Hélène Draux

Hélène Draux

AI and data science for research | bibliometrics | research evaluation | visualisation | open data | geospatial analytics

United Kingdom
402 followers 382 connections

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About

With academic training across chemistry, geographic sciences engineering, social sciences, and visualisation, I bring a multidisciplinary perspective to the analysis of research. During my time at Digital Science, I have specialised in bibliometrics, approaching data through the lens of research evaluation and applying computational methods to develop new analyses.

I have worked extensively with Dimensions since its launch, gaining deep familiarity with its data and functionality, and regularly use both the API and BigQuery environment to design robust, large-scale studies of research and innovation. My work includes producing static and interactive visualisations, as well as dashboards, to make complex analyses accessible and actionable. I also support colleagues and external partners by training new users in API, BigQuery, and AI methods—including prompt engineering, custom GPTs for research, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and other LLM-based approaches to extend bibliometric analyses.

Beyond project work, I maintain Research musings, a substack where I write about bibliometrics, share applied analyses on diverse research topics, and make methodologies, data, and code openly available. Many contributions feature interactive visualisations—particularly in the data bites series—and my methodological work has ranged from applying machine learning techniques such as topic modelling to, more recently, experimenting with large language models to refine and extend bibliometric analyses.

I thrive in projects that sit at the intersection of research analytics, data engineering, and visualisation, and I enjoy building tools and narratives that help diverse stakeholders make sense of complex research landscapes. My ability to combine technical expertise with clear communication has enabled me to bridge gaps between data, technology, and policy audiences, while advancing open and trusted research.

Specialties
* Bibliometrics & research evaluation: Dimensions, novel indicators, mobility analysis, underfunded areas, research systems
* AI in research analytics: Prompt engineering, custom GPTs for research, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), LLM integration, topic modelling, semantic clustering
* Research & innovation: Open science, data governance, funder classification, research policy
* Databases & data management: BigQuery, SQLite
* Visualisation & communication: Python (Seaborn, Plotly, Matplotlib, Dash), Datawrapper, interactive dashboards (javascript​: d3, openlayers, sigmajs)
* Geospatial analysis: QGIS, Google Maps API v3, long ago

Activity

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Experience

  • Digital Science Graphic

    Data Scientist - Research

    Digital Science

    - Present 8 years 6 months

    London, United Kingdom

  • Code First: Girls

    Code First: Girls

    7 months

    • Code First: Girls Graphic

      Volunteer Instructor - HTML, CSS, javascript

      Code First: Girls

      - 3 months

      London, United Kingdom

    • Code First: Girls Graphic

      Volunteer instructor - python

      Code First: Girls

      - 4 months

      London, United Kingdom

      I taught the python module of the Code First: Girls cursus.

  • IT

    Niños de Guatemala

    - less than a year

  • Data scientist

    Pivigo / Parkinson's UK

    - 2 months

    5-week team project for the charity Parkinson’s UK to find links between and trends among Parkinson’s UK members, volunteers, and service users. I cleaned the datasets, and consolidated the database. I used the resulting data to model the network of users who use their services, found the first contact into the network of services, and mapped the locations of service users. Together, we studied the relationships between people’s use of services and participation into charity work and other…

    5-week team project for the charity Parkinson’s UK to find links between and trends among Parkinson’s UK members, volunteers, and service users. I cleaned the datasets, and consolidated the database. I used the resulting data to model the network of users who use their services, found the first contact into the network of services, and mapped the locations of service users. Together, we studied the relationships between people’s use of services and participation into charity work and other services, and found proxies of user relationships to Parkinson’s.

  • University of Copenhagen Graphic

    Postdoctoral Researcher

    University of Copenhagen

    - 3 years 2 months

    Copenhagen Area, Denmark

    I was responsible for the development of a GoogleMaps-based platform to collect geolocated data, and a leaflet/cartoDB/D3js platform to display the results. I worked in a small team to create a spatially-enabled questionnaire; I designed the concept, coded the website, and designed and administrated the website.
    Reviews & use of smartphone apps for outdoor activities and citizen science projects.
    Methodology lectures in: Nature Perception, Outdoor Recreation Management, webGIS, and Human…

    I was responsible for the development of a GoogleMaps-based platform to collect geolocated data, and a leaflet/cartoDB/D3js platform to display the results. I worked in a small team to create a spatially-enabled questionnaire; I designed the concept, coded the website, and designed and administrated the website.
    Reviews & use of smartphone apps for outdoor activities and citizen science projects.
    Methodology lectures in: Nature Perception, Outdoor Recreation Management, webGIS, and Human movement tracking with smartphone.

  • Trap Danmark Graphic

    Digital management researcher

    Trap Danmark

    - 1 year 2 months

    I was in charge of digital research development.
    I lead the development of a smartphone application in a team with a developer and content writers.
    I worked on text data in Danish, organising the structure of the content and worked on spatial data in Denmark, Greenland and Faeroes.

  • Web Developer

    S+G

    - 3 months

    Copenhagen Area, Denmark

    Developed a survey platform to collect text and geographic data, using GoogleMaps API and the MOVES app. Concept, development, design and API connection. Used by two clients: DTU (Denmark) and WUSL (US).

  • Editorial Assistant (intern)

    Mapping Maternal Subjectivities, Identities and Ethics (MaMSIE)

    - 1 year 3 months

    For Studies in the Maternal, I worked as a Copy-editor, Proofreader, Layout editor, and Wordpress Blog editor.

  • Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University Graphic

    PhD student/Researcher

    Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University

    - 3 years 4 months

    Cities Institute

    Research on participatory GIS and vulnerable open spaces in Portsmouth. The research was embedded in a 7th Framework European funded project: SECOA (http://www.projectsecoa.eu).
    The research involved 150 on-site surveys, 300 participants in one day in the Summer Fair and the coding of the ongoing online survey.
    Scholarship from the VC scheme at LondonMet.

  • Data Analyst

    Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU)

    - 3 months

    In 2012, I mapped the support networks of 96 abused women in the UK, based on interview transcripts. In 2014, I updated the maps with a new wave of interviews. ArcGIS.

  • Telephone Campaign Caller

    Goodenough College / Rux Burton Associates

    - 1 month

    Raising money towards Goodenough College.

  • Database administrator

    The Wildlife Trust

    - 1 month

    Northampton, United Kingdom

    Updates of the countryside GIS database of Northamptonshire, using MapInfo and Access.

  • Technical Consultant

    IGN

    - 1 year 1 month

    Paris

    My job consisted on giving technical advice to public and private organisations about geographic data (on-the-shelf or to be produced by IGN). It involved meeting with the clients, discussing their needs, following their order and liaising with the production, consulting and research departments.

Education

Licenses & Certifications

Volunteer Experience

  • The People's Supermarket Graphic

    Volunteer cashier

    The People's Supermarket

    - 1 year

    I volunteered once a month for 12 months in a cooperative volunteer-led supermarket.

  • Code First: Girls Graphic

    Volunteer teacher

    Code First: Girls

    - 7 months

    Education

    I taught two of the Code First: Girls courses, python and HTML.

Courses

  • Census resources for research by the ESRC Census Programme and the UK Data Archive – 1 day

    -

  • Facilitation Training Day by Talk Action

    -

  • Metadata

    -

  • Open data master class by the University of Nottingham – 1 day

    -

  • QGIS training at GISRUK 2012 by Lutra Consulting – 1 day

    -

Languages

  • English

    Full professional proficiency

  • French

    Native or bilingual proficiency

  • Danish

    Elementary proficiency

Organizations

  • Postgraduate Research Student Society

    Co-funder, conference organiser and on Editorial Board of Metronome

    -

    When starting my PhD in Jan 2010, a small group of three fresh PhD students (including me) felt they needed something to socialise with other PhD students of the Uni and to improve their academic experience. The PGRS society was funded by them on these principles and has been true to them ever since. We firstly organised a couple of social events to get to know other PhD students. Then we organised the first PGRS conference in LondonMet in Nov 2010 and in June 2011 launched Metronome, a…

    When starting my PhD in Jan 2010, a small group of three fresh PhD students (including me) felt they needed something to socialise with other PhD students of the Uni and to improve their academic experience. The PGRS society was funded by them on these principles and has been true to them ever since. We firstly organised a couple of social events to get to know other PhD students. Then we organised the first PGRS conference in LondonMet in Nov 2010 and in June 2011 launched Metronome, a peer-reviewed student-managed journal publishing research students at London Met. I led the organisation of the PGRConf 2011 and helped for PGRConf 2012.

  • Metronome - Peer reviewed journal for research students at LondonMet

    co-funder, Section Editor, Webmaster

    -

    We released two issues and trained students to organise the following issue.

  • University-wide student conference

    Team Leader, webmaster

    -

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