Research + Lab Notebooks: Research Data Management Community of Practice Online
Are you curious about organizing your research better? Join us for our first roundtable of the season September 25 from 11 AM - 12 PM on Research and Lab Notebooks.
Notebooks are important records of decision-making, results, and processes during research. Although many researchers still use paper notebooks, electronic tools protect against data loss, enhance searching, and validate findings through permissions and signatures. While McMaster University does not offer dedicated software, we'll hear from researchers across disciplines about how they're making it work with available tools. We'll talk configuring workflows, setting up version control, which tools you avoid, onboarding students and new researchers, and other practical details.
Around the table this month:
- Dr. Sara Andres (Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences) introduces how she's configured OneNote
- Dr. Andrew McArthur (Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences) shares his GitLab setup
- Akacia Propst (The/La Collaborative - Philosophy) discusses a Research Documentation template
- Dr. Andy Roddick (Anthropology) outlines using Obsidian to build connections in a mass of information
Here is the meeting link. Learn more and join the RDM community!
- Date:
- Thursday, September 25, 2025
- Time:
- 11:00am - 12:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Online:
- This is an online event. Event URL will be sent via registration email.
- Audience:
- Open (McMaster + Community)
- Categories:
- Research Data Management
CODE OF CONDUCT: The Sherman Centre and the McMaster University Library are committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for its presenters and participants. As a participant in this session, you agree to support and help cultivate an experience that is collaborative, respectful, and inclusive, as well as free of harassment, discrimination, and oppression. We reserve the right to remove participants who exhibit harassing, malicious or persistently disruptive behaviour. Please refer to our code of conduct webpage for more information.
Danica Evering is a Research Data Management Specialist grounded in curiosity and a deep commitment to ethics. They braid together broad fluency in social practice art, healthcare, community research, data, and systems development to provide comprehensive RDM services. Danica is available to help students, postdocs, faculty, and staff with RDM through the data lifecycle—Data Management Plans, storage and backup, data security, data sharing. Danica fosters active interest in research data management across disciplines, with a knack for engaging researchers who might not even realize they have data to manage. Outside of work they sing in a choir, play PC games, maintain an art writing practice, grow a garden, contribute Wikipedia articles, and run.
Isaac Pratt is a Research Data Management Specialist. Isaac holds a PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology, and has research experience is in biomedical science and social science, specifically in Physics, Biological Anthropology, and Anatomy. He is available to help with any RDM related questions including data management planning, data storage & backup, data security, and data deposit and sharing. Isaac is a member of MREB and can help with questions about data management for ethics and sensitive data.
The Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship supports McMaster students, faculty, and staff, as well as anyone curious about digital scholarship. From research and teaching to training and technical support, we’re here to help bring digital projects to life at every stage!
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