Version control is a critical skill in modern research, especially as computational analyses and code have become integral to scientific workflows.
This course introduces Git, the most widely adopted version control system, and GitHub, the leading platform for sharing and collaborating on code. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on exercises, participants will learn how to use Git and GitHub to improve project organization, collaboration, reproducibility, and transparency.

This course is intended for researchers, graduate students, and professionals with no prior experience in version control. Familiarity with R and the Linux command line is beneficial but not required.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

1) Understand the fundamentals of version control and its relevance to research.

2) Use Git to manage versions of local projects.

3) Learn how to transition an existing local project to Git

4) Share projects via GitHub and collaborate with others.

5) Apply collaborative workflows, including branching and pull requests.

6) Resolve merge conflicts and review contributions.

7) Adopt best practices for managing research code and documentation.

Day 1 - Introduction to Version Control and Git/GitHub - 3-6 PM Berlin time
Overview of version control and its role in reproducible research
Introduction to Git: core concepts and architecture
Installing and configuring Git
Creating a local Git repository
Recording project history with git add, git commit, git log, and git status
Introduction to GitHub and creating remote repositories
Pushing local changes to GitHub
Using .gitignore to manage files in version control
Practical exercises: setting up and managing a personal project with Git and GitHub

Day 2 - Collaboration and Workflow Best Practices- 3-6 PM Berlin time

Introduction to GitHub collaboration tools: forking, branching, and pull requests
Managing changes and contributing to shared repositories
Reviewing pull requests and resolving merge conflicts
Using GitHub Issues and Projects for task management and communication
Best practices for organizing collaborative research projects
Practical exercises: collaborative editing, conflict resolution, and team workflows
Q&A and discussion of participant-specific use cases

Should you have any further questions, please send an email to info@physalia-courses.org