Why Wiki?
Why do I use wiki for research?
Motivation
What I used to do
Problems?
Did you receive this?
No I didn't. Send it again
Sorry I forgot to attach this file!
See this file for this analysis & see that file for that analysis.
I'm on zoom. What table are you looking at now?
Can you include this variable to this table & send me again today?
See attached. This is version 3 of today's summary!
Imagine you have to dig through these emails, looking for results that were revised multiple times after many months.
Or maybe you end up with a pile of printouts, hopelessly looking for the "right" table.
Wiki comes in & saves my life
What I do with wiki
Must assume that the future you won't remember anything about the project!
Describe what I was given
Study design
Subjects
Datasets:
How many data files are involved?
When data files were received? When data files were updated?
Outcomes, variables, the number of obs
Describe what I did in every phase of analysis
Data integrity
Data management
How multiple datasets were merged?
How many subjects were eventually used?
Derived variables and how they were defined
If necessary, include your code/syntax in wiki
Can include equations using LaTeX notations, like $L(\boldsymbol{\theta})= \prod_{i=1}^n f(y_i|\boldsymbol{\theta})$
Demographic tables, descriptive statistics
Descriptions of statistical models
Model building/specification, model diagnostics
Supplementary analyses
Keep meeting logs
There will be many meetings during a project. Keep meeting logs.
Meeting logs may include:
Attendants
To do list and reminders
Change of plan
Next meeting date
Keep the log to CYA in case something goes wrong
Other benefits
Accessibility
Content management
Nested hierarchy of contents
One front page for each research project
Can create multiple wiki pages branching from there
Not so easy in Google Docs
A wiki page has different levels of headlines
TOC automatically generated on a page based on headlines
Forces to think a logical way to present results
Preserve page history
Reproducibility
Security issues
For security purposes, may need to prepare a user account for every collaborator.
DokuWiki has an easy way to manage user groups and access control.