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

"A Model for Initiating Research Data Management Services at Academic Libraries"

Kevin B. Read et al. have published "A Model for Initiating Research Data Management Services at Academic Libraries" in the Journal of the Medical Library Association.

Here's an excerpt:

Background: Librarians developed a pilot program to provide training, resources, strategies, and support for medical libraries seeking to establish research data management (RDM) services. Participants were required to complete eight educational modules to provide the necessary background in RDM. Each participating institution was then required to use two of the following three elements: (1) a template and strategies for data interviews, (2) a teaching tool kit to teach an introductory RDM class, or (3) strategies for hosting a data class series.

Case Presentation: Six libraries participated in the pilot, with between two and eight librarians participating from each institution. Librarians from each institution completed the online training modules. Each institution conducted between six and fifteen data interviews, which helped build connections with researchers, and taught between one and five introductory RDM classes. All classes received very positive evaluations from attendees. Two libraries conducted a data series, with one bringing in instructors from outside the library.

Conclusion: The pilot program proved successful in helping participating librarians learn about and engage with their research communities, jump-start their teaching of RDM, and develop institutional partnerships around RDM services. The practical, hands-on approach of this pilot proved to be successful in helping libraries with different environments establish RDM services. The success of this pilot provides a proven path forward for libraries that are developing data services at their own institutions.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

FAIRness of Repositories & Their Data: A Report from LIBER’s Research Data Management Working Group

LIBER has released FAIRness of Repositories & Their Data: A Report from LIBER's Research Data Management Working Group.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The report, which can be downloaded from Zenodo, summarises the answers given by managers, librarians and technical staff with regards to:

  1. The FAIRness of repositories and their data;
  2. Misconceptions related to the principles’ definition and implementation;
  3. The complexity of the implementation and the importance of the FAIR principles for the repository community.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Establishing, Developing, and Sustaining a Community of Data Champions"

James L. Savage and Lauren Cadwallader have published "Establishing, Developing, and Sustaining a Community of Data Champions" in Data Science Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Supporting good practice in Research Data Management (RDM) is challenging for higher education institutions, in part because of the diversity of research practices and data types across disciplines. While centralised research data support units now exist in many universities, these typically possess neither the discipline-specific expertise nor the resources to offer appropriate targeted training and support within every academic unit. One solution to this problem is to identify suitable individuals with discipline-specific expertise that are already embedded within each unit, and empower these individuals to advocate for good RDM and to deliver support locally. This article focuses on an ongoing example of this approach: the Data Champion Programme at the University of Cambridge, UK. We describe how the Data Champion programme was established; the programme's reach, impact, strengths and weaknesses after two years of operation; and our anticipated challenges and planned strategies for maintaining the programme over the medium- and long-term.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Virtuous and Vicious Circles in the Data Life-Cycle"

Elizabeth Yakel et al. have published "Virtuous and Vicious Circles in the Data Life-Cycle" in Information Research.

Here's an excerpt:

We address the following research questions:

  • How do different aspects of data production positively and negatively impact other phases in the life-cycle?
  • How do data selection decisions during sharing positively and negatively impact other phases in the life-cycle?
  • How can the work of data curators intervene to reinforce positive actions or mitigate negative actions?

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"A Link Is Not Enough—Reproducibility of Data"

Mateusz Pawlik et al. have published "A Link Is Not Enough—Reproducibility of Data" in Datenbank-Spektrum.

Here's an excerpt:

Although many works in the database community use open data in their experimental evaluation, repeating the empirical results of previous works remains a challenge. This holds true even if the source code or binaries of the tested algorithms are available. In this paper, we argue that providing access to the raw, original datasets is not enough. Real-world datasets are rarely processed without modification. Instead, the data is adapted to the needs of the experimental evaluation in the data preparation process. We showcase that the details of the data preparation process matter and subtle differences during data conversion can have a large impact on the outcome of runtime results. We introduce a data reproducibility model, identify three levels of data reproducibility, report about our own experience, and exemplify our best practices.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"The Administrative Load of Sharing Sensitive Data—Challenges and Solutions?"

Kirsty Merrett et al. have published "The Administrative Load of Sharing Sensitive Data—Challenges and Solutions?" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

Sharing data openly has become a straightforward process at the University of Bristol. The University's top funders mandate or recommend data sharing as a condition of funding, and many publishers require access to research data to enable results of published articles to be verified. The University has provided a dedicated data repository to support this since 2015, and demand for open publication has risen steadily since its inception. However, an increasing number of requests for sharing data relate to data that has ethical, legal or commercial sensitivities and so cannot be published openly.

Rather than discuss the wide-ranging ethical implications of data sharing, this practice paper will focus on the secure sharing of sensitive data that has ethical approval and, where required, has the necessary consent in place, from the perspective of an institution that has already decided to undertake the work inherent in sharing sensitive data. The specific purpose is to detail the workflow and administrative tasks integral in this and to highlight the types of challenges encountered.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"From Passive to Active, from Generic to Focussed: How Can an Institutional Data Archive Remain Relevant in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape?"

Maria J. Cruz et al. have published "From Passive to Active, From Generic to Focussed: How Can an Institutional Data Archive Remain Relevant in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape? " in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

Founded in 2008 as an initiative of the libraries of three of the four technical universities in the Netherlands, the 4TU.Centre for Research Data (4TU.Research Data) has provided a fully operational, cross-institutional, long-term archive since 2010, storing data from all subjects in applied sciences and engineering. Presently, over 90% of the data in the archive is geoscientific data coded in netCDF (Network Common Data Form)—a data format and data model that, although generic, is mostly used in climate, ocean and atmospheric sciences. In this practice paper, we explore the question of how 4TU.Research Data can stay relevant and forward-looking in a rapidly evolving research data management landscape. In particular, we describe the motivation behind this question and how we propose to address it.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Certification for Trustworthy Digital Repositories: "CoreTrustSeal: From Academic Collaboration to Sustainable Services"

Hervé L'Hours et al. have published "CoreTrustSeal: From Academic Collaboration to Sustainable Services" in IASSIST Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

National and international digital repositories must design and deliver sustainable services as a foundation for a range of scientific and data management infrastructures while reducing costs and avoiding duplication of effort. The CoreTrustSeal, launched in 2017, defines requirements and offers core level certification for Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDR) holding data for long-term preservation. This paper traces the journey of the CoreTrustSeal through the Data Seal of Approval (DSA), ICSU World Data System (WDS), Research Data Alliance (RDA) working groups, and community engagement, towards becoming a sustainable service supporting global data infrastructure. We outline the design and delivery of the service, current activities, the benefits of certification to a range of communities, and future plans and challenges. As well as providing a historical narrative and current and future perspectives the CoreTrustSeal experience offers lessons for those developing standards and best practices, or seeking to develop cooperative and community-driven efforts which bridge data curation across academic disciplines and the governmental and private sectors.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Frustrations and Roadblocks in Data Reference Librarianship"

Alicia Kubas and Jenny McBurney have self-published "Frustrations and Roadblocks in Data Reference Librarianship in IASSIST Quarterly."

Here's an excerpt:

As data skills are incorporated into academic curriculum and data becomes more widely available and used in everyday life, many librarians find themselves serving as 'accidental' data librarians in their subject areas. Due to this evolving landscape and growing data need, it is increasingly important for librarians to be familiar with data resources and able to answer secondary data reference questions. To learn more about this area of librarianship, this study uses survey responses from librarians who answer data questions to explore the challenges and frustrations that arise from data reference questions and interactions. Our key findings reveal that frustrations are ever present in data reference regardless of how much experience a librarian has, and many frustrations arise due to factors such as patron expectations, subject-specific and data-related jargon, and data formats and accessibility.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"An Epic Journey in Sharing: The Story of a Young Researcher’s Journey to Share Her Data and the Information Professionals Who Tried to Help"

Sebastian Karcher and Sophia Lafferty-Hess have published "An Epic Journey in Sharing: The Story of a Young Researcher's Journey to Share Her Data and the Information Professionals Who Tried to Help" in IASSIST Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

Sharing data can be a journey with various characters, challenges along the way, and uncertain outcomes. These "epic journeys in sharing" teach information professionals about our patrons, our institutions, our community, and ourselves. In this paper, we tell a particularly dramatic data-sharing story, in effect a case study, in the form of a Greek Drama. It is the quest of—a young idealistic researcher collecting fascinating sensitive data and seeking to share it, encountering an institution doing its due diligence, helpful library folks, and an expert repository. Our story has moments of joy, such as when our researcher is solely motivated to share because she wants others to be able to reuse her unique data; dramatic plot twists involving IRBs; and a poignant ending. It explores major tropes and themes about how researchers’ motivations, data types, and data sensitivity can impact sharing; the importance of having clarity concerning institutional policies and procedures; and the role of professional communities and relationships. Just like the chorus in greek drama provides commentary on the action, a chorus of data elders in our drama points out larger lessons that the case study has for research data management and data sharing. Where actors in the greek chorus were wearing masks, our chorus carries different items, symbolizing their message, on every entry.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"A Bibliometrics Analysis on Big Data Research (2009–2018)"

Zeshui Xu and Dejian Yu have published "A Bibliometrics Analysis on Big Data Research (2009–2018)" in the Journal of Data, Information and Management.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper uses the bibliometric analysis and the visual analysis methods to systematically study and analyze the big data publications included in the Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) databases.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Tiny Data: Building a Community of Practice around Humanities Datasets"

Veronica Ikeshoji-Orlati et al. have published "Tiny Data: Building a Community of Practice around Humanities Datasets" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

Quantitative data, the foundation of scientific research, have been in the foreground of discussions about data creation, curation, and publication pipelines. However, data for humanistic and social scientific inquiries take many forms, including physical and ephemeral primary resources (books, objects, performances, interactions); qualitative, free-form observations; as well as quantitative, structured data and metadata. At the Vanderbilt University Jean and Alexander Heard Library, we started the Tiny Data Working Group (TDWG) in 2016 to tackle some of the humanistic research data creation and curation issues in a constructive, collaborative, and interdisciplinary format. The present paper considers what it means to be FAIR with humanities data, as well as how to build a community of data-literate humanists, based on our experiences with the TDWG.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Remediation Data Management Plans: A Tool for Recovering Research Data from Messy, Messy Projects"

Clara Llebot has published "Remediation Data Management Plans: A Tool for Recovering Research Data from Messy, Messy Projects" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

Data Management Plans (DMPs) have been used in the last decade to encourage good data management practices among researchers. DMPs are widely used, preventive tools that encourage good data management practices. DMPs are traditionally used to manage data during the planning stage of the project, often required for grant proposals, and prior to data collection. In this paper we will use a case study to argue that Data Management Plans can be useful in improving the management of the data of research projects that have moved beyond the planning stage of the research life cycle. In particular, we focus on the case of active projects where data has already been collected and is still being analyzed. We discuss the differences and commonalities in structure between preventive Data Management Plans and remedial Data Management Plans, and describe in detail the additional considerations that are needed when writing remedial Data Management Plans: the goals and audience of the document, the data inventory, and an implementation plan.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap