Category: Data Curation, Open Data, and Research Data Management

LEARN Toolkit of Best Practice for Research Data Management

LEARN has released the LEARN Toolkit of Best Practice for Research Data Management.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

For research performing organisations, this deluge of data presents many challenges in areas such as policy and skills development, training, costs and governance. To help address these issues, today LEARN is publishing the final draft of its Toolkit of Best Practice for Research Data Management.

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A Tour of the Research Data Management (RDM) Service Space. The Realities of Research Data Management, Part 1

OCLC Research has released A Tour of the Research Data Management (RDM) Service Space. The Realities of Research Data Management, Part 1.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Realities of Research Data Management is a four-part series that explores how research universities are addressing the challenge of managing research data throughout the research lifecycle.

In this introductory report, we provide some brief background on the emergence of RDM as a focus for research support services within higher education, and present a simple framework describing three major components of the RDM service space:

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"On the Reuse of Scientific Data"

Irene V. Pasquetto, Bernadette M. Randles, and Christine L. Borgman have published "On the Reuse of Scientific Data" in Data Science Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Data sharing practices, especially motivations and incentives, have received far more study than has data reuse, perhaps because of the array of contested concepts on which reuse rests and the disparate contexts in which it occurs. Here we explicate concepts of data, sharing, and open data as a means to examine data reuse. We explore distinctions between use and reuse of data. Lastly we propose six research questions on data reuse worthy of pursuit by the community: How can uses of data be distinguished from reuses? When is reproducibility an essential goal? When is data integration an essential goal? What are the tradeoffs between collecting new data and reusing existing data? How do motivations for data collection influence the ability to reuse data? How do standards and formats for data release influence reuse opportunities? We conclude by summarizing the implications of these questions for science policy and for investments in data reuse.

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"Practices of Research Data Curation in Institutional Repositories: A Qualitative View from Repository Staff"

Dong Joon Lee and Besiki Stvilia have published "Practices of Research Data Curation in Institutional Repositories: A Qualitative View from Repository Staff" in PLOS ONE.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The importance of managing research data has been emphasized by the government, funding agencies, and scholarly communities. Increased access to research data increases the impact and efficiency of scientific activities and funding. Thus, many research institutions have established or plan to establish research data curation services as part of their Institutional Repositories (IRs). However, in order to design effective research data curation services in IRs, and to build active research data providers and user communities around those IRs, it is essential to study current data curation practices and provide rich descriptions of the sociotechnical factors and relationships shaping those practices. Based on 13 interviews with 15 IR staff members from 13 large research universities in the United States, this paper provides a rich, qualitative description of research data curation and use practices in IRs. In particular, the paper identifies data curation and use activities in IRs, as well as their structures, roles played, skills needed, contradictions and problems present, solutions sought, and workarounds applied.

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A Snapshot of Open Data and Open Science Policies in Europe

SPARC Europe and the DCC have released A Snapshot of Open Data and Open Science Policies in Europe.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This report is the first in a series that will seek to shed light on similarities and differences in Open Data and Open Science policies between European nations, and to assess their effectiveness in opening research data.

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"The Landscape of Research Data Repositories in 2015: A re3data Analysis"

Maxi Kindling et al. have published "The Landscape of Research Data Repositories in 2015: A re3data Analysis" in D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

This article provides a comprehensive descriptive and statistical analysis of metadata information on 1,381 research data repositories worldwide and across all research disciplines. The analyzed metadata is derived from the re3data database, enabling search and browse functionalities for the global registry of research data repositories. The analysis focuses mainly on institutions that operate research data repositories, types and subjects of research data repositories (RDR), access conditions as well as services provided by the research data repositories. RDR differ in terms of the service levels they offer, languages they support or standards they comply with. These statements are commonly acknowledged by saying the RDR landscape is heterogeneous. As expected, we found a heterogeneous RDR landscape that is mostly influenced by the repositories' disciplinary background for which they offer services.

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"Data Science Programs in U.S. Higher Education: An Interview with the Authors"

Rong Tang and Watinee Sae-Lim are featured in "Data Science Programs in U.S. Higher Education: An Interview with the Authors," a video article, in the Journal of eScience Librarianship. A transcript of the interview is also available.

Here's an excerpt:

Their exploratory content analysis of 30 randomly selected Data Science (DS) programs from eight disciplines revealed significant gaps in current DS education in the United States. These findings have implications for improving DS education in iSchools and across other disciplines.

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"Data Curation Network: How Do We Compare? A Snapshot of Six Academic Library Institutions’ Data Repository and Curation Services"

Lisa R. Johnston et al. have published "Data Curation Network: How Do We Compare? A Snapshot of Six Academic Library Institutions’ Data Repository and Curation Services" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

Methods: Each institutional lead provided a written summary of their services based on a previously developed structure, followed by group discussion and refinement of descriptions. Service areas assessed include the repository services for data, technologies used, policies, and staffing in place.

Conclusions: Through this process we aim to better define the current levels of support offered by our institutions as a first step toward meeting our project's overarching goal to develop a shared staffing model for data curation across multiple institutions.

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"A Pilot Competency Matrix for Data Management Skills: A Step toward the Development of Systematic Data Information Literacy Programs"

Megan R. Sapp Nelson has published "A Pilot Competency Matrix for Data Management Skills: A Step toward the Development of Systematic Data Information Literacy Programs" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

This article describes a significant innovation upon existing competencies by identifying a scaffolding (built upon existing competencies) that moves students progressively from undergraduate training through post graduate coursework and research to post-doctoral work and into the early years of data stewardship. The scaffolding ties together existing research that has been completed in research data management skills and data information literacy with research into the outcomes that are desirable for individuals to present in data management at each of the levels of education. Competencies are aligned according to application (personal, team, research enterprise) in such a way that the skills attained at the undergraduate level give students moving on to graduate work greater familiarity with data management and therefore greater likelihood of success at the graduate and then post graduate and data steward levels.

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"Building a Research Data Management Service at the University of California, Berkeley"

Jamie Wittenberg and Mary Elings have self-archived "Building a Research Data Management Service at the University of California, Berkeley."

Here's an excerpt:

University of California, Berkeley's Library and the central Research Information Technologies unit have collaborated to develop a research data management program that leverages each organization’s expertise and resources to create a unified service. The service offers a range of workshops, consultation, and an online resource. Because of this collaboration, service areas that are often fully embedded in IT, like backup and secure storage, as well as services in the Library domain, like resource discovery and instruction, are integrated into a single research data management program..

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"Research Data Services in European Academic Research Libraries"

Carol Tenopir et al. have published "Research Data Services in European Academic Research Libraries" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

Research data is an essential part of the scholarly record, and management of research data is increasingly seen as an important role for academic libraries. This article presents the results of a survey of directors of the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER) academic member libraries to discover what types of research data services (RDS) are being offered by European academic research libraries and what services are planned for the future. Overall, the survey found that library directors strongly agree on the importance of RDS. As was found in earlier studies of academic libraries in North America, more European libraries are currently offering or are planning to offer consultative or reference RDS than technical or hands-on RDS. The majority of libraries provide support for training in skills related to RDS for their staff members. Almost all libraries collaborate with other organizations inside their institutions or with outside institutions in order to offer or develop policy related to RDS. We discuss the implications of the current state of RDS in European academic research libraries, and offer directions for future research.

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"Fostering Effective Data Management Practices at Leiden University"

Peter Verhaar have published "Fostering Effective Data Management Practices at Leiden University" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

To actively promote the stewardship of all the research data that are produced at Leiden University, a comprehensive, institution-wide programme was launched in 2015, which centrally aims to encourage its researchers to carefully plan the temporal storage, long-term preservation and potential reuse of their data. This programme, which is managed centrally by the Department of Academic Affairs, and which receives important contributions from academic staff, from Leiden University Libraries, and from the University’s central ICT organisation, basically consists of three parts. Firstly, a basic central policy has been formulated, containing clear guidelines for activities before, during and after research projects. . . . As a second part of the data management programme, faculties have organised workshops and meetings, concentrating on the rationale and on the technical and organisational practicalities of effective data management in order to bring about a discipline-specific protocol. . . . Thirdly, to ensure that scholars can genuinely make a reasoned selection among the many tools that are currently available, a central catalogue was developed which lists and characterises the most relevant data management services.

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"Updating the Agenda for Academic Libraries and Scholarly Communications"

Clifford Lynch has published "Updating the Agenda for Academic Libraries and Scholarly Communications" in College & Research Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

This issue of C&RL is focused on scholarly communication, and it seems appropriate, in this invited guest editorial, to step back and examine the broader agenda that academic and research libraries need to consider today in engaging with scholarly communications as a way of framing the issue. My view is that this agenda is ripe for re-thinking. The overall environment has changed significantly in the last few years, underscoring the growing irrelevance of some long-held ideas, and at the same time, clearly identifying new and urgent priorities. What I hope to do here is to summarize very succinctly my thoughts on the most pressing issues and the areas most needing reconsideration. Articles in this issue touch upon aspects of many of these topics; I hope that future authors may also find topical inspirations here.

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"Librarians’ Perspectives on the Factors Influencing Research Data Management Programs"

College & Research Libraries has released an e-print of "Librarians' Perspectives on the Factors Influencing Research Data Management Programs."

Here's an excerpt:

This qualitative research study examines librarians' research data management (RDM) experiences, specifically the factors that influence their ability to support researchers' needs. Findings from interviews with 36 academic library professionals in the United States identify 5 factors of influence: 1) technical resources, 2) human resources, 3) researchers' perceptions about the library, 4) leadership support, and 5) communication, coordination, and collaboration. Findings show different aspects of these factors facilitate or constrain RDM activity. The implications of these factors on librarians' continued work in RDM are considered.

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W3C: Data on the Web Best Practices

W3C has released Data on the Web Best Practices.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

W3C is delighted to publish its Data on the Web Best Practices as a Recommendation. The document offers 35 Best Practices for sharing data, openly or not, in a way that maximizes the potential of the Web as a data platform rather than simply as a way to send data from A to B. The Best Practices are prescriptive in their intended outcomes but not in how those outcomes are achieved. They cover everything from the basics (provide metadata!) through nuance (provide structural metadata), to topics like licensing, provenance and basic information on providing APIs through to more advanced topics like data archiving, data enrichment and republishing data.

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PLOS: Response to NIH RFI—Strategies for NIH Data Management, Sharing, and Citation

PLOS has released Response to NIH RFI—Strategies for NIH Data Management, Sharing, and Citation.

Here's an excerpt:

We write to express the views of the Public Library of Science, a fully Open Access Publisher of seven Research Journals, in response to your RFI on Data Sharing, Management, and Citation. Open access to Research Articles is just the first step in what we consider should be the end state for all publicly funded research, and we support broader efforts towards open science. We are developing our own policies to help establish a new norm in which upon publication of a journal article, if not before, all of the underlying data (where ethically appropriate) is openly available to access and reuse without restriction according to the FAIR principles for data management to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable.

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"A Metadata-Driven Approach to Data Repository Design"

Matthew J. Harvey, Andrew McLean, and Henry S. Rzep have published "A Metadata-Driven Approach to Data Repository Design" in the Journal of Cheminformatics.

Here's an excerpt:

The design and use of a metadata-driven data repository for research data management is described. Metadata is collected automatically during the submission process whenever possible and is registered with DataCite in accordance with their current metadata schema, in exchange for a persistent digital object identifier. Two examples of data preview are illustrated, including the demonstration of a method for integration with commercial software that confers rich domain-specific data analytics without introducing customisation into the repository itself.

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"Preserving Transactional Data"

Sara Day Thomson has published "Preserving Transactional Data" in The International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper discusses requirements for preserving transactional data and the accompanying challenges facing the companies and institutions who aim to re-use these data for analysis or research. It presents a range of use cases—examples of transactional data—in order to describe the characteristics and difficulties of these 'big' data for long-term access. Based on the overarching trends discerned in these use cases, the paper will define the challenges facing the preservation of these data early in the curation lifecycle. It will point to potential solutions within current legal and ethical frameworks, but will focus on positioning the problem of re-using these data from a preservation perspective.

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"Uniform Resolution of Compact Identifiers for Biomedical Data"

Sarala Wimalaratne et al. have self-archived "Uniform Resolution of Compact Identifiers for Biomedical Data."

Here's an excerpt:

We report here on significant further work by our team toward making compact identifiers available for long-term use in an ecosystem supporting formal citation of primary research data. This approach is intended to be robust beyond the operational and funding scope of any one organization, enabling long-term resolution of cited persistent data in archives. We demonstrate that multiple resolvers with fundamentally different underlying code bases, organizational settings and international alignments, can readily support this approach. As part of this project we have deployed public, production-quality resolvers using a common registry and rules model. This harmonizes the work of n2t.net, based at the California Digital Library (CDL), University of California Office of the President, and identifiers.org, based at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). Both resolvers, while derived from independently developed code bases, with different features and objectives, can now uniformly resolve compact identifiers according to our rule set, using a set of common procedures and redirection rules. We believe these products and our approach will be of significant help to publishers and others implementing persistent, machine-resolvable citation of research data in compliance with emerging science policy body recommendations and funder requirements.

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"A Data Citation Roadmap for Scientific Publishers"

Helena Cousijn et al. have self-archived "A Data Citation Roadmap for Scientific Publishers."

Here's an excerpt:

This article presents a practical roadmap for scholarly publishers to implement data citation in accordance with the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles (JDDCP), a synopsis and harmonization of the recommendations of major science policy bodies. It was developed by the Publishers Early Adopters Expert Group as part of the Data Citation Implementation Pilot (DCIP) project, an initiative of FORCE11.org and the NIH BioCADDIE program. The structure of the roadmap presented here follows the 'life of a paper' workflow and includes the categories Pre-submission, Submission, Production, and Publication. The roadmap is intended to be publisher-agnostic so that all publishers can use this as a starting point when implementing JDDCP-compliant data citation.

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"The Research Life Cycle and the Health Sciences Librarian: Responding to Change in Scholarly Communication"

Andrea M. Ketchum has published "The Research Life Cycle and the Health Sciences Librarian: Responding to Change in Scholarly Communication" in the Journal of the Medical Library Association.

Here's an excerpt:

With so many areas within the librarian’s scope of expertise, it is not surprising that some medical libraries employ research life cycle analysis for strategic planning. Using a localized model, librarians can map resources and services to research tasks or needs specific to their institutions, highlighting the capabilities of their librarians to better attract and serve researchers. . . .

The clinical research life cycle, however, is more complex. A model must incorporate additional components for clinical studies and account for longer time frames, especially for multifaceted clinical trials or multicenter studies.

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COAR Survey of Research Data Management: Results

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories has released the COAR Survey of Research Data Management: Results.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Research data management is wide ranging and there are already many organizations active in this area. In December 2016, COAR conducted a survey in order to get a better understanding of the needs of our members in the area of research data management.

There were 43 responses to the survey from around the world. Just over half of respondents are already collecting research data, and about 80% of those who are not yet collecting data indicated that they intend to do so in the coming year.

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Version 7 of the Research Data Curation Bibliography Released

Digital Scholarship has released Version 7 of the Research Data Curation Bibliography. This selective bibliography includes over 620 English-language articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding the curation of digital research data in academic and other research institutions.

The Research Data Curation Bibliography covers topics such as research data creation, acquisition, metadata, provenance, repositories, management, policies, support services, funding agency requirements, peer review, publication, citation, sharing, reuse, and preservation.

Most sources have been published from January 2009 through December 2016; however, a limited number of earlier key sources are also included. The bibliography includes links to freely available versions of included works. If such versions are unavailable, links to the publishers' descriptions are provided.

Abstracts are included in this bibliography if a work is under a Creative Commons Attribution License (BY and national/international variations), a Creative Commons public domain dedication (CC0), or a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark and this is clearly indicated in the work.

The Research Data Curation Bibliography is under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Open Research Funders Group Launched

The Open Research Funders Group has been launched.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Eight highly-visible organizations today announced the launch of the Open Research Funders Group, a partnership designed to increase access to research outputs. With nearly $5 billion in combined annual grants conferred, these organizations are committed to using their positions to foster more open sharing of research articles and data. This openness, the members believe, will accelerate the pace of discovery, reduce information-sharing gaps, encourage innovation, and promote reproducibility.

Inaugural members of the Open Research Funders Group (ORFG) include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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Senate Unanimously Passes OPEN Government Data Act

The US Senate has passed the OPEN Government Data Act.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act, legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai'i) and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). The bipartisan bill will require public data to be accessible at Data.gov so individuals, organizations, and other government offices can utilize it.

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