General Research Practices
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"What can I do today to create a more inclusive community"?This document lists specific practices and citations for them that can help create more inclusive communities. The suggestions are targeted towards instructors in computer science, but can be adapted for other fields and for the research environment.
Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free and open-source project management tool and data repository, run by the Center for Open Science.
Its flexible file and contributor structure makes it great for managing individual projects, lab management and protocol storage, and for collaborations. You can link it to services you already use in your projects such as github, Dropbox, or Google Drive, while keeping those documents linked all from one central location easily sharable with collaborators.
OSF has great introductory materials, including written tutorials online. If you'd like to contact a Science Librarian or Research Data Specialist about OSF, please visit our Open Office Hours 1-3pm (in the DAVIS Zoom office hours) or contact us for an appointment.
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How to include Indigenous researchers and their knowledge"Researchers from Native American and Indigenous communities explain how colleagues and institutions can help them to battle marginalization. "
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Tidy dataHadley Wickham's philosophy (and R code) for tackling messy data
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Synchronized editing: the future of collaborative writing"A growing suite of tools allows teams of researchers to work collectively to edit scientific documents."
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Managing Research Data by
Call Number: Q 180.55 .E4 M35ISBN: 9781856047562Publication Date: 2012"Defines what is required to achieve a culture of effective data management, offering practical advice on the skills required, legal and contractual obligations, strategies and management plans and the data management infrastructure of specialists and services."
Visualizations
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Data Visualization Checklist"The Data Visualization Checklist is a compilation of 24 guidelines on how graphs should be formatted to best show the story in your data. The 24 guidelines are broken down into 5 sections: Text, Arrangement, Color, Lines, and Overall."
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The visual display of quantitative information byCall Number: QA 276.3 .T83 1983Publication Date: 1983"Theory and practice in the design of data graphics, 250 illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis. "
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Which color scale to use when visualizing data"When visualizing data, you’re almost always working with color – e.g., with different hues (red, yellow, blue) for categories or color gradients (light blue, medium blue, dark blue) for maps.
If you use them to visualize data, hue palettes and gradients become “color scales.” That’s because they all “map” to some data: For example, every one of your hues stands for a certain category and every color in your gradient stands for a certain value (range). This article gives you an overview of the different color scales. " -
WebAIM Color Contrast CheckerTool to check colors for contrast meeting web accessibility standards. You could use this for your figures in papers and presentations too!
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Ten simple rules to colorize biological data visualization"Methods for visualization of biological data continue to improve, but there is still a fundamental challenge in colorization of these visualizations (vis). Visual representation of biological data should not overwhelm, obscure, or bias the findings, but rather make them more understandable. This is often due to the challenge of how to use color effectively in creating visualizations."
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Beautiful Visualization by
Call Number: TK7882.I6 B427 2010ISBN: 9781449379865Publication Date: 2010"Successful visualizations are beautiful not only for their aesthetic design, but also for elegant layers of detail that efficiently generate insight and new understanding. This book examines the methods of two dozen visualization experts who approach their projects from a variety of perspectives -- as artists, designers, commentators, scientists, analysts, statisticians, and more."
General communication
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Communicating Clearly about Science and Medicine by
Call Number: Q 223 .C536 2012ISBN: 9781409440376Publication Date: 2012This book "will help you develop and deliver impactful presentations on medical and scientific data and tell a clear, compelling story based on your research findings. It will show you how to develop clear messages and themes, while adhering to the advice attributed to Einstein: 'Make things as simple as possible...but no simpler.'" -
Scientific Papers and Presentations by
Call Number: T 11 .D27 2012ISBN: 9780123847270Publication Date: 2012-07-30"Topics include designing visual aids, writing first drafts, reviewing and revising, communicating clearly and concisely, adhering to stylistic principles, presenting data in tables and figures, dealing with ethical and legal issues, and relating science to the lay audience." A detailed reference work for scientific communication. -
Clear and Concise Communications for Scientists and Engineers by
ISBN: 1439854793Publication Date: 2012"Guides readers through the steps involved in producing a concise and understandable document in various formats." This includes everything from presentations and posters to project reports to professional correspondence (emails, faxes, memoranda, and more). A detailed reference work on professional writing.
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How to get useful answers to your questions"Often when I ask a vague or underspecified question, what happens is one of:
- the person starts by explaining a bunch of stuff I already know
- the person explains some things which I don’t know, but which I don’t think are relevant to my problem
- the person starts giving a relevant explanation, but using terminology that I don’t understand, so I still end up being confused
None of these give me the answer to my question and this can be quite frustrating (it often feels condescending when someone embarks on a lengthy explanation of things I already know, even if they had no way of knowing that I already know those things), so let’s talk about I try to avoid situations like this and get the answers I need." -
Posters on how to design for accessibilityCovers designing for audiences who are autistic, using screen readers, having low vision, having dyslexia, with physical or motor disabilities, who are deaf or hard of hearing, or with anxiety.
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tota11y - an accessibility visualization toolkit"tota11y helps visualize how your site performs with assistive technologies. [...]
The process of testing for accessibility (a11y) is often tedious and confusing. In many cases, developers must have some prior accessibility knowledge in order to make sense of the results. Instead, tota11y aims to reduce this barrier of entry by helping visualize accessibility violations (and successes), while educating on best practices. -
Designing ADA Compliant Online Courses"Two faculty members recommend easy ways for enhancing student learning online while meeting compliance." Concrete steps to make online courses, and materials in general, ADA compliant and more accessible.
Being a good colleague/peer
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"What can I do today to create a more inclusive community"?This document lists specific practices and citations for them that can help create more inclusive communities. The suggestions are targeted towards instructors in computer science, but can be adapted for other fields and for the research environment.
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Best Practices for Reading and Writing Letters of Recommendation"A letter of recommendation for an academic position or promotion provides an overall assessment of
the candidate’s potential to excel in the new position: the professional promise and evidence to support
that assessment. [...]
Decide on what is valued for the position and what language is important to the discipline based on
those criteria. Keep those criteria consistently in mind when deciding how much weight to give letters.
Letters may be biased in systematically racial or gendered ways. " -
A sense of belonging matters"For science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students from underrepresented groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities and women, a sense of belonging—or lack thereof—can have a concrete effect on a crucial career component: their publication records. "
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The Science of Effective Mentorship"Mentorship is [...] a set of skills that can and should be learned, practiced, and improved upon with self-reflection and feedback. If you are a mentor or mentee yourself, or if you are a leader in your organization responsible for ensuring that your faculty and their mentees have the skills to engage in the most effective mentoring relationships, this website is for you."
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Safe fieldwork strategies for at-risk individuals, their supervisors and institutions"As a result of identity prejudice, certain individuals are more vulnerable to conflict and violence when they are in the field. It is paramount that all fieldworkers be informed of the risks some colleagues may face, so that they can define best practice together: here we recommend strategies to minimize risk for all individuals conducting fieldwork."
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Ten Steps to Protect BIPOC Scholars in the Field"recommendations to prepare faculty and students for discrimination and racialized violence before traveling and to protect them once in the field."
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Ten simple rules for building an antiracist lab"As scientists are increasingly acknowledging the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in science, there is a need for clear direction on how to take antiracist action. Here we present 10 rules to help labs develop antiracists policies and action in an effort to promote racial and ethnic diversity, equity, and inclusion in science."
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What can you do to improve the academic workplace for your deaf and hard-of-hearing colleagues?"Suggestions on this list come from a variety of sources (e.g. HLAA employment toolkit) but primarily our own experiences. This list isn’t comprehensive but provides some guidelines for common scenarios with academia. "
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A Guide to Developing Academic and Research Relationships in Oklahoma Indian Country"The purpose of this work was to provide tools, resources, and other materials necessary for non-Native scholars, researchers, faculty members, and government employees to better understand, reach out to, and build collaborative relationships with those who share an affiliation with Oklahoma Indian Country."
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Conducting research through an anti-racism lens"This guide was developed in response to librarians fielding multiple requests from UMN researchers looking to incorporate anti-racism into their research practices. Conducting research through an anti-racism lens is a long-term and ongoing process and must be considered as part of a complex system which oppresses people and groups in multifaceted ways (i.e., classism, ethnocentrism, capitalism, ableism, etc.). While some disciplines, mainly in the humanities and social sciences, have mitigated racism through a depth of understanding of critical race theory, others have not."
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Ready to Be an Ally for Black Academics? Here’s a Start"Twelve ways that white faculty members can better support Black academics in their department and across the campus."
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Communicating with EmpathyRequires OU 4x4 login via LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com). "Empathy at work is crucial to [...] success. When you and your coworkers feel comfortable and confident speaking openly to each other, you're able to develop better relationships. As a result, you feel like you matter and you feel safe enough in your environment to speak up and to allow others to do the same."
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How to be an anti-racist teacherThis article is focused towards secondary education but the principles should be applicable to post-secondary teaching as well.
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Teaching While White: Where to Start Resources"Teaching While White (TWW) seeks to move the conversation forward on how to be consciously, intentionally, anti-racist in the classroom. Because "white" does not mean a blank slate. It is a set of assumptions that is the baseline from which everything is judged; it is what passes for normal. TWW wants to have conversations about those assumptions: what they are, how they impact our students, and how we can confront our bias to promote racial literacy. "
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What are pronouns? Why do they matter?"Using someone’s correct personal pronouns is a way to respect them and create an inclusive environment, just as using a person’s name can be a way to respect them. [...] Sharing pronouns is a great way to disrupt the normalization and privilege of assumption."
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Pronouns 102: how to stop messing up pronouns"Pronouns are hard! There is a reason for that (the reason is… linguistics), but the fact of the matter is, many people find it very difficult to switch pronouns for a person, or to use certain pronouns at all. This post isn’t about getting into the why, but more going about the how to get better."
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The Problem With Telling Someone 'I Don't See You as Disabled'"This is a fairly common thing to hear, and it’s pretty clear those saying it think they’re paying you a compliment. But “don’t worry, I don’t see you as…” never ends with a positive statement. The most common way of ending that sentence is with something negative. “Lazy,” “stupid,” “bossy,” “weak,” whatever it is. It’s said to reassure someone they’re not something bad. It’s a statement of commiseration. And even if the person saying it loves the disabled person, they’re still saying they think negatively of the disabled community at large."
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For our white friends desiring to be allies"Author's Note: I'm writing this in hopes that it can be used to lighten the load of marginalized folks, keeping in mind that not all marginalized people want to engage in the ally conversation, and that is perfect as well. For those who do, my prayer is that when someone asks you the question, “how can I be a stronger ally?” you might choose to save your breath/energy and send this in its place. "
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Decolonizing field ecology"Within the humanities and social sciences, a growing recognition of this issue has led to calls to “decolonize” research practice by interrogating and seeking to move away from European modes of knowledge production (see, e.g., Radcliffe, 2017). While a process of collective reflection on decolonizing has altered the way in which research is planned, conducted, and presented in fields such as human geography and anthropology, the discussion has yet to percolate through the ecological sciences".
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Advice for successful male mentors of women in academe"“having such a mentor more than doubled a graduate’s odds of being engaged in their work and thriving in their overall well-being.” This promising level of return on investment makes it even more crucial that male mentors go the extra mile to engage in mentorships of women that help to dismantle the deeply embedded patriarchal structures that have created such hurdles for women in political science as well as other disciplines."
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How to Be an Antiracist by
Call Number: E184.A1 K344 2019ISBN: 9780525509288Publication Date: 2019"Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society."
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Stress and Mental Health in Graduate School: How Student Empowerment Creates Lasting Change"This article describes an ongoing initiative of the Department of Chemistry (Chem. Dept.) at the University of Minnesota (UMN) to support the mental health of graduate students. With the increasing pressure on students to carry out novel research, publish articles, learn a broad range of skills, and look for career opportunities, the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression among graduate students are on the rise. "
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Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is….A Lot"We’re biting our tongues, swallowing our rage and fighting back tears to remain professional because expressing that hurt caused by witnessing black death is considered more unprofessional, than black men and women actually being killed. So if you can, please, be mindful. Your black employees are dealing with a lot."
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Racism's Psychological Toll"Williams [...] studies the link between racism and post-traumatic stress disorder, which is known as race-based traumatic stress injury, or the emotional distress a person may feel after encountering racial harassment or hostility. [...] she says race-based stress reactions can be triggered by events that are experienced vicariously, or externally, through a third party — like social media or national news events."
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Learning the Unwritten Rules: Working Class Students in Graduate School"While researchers have begun to examine the experiences of working class students in undergraduate education more closely, we know less about the experiences of working class students in graduate school. Through a nationwide survey of graduate students enrolled in Ph.D. programs in Sociology, we examined the extent to which working class students face greater challenges or barriers in completing their degrees compared to their middle class peers."
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Interviewed while BlackFocusing on medical school matching - "Improving the experiences of Black applicants will be a first step toward increasing the diversity of programs and subsequently addressing the unmet needs of the diverse patient populations they serve."
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Microagressions in Medicine"The first step in addressing implicit biases and microaggressions is to recognize that they exist. Although these experiences may be hard to digest and can elicit a sensation of discomfort or even defensiveness, the feelings of female physicians and physicians who are underrepresented in medicine should be acknowledged. Similarly, we must acknowledge, explore, and address the experiences of disrespect that have been shared by our nursing colleagues." Written about medicine, but the lessons from this article can be applied in many fields.
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Neurotypicals: Listen to Our Words, Not Our Tone"When you know someone is autistic and you’re interacting with them, remember that many of us cannot modulate our tone of voice and are not trying to send you any social signals with our timbre or pitch. And remember, not everyone you interact with will be openly autistic or know they are autistic."