Category Archives: Research data

FAIR data in practice

Posted on 26 January 2022 by Frank Norman

Introducing the next Open Research London event, which will be about FAIR data.  It’s easy to agree that making research data FAIR is A Good Thing. Of course research data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. But is it … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Scientific archives workshop 2018

Posted on 5 November 2018 by Frank Norman

I attended the Second Workshop on Scientific Archives held at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C. on the 13 & 14 August 2018. The first Workshop on Scientific Archives was held at EMBL in 2016, and was organised entirely by Anne-Flore … Continue reading →

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What is open science?

Posted on 23 August 2018 by Frank Norman

The question Wikipedia suggests that open science began in the 17th century, with the start of the academic journal. Some say that open science started in 1957 with the establishment of the World Data Center system, for International Geophysical Year. … Continue reading →

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Digital skills – how do we …

Posted on 22 May 2017 by Frank Norman

The concept of digital skills is a bit slippery.  The term has changed its meaning as the digital universe has expanded. Jisc is currently doing some work in this area, led by Caroline Ingram. I attended an interesting workshop recently … Continue reading →

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Book sequences

Posted on 23 August 2016 by Frank Norman

You may have seen some of my #nimrlibrarybyebye tweets, showcasing books that we have been transferring to other libraries. I will write a proper post about them sometime soon. The ‘byebye’ in the hashtag is to signify that nearly the … Continue reading →

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ReCon 2016 – my favourite small conference

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Frank Norman

ReCon has become my favourite small conference about publishing and research. It’s held each June in Edinburgh. I attended it in 2015 and really enjoyed it. There were stimulating presentations on non-trivial topics, and plenty of interesting conversations over coffee and lunch. … Continue reading →

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Numbers that limit us

Posted on 6 October 2011 by Frank Norman

The first big number that I remember learning about was Avogadro’s number, N, which is 6.022 x 1023 and represents the number of molecules in one gram-molecule of oxygen. My first chemistry teacher at school, Mr Horkan, was Russian-born and … Continue reading →

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Dusty old data

Posted on 1 September 2011 by Frank Norman

Every now and then I am reminded that, once upon a time, I did a chemistry degree. I still feel some warmth towards the subject, though I have forgotten most of what I learnt. I still remember some of my … Continue reading →

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Elsevier and the executable paper

Posted on 13 June 2011 by Frank Norman

Have you ever wanted to make your paper come alive with data? The results of a recent competition may help that to become a reality. Elsevier are fond of tapping into the scientific community’s ideas on the future of publishing. … Continue reading →

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Managing and sharing data

Posted on 5 May 2011 by Frank Norman

The UK Data Archive (UKDA) has published the third edition of its guide Managing and sharing data. The 36-page guide is available as a free pdf download, or you can request the UKDA to send a print copy. Although written … Continue reading →

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