Data Services: More than just numbers

“Being able to provide timely support to improve research quality at UVA brings me incredible joy.”- Marieke Jones
 

This article was written by Marieke Jones, Ph.D., and edited by Kimberley Barker.

Since joining the Data Services department (Data @ HSL) in the Health Sciences Library in 2017, Dr. Marieke Jones has assisted patrons with a variety of data-related needs. In addition to teaching popular open enrollment workshops for R (a programming language for statistical computing), Marieke consults on a wide range of data questions in R, GraphPad Prism, Excel, and SPSS. While most of her consultations involve the data analysis portion of the research lifecycle (see below), Marieke finds that an increasing number of patrons seek her out for assistance in properly presenting data in their draft manuscripts. For example, patrons are now consulting her for information on writing their methods section, creating compelling tables, and responding to reviewer feedback about statistical results.

While conducting proper data analyses is a service widely-associated with Data Services, Data @ HSL staff can also assist in understanding the equally-important process of clearly and concisely communicating methods and results sections; over the past year, Marieke has assisted with the production of nine manuscripts. Marieke is a firm believer that research is a team sport, and she is proud to provide quantitative and statistical expertise both for the analyses and for the publications that are the face of the research. 

If you are working on a manuscript and would like an additional pair of eyes on the methods or results sections, please reach out to request your own consultation!