October 2024 Newsletter

_newsletters/2024-10-10-newsletter.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: October 2024 Newsletter
+editor: Robert Chisholm
+slug: 2024-10-10-newsletter
+date: 2024-10-10T12:00:00Z+0100
+tags:
+category:
+link:
+description:
+type: text
+---
+
+## The University of Sheffield Research Software Engineering Community Newsletter October 2024
+
+Welcome to the October 2024 newsletter for the research software community at The University of Sheffield, featuring
+news, opportunities, events and training for you.
+
+### News
+
+- The University Library has collected [the experiences of staff involved in creating and using Open Educational Resources (OER)](http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/open-access/open-educational-resources/oer-case-studies)
+- Users of BEDE and other EPSRC Large Scale Facilities (LSF) are encouraged to respond to [UKRIs LSF user survey](https://engagementhub.ukri.org/epsrc-researchinfrastructure/lsfusersurvey).
+- [Recordings of sessions from OpenFest 2024](https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.c.7465654) are now available to watch back online.
+
+### Events
+
+#### Upcoming Local Events
+
+- SheffieldR User Group is hosting hybrid weekly [hackathons throughout October on Fridays](https://sheffieldr.github.io/posts/2024-10/) for those participating in HacktoberFest 2024.
+- [CMI Town Hall](https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/machine-intelligence/events/shefai-community-meeting-8) (Weds 16th Oct) Eighth CMI community and networking event.
+- Open Access Week: Oct 21st-25th is International Open Access Week, and the university library is hosting a [programme of events](https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/open-access/open-access-week-2024) to explore the value and possibilities of open access scholarship.
+    - Tues Oct 22nd 1-1.30pm - White Rose University Press - A bitesize introduction. [Book your place here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/white-rose-university-press-a-bitesize-introduction-tickets-1029731543767)
+- Open Research Conversation's [Autumn-Winter Schedule](https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/openresearch/events/open-research-conversations) has now been announced with 5 Wednesday lunchtime events from October through February.
+    - Weds Oct 23rd 12-1pm - Beyond open access: Democratising knowledge through accessible research outputs. [Book your place here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beyond-open-access-democratising-knowledge-through-accessible-outputs-tickets-1028028971327).
+
+#### Upcoming External Events
+
+- [pyOpenSci Fall Festival 2024](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pyopensci-fall-festival-2024-registration-1000762657047) (Oct 29th - Nov 1st) - A week of events to empower scientists to write better code and share their outcomes openly.
+- [UK Technology Specialists Network Conference](https://itss.org.uk/uk-technology-specialists-network-conference-2025/) April 29-30th 2025
+- [Cambridge RSE Seminar series](https://rse.group.cam.ac.uk/seminars) Thursday's 1pm (currently scheduled till Dec 5th)
+    - [Open source research software project life cycles: understanding project maturity successes, and challenge events](https://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/219982) (Thurs Oct 17th 1pm)
+
+
+### Articles, Blogs, Papers & Podcasts
+
+#### Articles & Blogs
+
+- [Dual licensing R packages with code and data](https://epiverse-trace.github.io/posts/data-licensing.html)
+- [Technical Properties of Sustainable Software](https://bssw.io/blog_posts/technical-properties-of-sustainable-software)
+
+
+#### Papers
+
+- [2024] [Research Software Engineering: Bridging Knowledge Gaps](https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagRep.14.4.42)
+- [2024] [Understanding and effectively mitigating code review anxiety](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10664-024-10550-9)
+- [2024] [A Vision on Open Science for the Evolution of Software Engineering Research and Practice](https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.12132)
+- [2024] [Just Enough Software Engineering for Domain Scientists in Research Software Development](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10603285)
+- [2023] [The replication crisis has led to positive structural, procedural, and community changes](https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-023-00003-2)
+
+#### Podcasts
+
+- Code for Thought - [Bonus: Green Computing at RSECon24](https://codeforthought.buzzsprout.com/1326658/episodes/15766448-en-bonus-green-computing-at-the-rse-conference-2024-in-newcastle)
+
+### Training
+
+#### At Sheffield
+
+**FAIR<sup>2</sup>**
+
+The [FAIR<sup>2</sup> for Research Software Training Programme](https://rse.shef.ac.uk/training/fair4rs/) has been developed
+by the RSE, Data Analytics Service and Library teams and will be launched in October. An introduction to the programme
+will be given in a [LunchBytes session 2024-10-22](../events/lunchbytes-2024-10-22.html). The full syllabus is now live on [MyDevelopment](https://mydevelopment.csod.com/ui/lms-learning-details/app/curriculum/06573f55-12e4-44f1-be4c-fac5ea9d6851) (requires login).
+
+**Sheffield Bioinformatics Core**
+
+The Sheffield Bioinformatics Core is pleased to announce a schedule of courses for the new academic year. These courses provide an introduction to the R programming language, Unix environment (required for the use of the University's High Performance Computing facilities) and also specific applications in RNA-sequencing.
+You can now sign-up for these courses using myDevelopment (search for "bioinformatics"). Course charges still apply, and upon sign-up we will contact you for a valid grant code or cost centre. In-person attendance is encouraged, but online options are also available.
+
+- Data Manipulation and Visualization - October 28th, 30th and November 1st 13:00 - 16:00 - (£72 for students and £80 for staff)
+- Introduction to RNA-seq analysis - November 12th 13:00 - 16:00 (£32 for students and £40 for staff)
+Introduction to the Command-Line for Bioinformatics - November 27th 13:00 - 16:00 (£32 for students and £80 for staff)
+- Introduction to RNA-seq analysis in R - December 1st, 3rd and 5th 13:00 - 16:00 (£72 for students and £80 for staff)
+
+Where multiple dates are listed, you will need to attend all dates. You can also find more information on these course on their website (https://sbc.shef.ac.uk)
+
+#### Outside Sheffield
+
+- [SSI Software Practices in the Social Sciences programme](https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/ssi-announces-research-software-practices-social-sciences-programme) - A new programme of 1-hour workshops covering topics such as Relational Databases, Reproducible Analysis and Data Cleanup for Social Scientists.
+- [UK Data Service](https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/) provide access to a wide range of reusable social sciene data, and training to enable researchers to make the most of it.
+    - Mon Oct 14th 10am - [Introduction to synthetic data for longitudinal data managers](https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/events/introduction-to-synthetic-data-for-longitudinal-data-managers/)
+    - Mon 10th 10am - [Safe Researcher Training](https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/events/safe-researcher-training-67/)
+    - [and more...](https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/training-events/)
+    - with recordings of past trainings available on their [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/ukdataservice)
+
+### Funding Opportunities
+
+- [FAIR-IMPACT's 3rd call](https://fair-impact.eu/3rd-open-call-route-2-support-opens-30-sept), deadline 4th Dec, hopes to fund applicants in four areas
+    - Managing data types, schemas and vocabularies and crosswalks for FAIR researcher related metadata (in partnership with FAIRCORE4EOSC)
+    - Creating EOSC compliant interoperability policies based on the EOSC Interoperability Framework (IF)
+    - Testing the trustworthy and FAIR-enabling repositories prototype
+    - Implementation of a shared API for semantic catalogues
+#### Jobs
+
+There are two positions within the University of Sheffield currently being advertised.
+
+- 
+
+Check for advertised RSE and RSE-adjacent roles at the [RSE society's vacancies
+board](https://society-rse.org/careers/vacancies/).
+
+### Community
+
+#### Digital Research Practice Support Community
+
+The DRPS community is a group for people that support researchers in carrying out research in the digital age. Meetings
+are held monthly, with discussions around events, training and opportunities related to the field.
+
+You can join the google group
+[here](https://groups.google.com/u/1/a/sheffield.ac.uk/g/digital-research-practice-support-community-group/about) to
+stay informed.
+
+The next meeting is scheduled for 2pm on Wednesday 18th September 2024.
+
+#### LunchBytes
+
+[LunchBytes](https://rse.shef.ac.uk/community/lunch-bytes/) are short talks from the research community on research
+software, data, and infrastructure.
+
+##### LunchBytes needs YOU
+
+LunchBytes are organised by and for the research software community at The University of Sheffield. If you'd like to
+curate a session on a topic or present something, get in touch by emailing
+[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or suggest topics
+[on the jamboard](https://jamboard.google.com/d/1-51cRf0pwZl8O10CnLeJGAqKcnbww-QGaYjszFK-H38/).
+
+### Support
+
+#### Code Clinics
+
+Why not come to a [Code Clinic](https://rse.shef.ac.uk/support/code-clinic/)? We're keen to help you.
+
+Code Clinics are fortnightly supported sessions run by the RSE team and IT Services’ [Research
+IT](https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/it-services/research) team. They are open to anyone at TUoS writing code for research to
+get help with programming problems and general advice on best practices.
+
+At each session, members of the RSE and/or Research IT teams will be available to review code, advise, troubleshoot, and
+suggest ways to improve your computational workflows.
+
+#### Research IT HPC Drop In
+
+HPC Drop-In sessions are providing assistance with HPC related user issues such as challenges in scaling an application
+from desktop to supercomputer. We are considering extending the number of our sessions to two or three weekly. These
+interactive sessions could provide a better interface with our users than our non-interactive ticketing system. These
+sessions are advertised on the [HPC mailing list](https://groups.google.com/u/1/a/sheffield.ac.uk/g/hpc).
+
+#### Research IT Consultations
+
+Alongside the HPC Drop-In sessions, Research IT are also running one to one consultations to solve in depth user
+specific problems. These consultations can be booked via our webpage. If you are interested please visit the following
+link: <https://students.sheffield.ac.uk/it-services/research>.
+
+## Sheffield RSE Team
+
+The Sheffield RSE Team aims to [collaborate](https://rse.shef.ac.uk/collaboration/) with you to help improve your
+research software. They can [provide dedicated staff](https://rse.shef.ac.uk/collaboration/provision/) to ensure that
+you can deliver excellent research software engineering on your research projects.
+
+## Research IT
+
+[Research IT](https://students.sheffield.ac.uk/it-services/research) directly supports research, both academic and
+commercial.  We provide large scale HPC systems, advice on everything from statistics to ML to data pipelines and
+training for both students and staff.
+
+Working with academics, our staff are embedded within research groups on both long and short term engagements.