1. Week 1 Learning and Application Notebook 9.14.22 - aboatwr/R4R GitHub Wiki

What did you learn this week?

My main takeaways from the first couple of weeks are:

1. The importance of generating a data management plan before you start working with the data
  • I have noticed the importance of a data management plan in my own research before, mostly from trail and error. It can get really messy if I dont manage the data correctly from the start.
    • Some methods that I know of to manage data are:
    • Think about where the data should be stored and take into account the size of the data, who else is going to be using it, and what is easily accessible.
    • Once you have decided where the data should be stored, set up a folder system that has clear labels. There should be a folder for the raw data and one for clean data.
    • Save data in each step of your analysis. Each time I make a meaningful change to the data I like to save a copy so that I can go back and reference it easily.
  • I hope that we talk about this more in coming weeks because I still feel like quite a beginner in terms of data management and data management plans.
2. Helicopter Research and Ethics Dumping
  • Lydia's presentation was very thought provoking.
  • Part of the reason I chose to study economics was because I wanted to work on policy evaluation projects, specifically in developing countries. Many large and small NGO's and non-profits implement poverty alleviation policies and programs in developing countries but have yet to report on their effectiveness. I have heard and read many studies that find that many of these programs have been largely ineffective and possibly detrimental to local communities. The common error of the ineffective programs roots in the fact that the policy makers failed to spend significant time in the country and/or talking to local officials. I think that the ideas of helicopter research and ethics dumping are becoming more well-known within this field but we still have a long way to go.
  • While I am no longer so intent on doing poverty alleviation policy evaluation, I am interested in doing some research in the realm of environment/development economics in the future and a lot of that research involves going to other countries and running randomized control trails or collecting data from local officials which can be susceptible to these problems.
  • I am not directly involved in research that could qualify as helicopter research, I want to keep in mind Lydia's points on helicopter research and ethic dumping for my future research.
  • Once we get the slides from her presentation I'll save some of those links that she shared to resources.
  • I think I want to create a list of questions/protocols for research that involves indigenous populations or other countries so that I can avoid doing helicopter research and ethics dumping.
3. Github Wiki's
  • I have never used a GitHub wiki before so the tutorial was super helpful. I am really new to GitHub overall, so I am excited to learn this tool.

How did you apply/try to apply what you learned?

I tried to apply what I learned about open science to my research team by creating a README in our GitHub which describes the data I am using for my analysis. I included details on:

  • date span
  • spatial span (which countries are in the dataset)
  • source (link to the source)
  • file name
  • file location
  • other data specific notes

I am hoping this will be more helpful down the line when I write the paper and if any of my collaborators want more details on the data.

I also re-organized the file structure of my code and data files so that its much clearer to navigate for myself and my collaborators/advisor who might be looking at my work.

What were your successes?

  • creating my first GitHub Wiki
  • from what I learned in the GitHub wiki tutorial I figured out how to create a README file in GitHub subfolders, which I had never thought of doing before

What were your challenges?

  • I dont think I had any big challenges the last couple of weeks. Some of the terminology, like "metadata", was new to me and I had to do some googling but other than that I really enjoyed the lectures and thinking about how to apply what I learned to my research.

What will you do next?

  • create more detailed data management plans for current research projects
  • create/lookup a checklist to avoid helicopter research and ethics dumping
  • think about how I can use GitHub more effectively for my research needs

How could what you learned be applicable to your research/lab/department?

  • I haven't published any papers yet (it isn't common for Economic PhD's to publish any papers until later in their degree or early in their first position), but I think as I begin dissertation research it will be really important for me to learn these skills now and save all these resources so that I can apply them when the time comes.