Data Analytics and Visualization

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.

Hadley Wickham's philosophy (and R code) for tackling messy data

OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful tool for working with messy data: cleaning it; transforming it from one format into another; and extending it with web services and external data.

"A growing suite of tools allows teams of researchers to work collectively to edit scientific documents."

By The Writing Center, at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a detailed guide on how to structure a typical scientific lab report. Consult your professor or TA for your class requirements!

A short three-minute video (with annotated slides) showing how to synthesize literature.

"An introduction to the basics of conducting a literature review in the social sciences, with a focus on education"-- relevant to all subject areas.

The OU Writing Center offers assistance to undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty with writing. Please visit their website to learn more.

Presentation Consultations offer personalized instruction to students, faculty, or staff experiencing communication apprehension or "stage fright" as well as help with overall presentation design and organization. Presentation coaches work one-on-one or with groups within the OU community from the initial brainstorming all the way through practice delivering presentations.

An infographic from the American Geophysical Union reminding us to remember our audience when wording outreach.

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.

"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. That’s the result of a study published earlier this month, which sheds light on the reasons behind previously documented disparities in publishing rates and indicates how institutions’ structures and cultures bear part of the responsibility."

"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.

"Ask current graduate students across several Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields questions about graduate school."

"Resources for graduate students exploring careers in higher education other than teaching faculty"

Includes a helpful infographic summarizing how to email professors about research opportunities.

"Mentorship is essential in developing science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) professionals. It 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."

"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. "

"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."

This article is focused towards secondary education but the principles should be applicable to post-secondary teaching as well.

"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. "

"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."

"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."

"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".

"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. We found working class students to be comparatively disadvantaged in academic integration and financial support. We discuss the implications of these findings for improving the graduate school experiences of working class students."

"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.