Using Spreadsheets to Organize Data

Good data organization is the foundation of any research project. Most researchers have data in spreadsheets, so it’s the starting place for many research projects. To use tools that make computation and analysis more efficient, such as programming languages like R or Python, we need to structure our data the way that computers need the data. This workshop aims to teach researchers basic concepts, skills, and tools for working with data to get more done quickly and with less pain. In this lesson, you will learn good data entry practices, how to avoid common formatting mistakes, approaches for handling dates in spreadsheets, basic quality control and data manipulation, and exporting data from spreadsheets. 

Instructor: Meghan Landry