Collection
Finding and using publicly available data
A curated set of online courses
Time to complete:
> 3 hours
This course includes:
Written by:
Last reviewed:
January 2024
All materials are free cultural works licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, except where further licensing details are provided.
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Sharing knowledge and data in the life sciences allows us to learn from each other and built on what others have discovered. This collection of online courses brings together a variety of training, covering topics such as biocuration, open data, restricted access data and finding publicly available data, to help you discover and make the most of publicly available data in the life sciences.
Who is this course for?
This collection is for anyone with an interest in starting to use publicly available life sciences data. It brings together online learning from EMBL-EBI on the topic of publicly available data and includes videos developed by HDR UK. No prior knowledge of bioinformatics is required, but undergraduate level knowledge of biology would be useful.
A Q&A webinar based upon this collection took place on 2 November 2022. The recording is now available here to watch - Finding and using publicly available data Q&A session.
This collection was developed as part of ELIXIR CONVERGE project.
What will I achieve?
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- Explain what publicly available data is
- Discuss the difference between FAIR and open
- Find publicly available life sciences data
- Recognise rules around data use
- Describe the role of trusted research environments
- Recall the role of metadata in the use of publicly available data
- Know where to find out more about submitting data to EMBL-EBI
What resources do I need?
There are no specific resources required to complete this course.
DOI:
10.6019/TOL.PublicDataCollection-t.2022.00001.1
Course contents
How and when to access the course
All our courses are designed with flexibility in mind. You can access them for free at any time, just click on the "Enter Course" button.
It is up to you how you use the course; you can either study the full course or you can focus on sections that are relevant to you. To jump between sections, use the navigation bar on the left or the arrows at the bottom of the page. You can also choose whether to complete the course in one go, or over several visits.
The average time to read through the main body of the course is 3 hours (not including exercises and external links). The time may vary depending on your prior knowledge and how you choose to work through the course.
Sign up to track your learning and more
You can track your progress and keep a record of any completed learning by creating an account. This will give you a 'My learning' page, which will have three main tabs to help keep track of your progress:
Favourite: To add online tutorials to your Favourite tab, you can 'Mark as Favourite' on the front page of online tutorials, allowing you to return and complete them in the future.
In progress: The courses which you have started reading will be added to your 'In progress' tab. Use the 'Mark as complete' button at the end of the course pages to get started.Your ‘In progress’ tab gets updated as you progress through the course and will show you what percentage of the course you have finished and will let you resume the course from where you left on your last visit.
Completed: The courses which you have finished entirely will be added to the 'Completed' tab.
The results you gain from completing quizzes and other interactive content will also be added to your My learning page.
You can register anytime here or click a 'Favourite' or 'Mark as complete' button to start tracking your progress.
You can still access all the online tutorials and interactive content if you do not register, but you will not be able to track your progress.
Making the most of the course
Learning something new takes time and practice. We encourage you to:
- Use the activities and quizzes to help you check your learning, recall and apply key concepts. Look out for these icons
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Activities
Quizzes
Videos- Revisit sections as and when you need them. Bookmark relevant pages in your browser or use the navigation panel to jump the relevant section.
Getting help and providing feedback
If something isn’t working or if you have a question get in touch by contacting us at trainonline@ebi.ac.uk
Tell us what you thought about the course (both good and bad!) using the “Feedback and help” button found at the top of each page.
Your feedback helps us ensure we are providing training that is relevant and useful for you.
For help and support on EMBL-EBI resources you can contact the helpdesk directly.
Learn more
You can explore other training on offer from EMBL-EBI on our website. We offer online courses, webinars, face-to-face courses and offsite training.