Between 23-27 September 2019, Carlos visited the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool. It is a medium-size group but with an amazing number of PhD students. Guess? 29! That’s a large number.  Indeed, I was surprised that there was not even standing room for the weekly debrief meeting! So, let’s say it is a big group that covers a wide range of interesting topics, from demography and population, to cities and econometrics, to spatial analysis. As said in the website, the group “works at the intersection between Data Science and Geography”.

And that was precisely my main motivation to visit them: to find synergies between their Geographic Data Science master and modules and my own interest on reproducibility teaching/research. It is pretty clear the critical role that reproducibility plays in science and the scientific process; however, it is less clear the potential benefit that reproducibility might bring in classroom. How can reproducibility practices be put in place in geographic data science courses?

To shed some light to the question, I enjoyed  vivid conversions with Daniel Arribas-Bel and Francisco Rowe . Daniel is senior lecture in charge of the Geographic Data Science module. I was pleased to attend his introductory lecture to an audience of 150 students. With Francisco, I discussed the pros and cons of reproducible papers from the viewpoint of journal editors and/or conference organisers. The “Reproducible Publications at AGILE Conferences – Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers” was well received and I only wish it serves as a basis to creating guidelines in other venues and journals.

Beautiful city + amazing hosts = a successful research visit

Many thanks GSDL people!