Learning Data Management the Scary Way
What happens when you forget to back up your research data? Or when a tiny mistake in Excel changes your results completely? This autumn, ELIXIR Estonia is taking a playful, but serious look at what can go wrong in data management.
From September to October 2025, ELIXIR Estonia will teach data management through data horror stories. The campaign will run on-site at the University of Tartu Institute of Computer Science and through ELIXIR Estonia’s social media channels.
The spooky themes in focus:
- Documentation and organisation
- Backing up the data
- Data security
- Data loss, leaks & theft
- Excel mistakes and reproducibility
Do you have a personal data horror story that you want to share? To make it even more engaging, we invite the community to share their data horror stories. You can submit your data horror story (anonymously or with credit to yourself). The collected stories will be published on the ELIXIR Estonia homepage, turning mishaps into teaching tools for everyone.
By sharing these cautionary tales, we aim to raise awareness in a fun and memorable way, helping researchers ensure that their own data never ends up as a horror story.