Spreadsheets

Good data organization is the foundation of any research project. Most researchers have data in spreadsheets, so it’s the place that many research projects start.

In the first section of this workshop, you will learn:

• Good data entry practices - formatting data tables in spreadsheets
• How to avoid common formatting mistakes
• Approaches for handling dates in spreadsheets
• Basic quality control and data wranglingin spreadsheets
• Exporting data from spreadsheets

OpenRefine

A part of the data workflow is preparing the data for analysis. Some of this involves data cleaning, where errors in the data are identifed and corrected or formatting made consistent. This step must be taken with the same care and attention to reproducibility as the analysis.

OpenRefine is a powerful free and open source tool for working with messy data: cleaning it and transforming it from one format into another.

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• create, export and import a project in OpenRefine
• view and work on subsets of rows using facets and text filters
• reduce variations in data through clustering, bulk editing and transformations
• undo and redo actions and export the history of actions
• save cleaned data in a widely supported file format

For any questions, please contact the workshop instructor laufers@ou.edu.

Requirements

• Pre-requisites: none
• Software requirements:  for working with spreadsheets (Excel, OpenOffice)
  • Please bring a computer with a modern browser. Access to software will be made available via a JupyterLab portal.
• Registration is: required
• Minimum registrations for workshop to be hosted is 15.

Accessibility

• Materials
  •     The curriculum is freely available online at:
    • Spreadsheets: https://datacarpentry.github.io/spreadsheets-socialsci/
    • OpenRefine: https://datacarpentry.github.io/openrefine-socialsci/
• Format
  • This workshop will be offered in person.
  • Next semester, we will offer in person.
• Scheduling
  • This workshop is typically offered once per semester.
  • This workshop can also be scheduled on request.
  • We have 2 breaks, at a rate of about one per hour.
• Captioning
  • Automatic captioning is not provided by default.
  • Food/drinks
    • Food and drinks are not provided.
    • Food and drinks are allowed in the classroom.
    • Water fountains are available on all floors.
    • Bizzell Memorial Library has a coffee shop on LL1 (hours may vary) and vending machines on LL1, in the hall east of LL118 (the community room).
• Restrooms
  • Gendered restrooms are available on the same floor.
  • Family restrooms are available on the same floor.
• For additional accommodations on the basis of disability, please contact the workshop instructor laufers@ou.edu.