The fractured lab notebook: undergraduate and ecological data management training in the United States

Data presented here are those collected from a survey of Ecology professors at 48 undergraduate institutions to assess the current state of data management education. The following files have been uploaded:

Scripts(2):
1. DataCleaning_20120105.R is an R script for cleaning up data prior to analysis. This script removes spaces, substitutes text for codes, removed duplicate schools, and converts questions and answers from the survey into more simple parameter names, without any numbers, spaces, or symbols. This script is heavily annotated to assist the user of the file in understanding what is being done to the data files. The script produces the file cleandata_[date].Rdata, which is called in the file DataTrimming_20120105.R
2. DataTrimming_20120105.R is an R script for trimming extraneous variables not used in final analyses. Some variables are combined as needed and NAs (no answers) are removed. The file is heavily annotated. It produces trimdata_[date].Rdata, which was imported into Excel for summary statistics.

Data files (3)
3. AdvancedSpreadsheet_20110526.csv is the output file from the SurveyMonkey online survey tool used for this project. It is a .csv sheet with the complete set of survey data, although some data (e.g., open-ended responses, institution names) are removed to prevent schools and/or instructors from being identifiable. This file is read into DataCleaning_20120105.R for cleaning and editing.
4. VariableRenaming_20110711.csv is called into the DataCleaning_20120105.R script to convert the questions and answers from the survey into simple parameter names, without any numbers, spaces, or symbols.
5. ParamTable.csv is a list of the parameter names used for analysis and the value codes. It can be used to understand outputs from the scripts above (cleandata_[date].Rdata and trimdata_[date].Rdata).