Data curation primers are peer-reviewed, living documents that detail a specific subject, disciplinary area or curation task and that can be used as a reference to curate research data. The links below are to the live, editable copies in GitHub while archived pdf versions are available in the DCN repository.
All primers have been licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 license. We invite and welcome contributions and corrections to existing primers.
We also welcome new primers! Reach out with an idea, and use our public primer template to get started.
Authors of primers include archivists and data librarians who attended the 2018-2020 Specialized Data Curation Workshops presented by the Data Curation Network (IMLS RE-85-18-0040-18).
| Accessibility Data Primer | Creators: Emily Oxford, Rachel Woodbrook, and Brandie Pullen Mentor: Wendy Kozlowski |
| Applying and Interpreting Licenses for Research Data and Code | Creators: Lisa Chinn, Matthew Murray 🦇, and Isaac Wink. Mentor: Jennifer Huck |
| ArcGIS Pro Project Package (PPKX) Data Curation Primer | Creators: Jamie Martindale, Aditya Ranganath, Amy Work, and Melinda Kernik Mentor: Melinda Kernik |
| Archaeology Data Primer | Creators: Maria Arteaga Cuevas, Rachel Fernandez, and Hollis Wittman Mentor: Sophia Lafferty-Hess |
| Acrobat PDF Primer | Creators: Peace Ossom-Williamson, Nicole Contaxis, Margaret Lam and Adam Kriesberg Mentor: Jake Carlson |
| Audiovisual Data Curation Primer | Creators: Madina Grace, Meg Jerrild, and Lauren Phegley Mentor: JA Pryse |
| ATLAS.ti Primer | Creator: Margarita Corral Affiliated contributor: Hannah Hadley Mentor: Dave Fearon |
| CARE Data Principles, Indigenous data, Data related to Indigenous Peoples and Interest | Creators (in alphabetical order): Sarah Barsness, Jewel Cummins, Maria Victoria Fernandez, Ann Myatt James, Katie Pierce Farrier, Jonathan Pringle, Stephanie Russo Carroll, Riley Taitingfong, Alex Wieker Mentors: Wanda Marsolek, Shanda Hunt |
| Clinical Trials Data Primer | Creators: Liliana Gonzalez, Mikala Narlock, Shawna Taylor Mentors: Jen Darragh and Sophia Lafferty-Hess |
| Column Binary Data Primer | Creators: Jessica Ko and Kelsie Norek Mentors: Wendy Kozlowski and Neggin Keshavarzian |
| Confocal Microscopy Image Primer | Creators: Susan Ivey, Amy Koshoffer, Gretchen Sneff and Huajin Wang Mentor: Lisa Johnston |
| Consent Forms Primer | Creators: Shanda Hunt, Alicia Hofelich Mohr and Rachel Woodbrook |
| Databases Primer | Creator: Xuying Xin Mentor: Dave Fearon |
| FITS Primer | Creators: Lubov McKone, Robyn DeRocchis, and Rebecca Orozco Mentor: Rachel Woodbrook |
| Genetic Data Curation Primer | Creators: Laura Bowman, Shannon Sheridan, Briana Wham, and Sarah Wright Mentor: Sarah Wright |
| Geodatabase Primer | Creators: Andrew Battista, Tom Brittnacher, Zenobie Garrett, Jennifer Moore and Carrie Pirmann Mentor: Mara Blake |
| GeoJSON Primer | Creators: Nadia Dixson, Genevieve Milliken, Keshav Mukunda, Reina Murray and Rachel Starry Mentor: Mara Blake |
| GeoTIFF Primer | Creators: Courtney Kearney, Nick Ruhs, Mara Sedlins, Tracy Tien, Jessica Trelogan and John Watts Mentor: Jennifer Moore |
| Google Docs Primer | Creators: Nadia Dixson and Adam Kriesberg Mentor: Sophia Lafferty-Hess |
| Human Participants Data Essentials Primer | Creators: Jen Darragh, Alicia Hofelich Mohr, Shanda Hunt, Rachel Woodbrook, Dave Fearon, Jennifer Moore and Hannah Hadley |
| Interdisciplinary and Highly Collaborative Research (IHCR) Data Primer | Creators: Inna Kouper, Andrew M. Johnson, Jordan Wrigley, and Aditya Ranganath Mentors: Neggin Keshavarzian and Mikala Narlock |
| ISO Images Primer | Creators: Kate Barron and Jonathan Bohan Mentor: Cynthia Hudson Vitale |
| Jupyter Notebooks Primer | Creators: Daina Bouquin, Sophie Hou, Matthew Benzing and Lee Wilson Mentor: Susan Borda |
| Mass Spectrometry Primer | Creators: Brian Westra, Ye Li, Nick Ruhs, and Leah Rae McEwen Mentors: Lisa Johnston and Wendy Kozlowski |
| Matlab Primer | Creators: Sam Sciolla and Susan Borda |
| Microsoft Access Primer | Creators: Fernando Rios Mentor: Dave Fearon |
| Microsoft Excel Primer | Creators: Greg Janée, Sandra Sawchuk and Ho Jung Yoo Mentor: Wendy Kozlowski |
| Neuroimaging DICOM and NIfTI Primer | Creators: Michael Moore, Brandon Patterson, Sara Samuel, Helenmary Sheridan, Chris Sorensen Mentor: Joel Herndon |
| netCDF Primer and Tutorial using an NCAR dataset | Creator: Sam Sciolla, Susan Borda and Sophie Hou |
| NVivo Primer | Creator: Hannah Hadley Affiliated contributor: Margarita Corral Mentor: Dave Fearon |
| OpenRefine Primer | Creators: Heather Charlotte Owen, Aditi Thite, Peyton Tvrdy Mentor: Sophia Lafferty-Hess |
| Oral History Interviews Primer | Creators: J.A. Pryse, Matthew Harp, Sara Mannheimer, Wanda Marsolek and Wind Cowles Mentor: Lisa Johnston |
| Python Data Curation Primer | Creators: Megan Sheffield, Jonathan Hernandez, Justin de la Cruz and Kaypounyers Maye Mentor: Erich Purpur |
| Qualitative Data Primer | Creators: Diana Castillo, Heather Coates, Mikala Narlock Mentor: Shanda Hunt |
| R Primer | Creators: Lynda Kellam, Katherine Koziar and Stanislav Pejša Mentor: Joel Herndon |
| SAS Primer | Creator: Qiong Xu Mentor: Jen Darragh |
| Sensitive Biodiversity Data Essentials Primer | Creators: Jen Jordan, Carlos Ramirez-Reyes, Shawna Taylor, Joanna Thielen, and Briana Wham Mentor: Shawna Taylor |
| Simple Darwin Core for Non-Biologists Primer | Creators: Megan N. O’Donnell and Leslie M. Delserone Mentor: Jake Carlson |
| SPSS Primer | Creators: Sai Deng, Joshua Dull, Jeanine Finn and Shahira Khair Mentor: Sophia Lafferty-Hess |
| STL Primer | Creators: Elizabeth Blackwood, Doug Joubert and James Sobczak Mentor: Jennifer Moore |
| Tableau Primer | Creators: Christine Malinowski and Trisha Adamus Mentor: Wendy Kozlowski |
| Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Primer | Creators: Courtney Dalton, Emily Kilcer, Katie Walpole, and Sarah Swanz Mentors: Sarah Swanz and Mikala Narlock |
| TIFF Data Curation Primer | Creators: Leah Everritt, Jen Ferguson, and Emily Simpson Mentor: Jon Wheeler |
| Twitter Primer | Creators: Marley Kalt and Dorris Scott Mentor: Wendy Kozlowski |
| WordPress.com Primer | Creator: Heather James Mentor: Lisa Johnston |