CIVICA
Data Science Seminar Series

The Data Science Seminar series is a multi-disciplinary series in applications and methodologies of data science focused on applications to the social, political, and economic world. Its aim is to allow researchers to share original, new work or work in progress in order to get methodological or technical comments and suggestions. The focus on the early stage work can potentially lead to collaborations both across partner institutions and with the institutions of invited speakers (if different). This will also differentiate the series from regular research seminars in partner institutions.

Shared among the partner institutions of the CIVICA network, this series directly addresses the data science research stream of the CIVICA initiative.

We recognise that methodological and technical skills are heterogeneous, and that many disciplinary traditions are represented across partner institutions. Our focus will be on recruiting speakers working in data science within a particular field, but focusing on problems that are general enough to be of board interest across other fields. We expect that there will be considerable overlap between those presenting and those commenting on work in this series.

We also understand that talking about work in progress is more sensitive than presenting a completed work in a seminar, so one possibility is to make this more appealing is to ensure the meeting is 'closed' in some way, for example, in terms of the information participants may talk about freely outside the meeting.

Culturally, we aim to make these methodological discussions in a collegiate, non-threatening environment. Hence, privacy and gentility in commentary are important. The series will publish a code of conduct and ask all participants to agree to that code prior to participating.

Initially the series will start with a regular monthly slot (e.g. first Wednesday of the month at 16.00 Central European Time) across regular academic year, i.e. approximately 10 meetings in a year. The number of meetings can be expanded with the increase of partner institutions.

During COVID19 travel restrictions, the series will take place online (e.g. using MS Teams or Zoom). The series can subsequently be moved to in-person meetings rotating across partner institutions or a hybrid system (in-person with online streaming). The cost of the meeting in this setting will be covered by CIVICA or the partner institution.

Schedule of speakers will be done in discussion between partner institutions, with each partner nominating equal number of speakers in proportion to the number of scheduled seminar slots for the year. Nomination of next year’s speakers and scheduling should be complete before the end of the current year’s seminar series.

The seminar series may follow two formats.

In the first, the presentation is structured as a discussion of work circulated and read prior to the meeting taking place. In this “reading seminar” format, authors circulate a brief note or their draft paper beforehand, as well as possible discussion points on which they are seeking feedback, such as how to measure a key concept, find data on a particular topic, or identify the strengths and weaknesses of a particular method, tool, or research design. The authors are welcome to present this during the meeting to start the discussion and the group then jointly discusses this aspect of the problem. When circulating the materials, the authors also mention what they would like to get out of the discussion, which helps to streamline the conversation on the day.

The second format would be more of a classical seminar where new work is presented, and is followed by a Q&A session.

The series would alternative between the two formats, making adjustments based on feedback from the first term of experience with the two formats.

The intended advantages for the author are a) to discuss their work with an audience outside their immediate subfield, and b) to get focussed comments and suggestions on a part of their work that, while important, would normally be secondary to and in the background of their normal research process. The intended advantage for the audience is a) to be exposed to more of the research happening across partner institutions and beyond, b) to identify new and interesting methodological and technical challenges in perhaps unfamiliar substantive areas, and c) create opportunities for research collaborations.

If you are a researcher at one of the institutions within the CIVICA network, information should be made available by the coordinator at your institution. Alternatively, you can sign up for the newsletter below to keep up-to-date about the seminar series.