Synthesis Skills for Early Career Researchers (SSECR; [SEE-ker]) is a course organized by the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. This course aims to address the need for more comprehensive interpersonal and data skills in ecology. You can find more information on SSECR at the LTER Network page for the course.
Some specific course priorities include:
We hope this course is useful to you and encourage you to use these materials! If you do use these materials, please use the following citation:
Lyon, N.J., Kappel, C., Elmendorf, S., Kui, L., Maurer, G. E., De La Rosa, G., & Downs, M. (2025). Synthesis Skills for Early Career Researchers (SSECR) (v1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16969471
So far, the code facets of this course are taught primarily in R. Specific R packages are described and loaded in each module as they are needed but to quickly ensure that you have most of the needed packages, feel free to copy and run the following code. Note that if you do not already have the librarian package, you’ll need to un-comment the first line and install it before running the second line. Packages are in alphabetical order
# install.packages("librarian")
librarian::shelf(cowplot, exactextractr, lterdatasampler, maps, psych, sf, supportR, terra, tidyverse)
The downloaded binary packages are in
/var/folders/sf/4vjm4zs50sq4_rpvjy_08nl80000gn/T//Rtmpd8EAHO/downloaded_packagesCourse participants meet for two hours, weekly, at the same time each week. Each session covers a module (linked in the sidebar on the left of this page) that includes a blend of technical and interpersonal skills relevant for inclusive synthesis and team work on the chosen group projects.
Project groups will also meet at a time of their own choosing to work on projects. Project mentors are encouraged to participate in work sessions at least 4 times throughout the year.
Course participants meet for three hours, weekly, at the same time each week. Sessions alternate between hands-on instruction in technical and soft skills that are relevant for inclusive synthesis and team work on the chosen group projects.
Each three-hour session will include 2 components:
Project groups will also meet at a time of their own choosing to work on projects. Project mentors are encouraged to participate in work sessions at least 4 times throughout the year.
All dates are in 2026. Icon legend: Interpersonal Skill Expert | Technical Skill Expert. Instructor order reflects order of content within each module.
| Date | Module | Primary Instructors |
|---|---|---|
| 9 / 10 | 1. Synthesis Team Fundamentals | Nick Lyon Marty Downs (TBD) Carrie Kappel (TBD) |
| 9 / 17 | 2. Project Documentation & Organization | Nick Lyon Sarah Elmendorf Li Kui |
| 9 / 24 | 3. Reproducible & Successful Teams | Nick Lyon Carrie Kappel |
| 10 / 01 | 4. Group Dialogue & Data Searches | Carrie Kappel Li Kui |
| 10 / 08 | 5. Qualities of Good Meetings & Data Logs | Carrie Kappel Marty Downs |
| 10 / 15 | 6. Visualizing Data & Project Scope | Sarah Elmendorf Nick Lyon Marty Downs |
| 10 / 22 | 7. Plan the Work | Marty Downs Nick Lyon |
| 10 / 29 | 8. Build Consensus & Do Quality Control | Carrie Kappel Nick Lyon |
| 11 / 05 | 9. Tools for Meetings & Data Wrangling | Carrie Kappel Nick Lyon |
| 11 / 12 | 10. Intellectual Credit | Marty Downs |
| 11 / 19 | 11. Group Stats Presentations | / SSECR Participants! |
| 11 / 26 | No Class! | – |
| 12 / 03 | 12. Making Reports & Websites | Marty Downs Nick Lyon |
| 12 / 10 | 13. Looking Ahead & Spatial Data | Marty Downs Nick Lyon |
| 12 / 17 | 14. Share the Story | TBD |
| TBD | Final Project Symposium | SSECR Participants! |
| TBD | Presentations on LTER Community Call | SSECR Participants! |
| Date | Module | Primary Instructor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 9/5/24 | Version Control | Nick Lyon; Angel Chen |
| 9/16-20/24 | Reproducibility Best Practices | Nick Lyon |
| 10/3/24 | Data Discovery & Management | Li Kui; Marty Downs |
| 10/17/24 | Team Sciences Practices | Marty Downs; Carrie Kappel |
| 10/31/24 | Inclusive Facilitation | Carrie Kappel |
| 11/14/24 | Data Visualization & Exploration | Sarah Elmendorf; Nick Lyon |
| 12/5/24 | Project Management | Marty Downs |
| 12/19/24 | Supporting Divergent, Emergent, and Convergent Thinking | Carrie Kappel |
| 1/16/25 | Data Wrangling | Nick Lyon |
| 1/30/25 | Authorship & Intellectual Credit | Marty Downs |
| 2/13/25 | Canceled | |
| 2/27/25 | Analysis & Modeling | Nick Lyon |
| 3/13/25 | Next Steps & Logic Models | Marty Downs |
| 3/27/25 | Communicating Findings | Gabriel de la Rosa |
| 4/10/25 | Reproducible Reports | Nick Lyon |
| 4/24/25 | Bonus Module / Optional Prep | TBD |
| 5/8/25 | Optional Prep | TBD |
| 5/22/25 | Final Project Symposium | SSECR Participants! |
| 5/28/25 | Public Presentations on LTER Community Call | SSECR Participants! |
If you get sick, observe a religious holiday unaccounted for by the SSECR schedule, have to miss class for an interview, or simply don’t think you can handle class on a given day, please email the course instructors as early as possible to let us know that you won’t be in class with a (brief) explanation. This will help us to share resources we’ll cover in class with you and plan for a smaller in-class community while you are out. Our hope is that this course will be somewhere you want to attend, but we totally understand that you have many demands on your time and sometimes life happens!
Please keep in mind that your presence in and contributions to class are important both to your understanding of the material and the creation and maintenance of an in-class community.
We are committed to creating a course that is inclusive in its design. If you encounter barriers, please let the instructors know immediately so that we can determine if there is a design adjustment that can be made or if an accommodation might be needed to overcome the limitations of the design. We are always happy to consider creative solutions as long as they do not compromise the intent of the learning activity. We welcome feedback that will assist us in improving the usability and experience for all students.
You provided a name when you first applied to be a part of the course but we will gladly honor your request to be addressed by an alternate name. We will also use whichever pronouns you identify with. Please advise us of your pronouns and/or chosen name early in the course so that we can ensure that we treat you respectfully throughout the course.
Group work is a significant part of this course explicitly in the synthesis project facet as well as implicitly by the collaborative nature of many of the modules. We expect that you will be mutually respectful with one another both in and outside of class time. We will ask you questions during the course and during class is also an ideal time for you all to ask us questions that you have on course topics or policies. We don’t believe that “dumb questions” exist, and expect that you treat your peers’ questions with the respect you’d like your questions to be with. We will learn more together in an environment where we build one another up than we would in one where we fail to support one another.