Blogs

Introducing the Open Research Toolkit

By Christopher Eaker

December 2, 2021

Introducing the Open Research Toolkit Open research helps increase the visibility of important discoveries and extend them to new places. It helps to increase participation in research by underrepresented and underfunded groups. The open research ecosystem extends beyond just open access to data and publications. The principles of openness in research should extend to the entire research lifecycle. Have you wanted to learn more about open research, how you can promote it at your institution, and how you can embrace its principles in your own work?

Editor's Notes: Data management for students, researchers, and data science projects

By IQ Editor

September 28, 2021

Welcome to the second issue of IASSIST Quarterly 2021 (IQ vol. 45(2) 2021) . Data management is the focal point of the articles in this issue of the IQ. Aspects of data management have often been the central topic of many earlier IQ articles. Metaphorically simply said: Data is what IASSIST members breathe - data management is how we breathe it. The first two articles concern raising the attention and knowledge of data management among students and researchers.

Final Call for Papers: Systemic Racism in Data Practices IASSIST Quarterly

By IQ Editor

June 14, 2021

Final Call: Systemic Racism in Data Practices Inspired by the work of Black scholars, technologists, and activists including Dr. Safiya Noble, Yeshimabeit Milner, and Joy Buolamwini, IASSIST Quarterly is publishing a special issue focusing on systemic racist practices in data. We invite you to submit a proposal that discusses anti-Blackness, anti-indigeneity, white supremacy, and racism against minoritized and marginalized communities in data, research, tools, and practices. Case studies, essays, book reviews, and articles will be considered.

Editor's notes: Joining language with data and data with data

By Karsten Boye Rasmussen

March 29, 2021

Welcome to the IASSIST Quarterly first issue of 2021 and of volume 45 (IQ 45(1) 2021). I always find it interesting to learn more about other research areas. Often, I find approaches in less well-known areas can be transformed and transferred to my own areas, or make me aware of problems unwisely ignored hitherto and becoming potentials. In the case of the first article, you will become aware of the connection with linguistics from a data viewpoint.

Fellows Report by Mr. Bisi Ajibola – Nigeria

By Bisi Ajibola

March 2, 2021

The IASSIST Africa Chapter Workshop held from 11th to 13th of January 2021 at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda was attended physically and virtually by participants from all over the world. The President of IASSIST, Prof. Sandra Cannon and the President of Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Eastern and Southern Africa were among the international personalities that graced the conference. This justified the universality nature of the workshop by attendance, participation, coverage and delivery.

Fellows Report by Joy Judith Nyangoma – Uganda

By Joy Judith Nyangoma

March 2, 2021

This workshop was held at the College of Computing and Information Sciences within Makerere University with participants attending either physically and virtually. Remember, IASSIST has been in existence for 40 years and still growing higher and higher. Several themes were discussed and each participant, according to their presentations, had put in much effort to share at the Africa Regional Workshop. A presentation by Kofi Dokli took my attention because, as they planted maize and backyard farming of, they also did family backyard farming in cucumber and okra, they also found out variances in the weather between northern and southern Ghana.

Which resources for anti-racism research?

By Michele Hayslett & Nancy Kassam-Adams

January 11, 2021

Hi folks. The short version: A group of IASSIST members has been discussing a project to compile resources useful for anti-racist/anti-racism research. We would like wider input on what type of resource would be most helpful. The longer version: You may remember, my original idea was to compile datasets documenting racism and the Black experience internationally. Then I met Nancy Kassam Adams (virtually), who was working on compiling tools, articles, and rubrics for building anti-racism into the process of working with data across the research lifecycle.

Editor's notes: Sharing open data without risk, and with machine-actionable provenance metadata

By Karsten Boye Rasmussen

December 18, 2020

Welcome to the fourth issue of 2020 and the last issue of volume 44 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 44(4) 2020). At a future time, there might be a special issue of IASSIST Quarterly on ‘Corona data’. Right now, the numbers are rising as we are entering winter, but on the other hand vaccination is around the corner. I hope that only 2020 will be remembered as the year of the Coronavirus, and that 2021 will bring us better times.

CFP for Special Issue: Systemic Racism in Data Practices

By IQ Editor

December 14, 2020

Systemic Racism in Data Practices Inspired by the work of Black scholars, technologists, and activists including Dr. Safiya Noble, Yeshimabeit Milner, and Joy Buolamwini, IASSIST Quarterly is publishing a special issue focusing on systemic racist practices in data. We invite you to submit a proposal that discusses anti-Blackness, antiindigeneity, white supremacy, and racism against minoritized and marginalized communities in data, research, tools, and practices. Case studies, essays, and articles will be considered.

Welcome to the third issue of volume 44 of the IASSIST Quarterly

By Karsten Boye Rasmussen

September 23, 2020

Welcome to the third issue of volume 44 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 44(3) 2020). Transparency is a prerequisite for valid analysis of data. Full disclosure of all aspects of the creation process is necessary for the evaluation of a data collection. The Roper Center has collaborated, assembled and developed standards, and performed scoring of datasets to facilitate the evaluation of data. It is easy to say that all aspects of data collection are important, but with more knowledge about the process of data curation PhD students become aware of how it is important for their research.