Data workshops and guides

Many training opportunities are available within the University to gain valuable research skills and develop a better understanding of finding and working with data.

Workshops

Workshops are run by different departments, from the Bodleian Libraries' iSkills sessions to IT Learning Centre courses.

This Google Calendar brings together all the data-related workshops in one place. Booking links are available in the course description.

Training programmes and self-study tools

Bodleian iSkills

Bodleian iSkills is a series of free workshops focusing on general skills and resources which can be used across a wide range of disciplines.

These workshops cover topics including:

  • managing your research data
  • information discovery and searching for scholarly materials
  • managing references and formatting footnotes and bibliographies
  • keeping up to date with new research
  • measuring research impact
  • understanding copyright and looking after your intellectual property
  • Open Access publishing and complying with funder mandates for open access.

Subject libraries

The Digital Humanities at Oxford Network organises training and events.

IT Learning Centre

The IT Learning Centre (ITLC) runs the IT Learning Program, providing courses and self-study tools on a wide variety of topics, including IT, management and business skills as well as guidance on career development.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning (previously known as Lynda.com) is a library of online, video based, courses covering a wide range of software and IT related topics (as well as soft skills and business skills) for beginners through to experts. The library is available to use for free by all University members who have Single Sign On credentials.

IT Learning Portfolio

You can download a wide range of free study materials from the IT Learning Portfolio, including a range of resources to develop IT skills for study, research and work. Browse using the Search box, pick a phrase from the Tag Cloud or the Site Picks lists, or view all of the resources.

Q-Step

Q-Step is a programme designed to promote a step-change in quantitative social science training. The Oxford Q-Step Centre enables undergraduates across the Social Sciences to have access to enhanced training in Quantitative Methods, through lectures and data-labs. It is hosted by the Department of Politics and International Relations, in close co-operation with the Department of Sociology, and based in the Manor Road Building. For more information, see Courses, Statistics, and Resources.

External data training and events

Online training opportunities, as well as various workshops, seminars and conferences, are also available from UKDS and other organisations.

Online training and courses

CESSDA training

CESSDA provides training on research data management, data curation, etc. in the social sciences.

ESRC training and webinars

ESRC runs a comprehensive selection of events which include training seminars and courses, free webinars, and public lectures.

ICPSR webinars and tutorials

The ICPSR YouTube channel presents webinars and tutorials on accessing and using ICPSR resources. The webinars cover a variety of topics, including finding what you want on the ICPSR website, analysing ICPSR data online, creating setup files for SPSS, debugging SAS, SPSS, and Stata code, etc.

MANTRA

MANTRA is a free online interactive research data management training course hosted and maintained by the University of Edinburgh.
Through a series of non-assessed units, researchers and others involved in the management of digital data for a research project can learn about:

  • research data
  • data management plans
  • organising data
  • files formats
  • documentation, metadata and citation
  • storage and security
  • data protection, access and rights
  • sharing, preserving and licensing

UK Data Service video tutorials

UKDS range of training videos covers a variety of topics on accessing, citing, depositing, managing, and weighting data; data analysis tools, historical data, teaching with data. Subscribe to the UK Data Service YouTube channel to get all the latest videos as they are published.

The UK Data Service offers an online teaching resource which introduces data to non-experts via easy-to-use interactive Data Skills Modules. Launched as beta versions, the Data Skills Modules are aimed at anyone who wants to learn more about using:

  • survey data
  • longitudinal data
  • aggregate data

Where possible, open access software is used.