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Foundational Open Science Skills (FOSS)

Foundational Open Science Skills

A self-paced course in the open-science skills every researcher needs — from FAIR data and the command line to Git, containers, HPC, and the cloud.

Start lesson 1 Before you start All lessons Source on GitHub

  • Course information

    Accounts and software to set up first, the schedule of the last live offering, the code of conduct, and a glossary of terms.

    Get ready

  • Open science and data

    What open science is and why it matters, then FAIR and CARE data, data management plans, licenses, and documentation.

    Lessons 1–2

  • Talking to machines

    Command the Unix shell and write scripts, then prompt large language models effectively and responsibly.

    Lessons 3–4

  • Reproducibility

    Version control with Git and GitHub, shareable software environments with Conda, and Docker containers.

    Lessons 5–7

  • High-performance computing

    Log in to a cluster, submit Slurm jobs, load modules, and run containers with Apptainer.

    Lesson 8

  • CyVerse cloud computing

    Store and share data in the CyVerse Data Store and run analysis apps in the Discovery Environment.

    Lesson 9

  • Capstone project

    Apply a FOSS skill to your own research project and share what you learned with your peers.

    Plan your capstone

  • About and AI agents

    Credits, how to contribute, and how agents can read this course through llms.txt and OKF frontmatter.

    About this site

FOSS was created by CyVerse at the University of Arizona; this UNM CARC edition adapts it under CC BY 4.0. See Credits and attribution for authors, funding, and how to cite the course.

What you will be able to do

  • Organize your lab's communication, teaching, and research around open-source tools.
  • Manage research data through its whole life cycle.
  • Make your analyses reproducible with version control, software environments, and containers.
  • Scale computations from your laptop to cloud and high-performance computing systems.
  • Join a larger community of open-science practitioners and advocate for open science in your field.

Each lesson stands on its own, but they build on one another. Along the way, the capstone project asks you to "level up" the openness of one of your own projects.

Browse the course

  • Course information - Setup, the dated schedule, code of conduct, and glossary.
  • Lessons - Nine core lessons from open science to remote computing, plus extras.
  • Capstone project - Apply a FOSS skill to your own work and present it.
  • About this site - Credits, contributing, guidance for AI agents, and the update log.