Blog

Complexities of reuse and synthesis in the open data landscape

Open data offers immense opportunities for ecologists and evolutionary biologists. The more good quality data are available, the more questions can be answered—and at broader spatial and temporal scales and at greater taxonomic generality. However, making use of open data is far from straightforward.

At this year’s SORTEE conference, Rose Trappes and Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar co-organized a productive unconference to tackle this complex topic. For that, they invited three experienced panellists: Matt Grainger, Antica Culina and Benno Simmons, and held a discussion about the opportunities and challenges of data reuse and data synthesis in the fast-moving world of open data. We heard from researchers experienced in reusing and synthesising data, as well as those active in creating open data resources for ecologists and evolutionary biologists.

Continue reading

SORTEE member voices – Félicie Dhellemmes

[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
   

Name: Félicie Dhellemmes (she/her)
 

Date: 28 June 2023.
 

Position: Post-Doc.
 

Research and/or work interests:
Behavioral ecology, movement ecology, individual differences in behavior, foraging.
   

How did you become interested in open research?
I became interested in ORT research practices pretty early on when it became evident to me that if we wanted the public to trust science (in the context of climate, for example), science had to be exemplary and as trustworthy as possible.
   

Continue reading

SORTEE member voices – Saeed Shafiei Sabet

[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
   

Name: Saeed Shafiei Sabet
 

Date: 8 December 2022.
 

Position: Research Fellow.
 

Research and/or work interests:
Animal behavior, Anthropogenic noise, predator-prey interactions,
noise impacts, wildlife, anti-predator behavior, fish, crustaceans.
   

How did you become interested in open research?
To be able to share our findings and behavioral observations in a more
clear and available way.
   

What is an open/reliable/transparent science practice that you admire but have not yet adopted in your own work?
Data availability and access.
   

Continue reading

SORTEE member voices – Malgorzata (Losia) Lagisz

[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
   

Name: Malgorzata (Losia) Lagisz

Date: 30 June 2023.  

Position: Research Fellow.
 

Research and/or work interests:
I am a biologist with research experience and skills in different fields of science. I often venture outside biological topics and data, for example, into biomedical, environmental, conservation, or even social sciences. In my research, I use research synthesis methods, such as systematic reviews/maps and meta-analyses.
   

Continue reading

SORTEE member voices – Gabe Winter

[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
   

Name: Gabe Winter (they/any)

Date: 2 June 2023.  

Position: PhD candidate at Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany.
 

Research and/or work interests:
I am an ecologist, currently working with intra-individual variability in behaviour, but also super excited about open, transparent and reproducible research and data science.
   

What ‘ORT’ practice have you introduced into your research practice that you’ve found really helpful?
Having well documented R scripts have improved a lot my own reproducibility. Before, when I had to pause my analysis for a couple months (during field/lab work season, for example), it used to be tricky to remember what I was doing, and I usually had to start everything from the beginning. Now, using commented R markdowns I can simply continue from where I stopped every time. It takes some time to comment everything, but that same time (and more) is saved when I don’t have to re-analyse from scratch.
   

Continue reading

SORTEE member voices – Erlend B. Nilsen

[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
   

Name: Erlend B. Nilsen.

Date: 9 July 2021.  

Position: Senior researcher / Professor.
 

Research and/or work interests:
I’m an applied quantitative ecologist, working mainly with bird and mammal populations. I’m particularly interested in human impacts (such as climate change, harvest, and land use patterns) on these species’ populations, including distribution, abundance demography, and life history traits. To address these challenges, we statistical analyses of empirical dat and simulation of studies. Lately, I have also been involved in research in disease ecology. In addition, I have a strong interest in how we manage hard-won ecological data to the best of the research community and society at large.
   

Continue reading