10 Data Science Newsletters To Subscribe To

April 9, 2014 

As a field, data science is moving rapidly, and it can be hard to keep up. With the demise of Google Reader last July, many people lost their favorite way to organize news sources and stay on top of the latest developments.

Newsletters and listservs, however, come straight to your inbox and are a good way of keeping your finger on the pulse of the latest tech news — and, more importantly, delivering to you the news you didn’t know you needed, or that you might have a hard time finding on your own. You’re busy enough staying on top of your own work, so why not let someone else curate the news for you?

Here, in alphabetical order, are some of our favorite newsletters. Some come from event organizers, some from news aggregators, and some from topic-specific news outlets. We’ve found all of these handy, however, as we assemble our blog and try to keep ahead of the latest news. Hopefully you’ll find a similar benefit!

We’ve tried to link directly to subscription pages, but for most, you can sign up for these helpful listservs right from the home page:

  1. BigData-Startups (Weekly) — The weekly newsletter from BigData-Startups offers a collection of the most popular posts from bigdata-startups.com alone, but don’t let that dissuade you. This is solid content that covers a wide range of subjects and goes surprisingly in-depth into each topic. Well worth your time.
  2. Center for Data Innovation (Weekly) — The Center for Data Innovation offers a weekly digest of featured articles and weekly news. My favorite part of the newsletter, and one that makes it stand out from all the others listed here, is its weekly spotlight on the “data visualization of the week” and “data set of the week.”
  3. Data Community DC (Weekly) — Even if you’re not local to the DC-area, this weekly newsletter (born out of a regional meet-up group) is chock full of helpful resources. It provides a quick summary of what’s been posted on the Data Community DC blog in the past week, a summary of upcoming (local) events, and job postings. Even if you’re only in it for the blog posts, you’re sure to find something of interest.
  4. Data Science Central (Weekly) — The weekly digest from Data Science Central is written by Dr. Vincent Granville and features selected discussions from the site, articles written by experts, and forum questions. As the site says, it covers topics such as “visualization, Hadoop, data integration, statistical science, analytics and pure data science.” Note: You’ll have to sign up for a Data Science Central account (free!) to subscribe to the digest, but it will be worth it.
  5. Data Transparency Coalition — News from the Data Transparency Coalition has a—you guessed it—specific focus on the issues and developments in data transparency. That being said, the newsletter is comprehensive, covering hot topics like the DATA Act and Financial Industry Transparency Act and offering short news pieces on recent events in the field. The Data Transparency Coalition also organizes some great events, so be sure to check those out in the sidebar.
  6. DataGotham (Monthly) — DataGotham is New York City’s annual conference that draws together big names in the data science field to discuss some hot-button issues. The rest of the year, the listserv provides a great go-to source for upcoming events and job listings.
  7. DataScienceWeekly (Weekly) — I have to admit I’m a big fan of this newsletter. Every week, this team sends out a wildly comprehensive list of editor picks, data science articles and videos, jobs, updates on training and resources, and even select book reviews. The site is dedicated to providing top-notch content to keep you up to date with the data science field—and as a site that only does one thing, it does that one thing well.
  8. Gary’s Guide (Weekly) — Gary’s Guide is a good look at the who’s who and what’s what of tech. Despite its purported New York City focus, the news reported in each newsletter is national in scope, as are the job listings. If you’re in NYC, you’ll benefit additionally from Gary’s extensive list of local and regional events—often with discounts or free tickets offered for newsletter subscribers.
  9. InsideBIGDATA (Weekly) — the InsideBigData newsletter is written by Rich Brueckner, one ofForbes’ “top 20 most influential people in Big Data.” The newsletter covers the latest “big data” news in addition to collecting thought leadership from industry experts.
  10. KDNuggets (Bimonthly) — KDnuggets News is the digest arm of KDnuggets, one of the most active and prolific data science sites on the web. The newsletter covers “news, software, courses, events, jobs, academic positions, competitions, publications, and more”—pretty much anything you’ll need to know if you’re looking to break into this field or just stay on top of the most recent developments.

What listservs are you on? Any additional news sources we should be following? Let us know in the comments!