaching, hosting, and sponsoring training events and workshops that promote best practices related to data management, reproducibility, compliance with data sharing policies, and open science, as well as a range of associated technical topics. Our services and projects reflect our commitment to good data practices and a collaborative culture at Feinberg and beyond.

Follow us @GalterDataLab on X and GitHub.

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What We Do

 

DataClinic

The Galter DataClinic provides consultation and training for all stages of the research data life cycle and connects researchers with experts who provide support services. The DataClinic is available to faculty, staff, and students in Feinberg. For more information, or to request a Data Clinic consultation, please visit our page on the Service Management Portal.

Data Education & Training

Through the DataLab and other university partners, Galter Library actively promotes best practices in research data management (RDM) to help foster creation and maintenance of reproducible and open scientific outputs. We also develop resources to serve as a reference for "just-in-time" information support for investigators looking for guidance on data-related issues.

 

Innovations

Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center is dedicated to building a collaborative clinical and translational research data infrastructure. Members of the Digital Systems Department and the Galter DataLab are involved in a number of projects with the goal to provide training and resource development in research data management and related best practices for Feinberg and beyond:

Project Description

InvenioRDM logo

A born-interoperable research data management repository and data catalog to enable best practices in research data management, sharing, and reuse. InvenioRDM makes it easy to collect, preserve, and disseminate a wide range of research products to enhance individual and institutional visibility, promote people and their expertise, support discovery and accessibility by the international scientific community, and promote open and FAIR science. We’re developing InvenioRDM in collaboration with CERN, other national and international partners, and Northwestern partners NUCATS.
The CTS Personas project includes a portfolio of role-based profiles representing the translational workforce. Personas can help guide development of resources and services for the translational workforce, such as software, trainings, communication, and more.

Galter has partnered with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to support the Zenodo generalist repository for the National Institutes of Health-funded Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI), led by the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy. For more information, see the project announcement on our website.

Network of the National Library of Medicine's (NNLM) National Evaluation Center (NEC) logo

The NNLM National Evaluation Center (NEC), based in Galter Library, provides innovative evaluation frameworks and evidence-based evaluation tools and practices to NNLM. To support the mission of the NEC, we are designing and building a data warehouse that stores NNLM data from the early 2000s to the present, including NNLM-funded subaward projects, activities conducted by NNLM staff and subawardees, and participants in NNLM activities. This data will be used to feed interactive dashboards, and members of NNLM Regional Medical Libraries (RMLs), Offices, and Centers will have the option to request data for their own research, analysis, and reporting.
Machine-actionable Data Management and Sharing Plan: Pilot Project In an effort to enhance research data management infrastructures and services, California Digital Library (CDL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) are collaborating to address the increasing requirements to share federally funded research data. This project focuses on enhancing DMPTool and persistent identifier registries by creating machine-actionable data management plans (maDMSPs). These maDMSPs allow data and information about research to be communicated and shared across stakeholders and systems, while facilitating notifications, verification, and automated compliance checks. Galter Library, with support from other Northwestern partners, is a pilot site for this project. For more information, see the maDMSP Pilot Project page.
Through a grant from the Network of the National Library of Medicine Greater Midwestern Region (NNLM-GMR) to support clinical data research workflows, the DataLab is developing the Clinical Research Data Management (cRDM) Program, a end-to-end training track that introduces clinical researchers to clinical database architecture and clinical coding standards, teaches them how to translate their research questions into queries that will allow them to extract data properly, and how to do so in a way that supports transparency and reproducibility while still respecting guidelines for proper data sharing. This grant bolsters resources and support for the Feinberg research community to use clinical research data from the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse.
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Contact DataLab

  • For questions about sharing your data, including the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy and DMS Plans, please contact researchdata@northwestern.edu.
  • To request a consultation for other data management and analysis issues, please visit our Service Management Portal page.
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Updated: May 23, 2024