The Turing Way: Building a culture of collaboration in Data Science
Creators: name: Sharan, Malvika
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: community, data science, research, inclusive

description: <em>This talk was given at CogX 2020 on 9 June 2020 by Malvika Sharan.</em> <em>The Turing Way</em> is a community-driven book project that involves and supports a diverse research community in ensuring that reproducible and ethical data research is "too easy not to do". It aims to bridge the gap between innovative data research techniques and best practices that make them accessible and comprehensible for everyone. <em>The Turing Way</em> is designed to be welcoming, inclusive and accessible to its members from diverse backgrounds and expertise. It is an open source project, that facilitates all contributions, questions, comments, and discussions via an online repository: https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/the-turing-way. When discussing how to get the next 10 years right, the topic of creating a positive culture of collaboration is undeniably among the top of the list. With the help of The <em>Turing Way</em>, I will discuss the importance of creating a culture that promotes collaboration to ensure the long-term sustainability of our communities. In data science projects, it is required to establish common standards for software, research methods, and dataset for all the collaborators. However, it is equally important that the leaders invest their resources in designing projects that are truly inclusive and supportive of their members. This means that everyone involved in a project or research is given a fair opportunity to 1) develop a common technical understanding of the project, 2) state their expectations from the collaboration, 3) access the resources required in the project, and 4) advance their skills to contribute equitably. It is a very challenging process, especially because these skills are not formally taught to everyone in academia and data research. The Turing Way aims to fill this gap in skills for members interested in data science and leaders who want to create projects that are accessible for their community and team members. Built upon a culture of collaboration, <em>The Turing Way</em> offers learning and teaching resources that help researchers enhance their skills. Since last year, more than 125 researchers have contributed to this project. They have co-authored chapters and developed resources that have been used by the scientific communities worldwide in learning and promoting reproducible methods in AI and computational research. The project has grown from a small team of 10 researchers to a community of collaborators from around the world. The scope of The Turing Way book has also expanded to include the different aspects of reproducibility, project design, collaboration, communication, and ethics in data research. As a live book, it also provides a platform that brings different stakeholders together to read, write, edit, and update its chapters in real-time and collaborate. Contributors are encouraged to bring their perspective into the project, enhance the existing resources or create new ones, and get fairly acknowledged for their work. Intending to create a rewarding opportunity for academics, engineers, industrial research partners, and policymakers, we invite the listeners and readers of this talk to share their skills and resources with a wider research community through this project. <em>The Turing Way</em> welcomes ideas, case studies, impact stories, educational resources, or any sort of participation that individuals can benefit from or use to advance their knowledge in data research.
description: This talk was given at CogX 2020.