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

"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

"DiiS: A Biomedical Data Access Framework for Aiding Data Driven Research Supporting FAIR Principles"

Priya Deshpande et al. have published "DiiS: A Biomedical Data Access Framework for Aiding Data Driven Research Supporting FAIR Principles " in Data (CC BY 4.0).

Here's an excerpt:

In this paper, we introduce and describe an abstract framework that models these ideal [FAIR] goals, and could be a step toward supporting data driven research. We also develop a system instantiated on our framework called the Data integration and indexing System (DiiS). The system provides an integration model for making healthcare data available on a global scale. Our research work describes the challenges inhibiting data producers, data stewards, and data brokers in achieving FAIR goals for sharing biomedical data. We attempt to address some of the key challenges through the proposed system. We evaluated our framework using the software architecture testing technique and also looked at how different challenges in data integration are addressed by our system. Our evaluation shows that the DiiS framework is a user friendly data integration system that would greatly contribute to biomedical research.

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

"ARL White Paper on Wikidata Highlights Use of Open Knowledge in Scholarly Communication, Special Collections"

ARL has released "ARL White Paper on Wikidata Highlights Use of Open Knowledge in Scholarly Communication, Special Collections."

Here's an excerpt:

Librarians are using Wikidata's structured data about people, topics, concepts, and objects to populate open source faculty profiling systems, to enhance bibliographic records in online catalogs, and to collaborate with communities on meaningful, culturally relevant, descriptive metadata for special collections and archives. The white paper, circulated for public comment in fall 2018, contains examples of Wikidata applications, screenshots, and recommendations for involvement on an individual or organizational level.

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

"Cold Storage Data Archives: More Than Just a Bunch of Tapes"

Bunjamin Memishi et al. have self-archived "Cold Storage Data Archives: More Than Just a Bunch of Tapes."

Here's an excerpt:

The abundance of available sensor and derived data from large scientific experiments, such as earth observation programs, radio astronomy sky surveys, and high-energy physics already exceeds the storage hardware globally fabricated per year. . . . While high-performance data analytics has received much attention from the research community, the growing number of problems in designing and deploying cold storage archives has only received very little attention.

In this paper, we take the first step towards bridging this gap in knowledge by presenting an analysis of four real-world cold storage archives from three different application domains. In doing so, we highlight (i) workload characteristics that differentiate these archives from traditional, performance-sensitive data analytics, (ii) design trade-offs involved in building cold storage systems for these archives, and (iii) deployment trade-offs with respect to migration to the public cloud.

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

Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2018

Ithaka S+R has released the Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2018.

Here's an excerpt:

In this seventh triennial cycle, we surveyed a random sample of faculty within the United States on topics from previous cycles, including information discovery and access, data management, research dissemination, perceptions of student research skills, and the value of the library. We also added new questions on emerging topics of interest, including open educational resources, learning analytics, and evolving scholarly communication models.

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

"Data Stewardship Week in an Academic Library: An Overview"

Caitlin Harrington et al. have published "Data Stewardship Week in an Academic Library: An Overview" in College & Research Libraries News..

Here's an excerpt:

In the information age, data stewardship is crucial for individual and organizational productivity. It is easy to get overwhelmed by vast amounts of information being created every second. Information overload has become a common occurrence in the workplace to the extent that people "spend more time searching for the right information, leaving them less time for proper analyses using the acquired information." Thus, the excess of information in the workplace can lead to stress, lack of productivity, and information fatigue.

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

"Teaching Research Data Management for Students"

Cord Wiljes and Philipp Cimiano have self-archived "Teaching Research Data Management for Students."

Here's an excerpt:

Sound skills in managing research data are a fundamental requirement in any discipline of research. Therefore, research data management should be included in academic education of students as early as possible. We have been teaching an interdisciplinary full semester's course on research data management for six years. We report how we established the course. We describe our competency-based approach to teaching research data management and the curriculum of topics that we consider essential. We evaluate our approach by a survey done among the participants of the course and summarize the lessons we learned in teaching the course.

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

"Ten Principles for Machine-Actionable Data Management Plans"

Tomasz Miksa et al. have published "Ten Principles for Machine-Actionable Data Management Plans" in PLOS Computational Biology.

Here's an excerpt:

Data management plans (DMPs) are documents accompanying research proposals and project outputs. DMPs are created as free-form text and describe the data and tools employed in scientific investigations. They are often seen as an administrative exercise and not as an integral part of research practice.

There is now widespread recognition that the DMP can have more thematic, machine-actionable richness with added value for all stakeholders: researchers, funders, repository managers, research administrators, data librarians, and others. The research community is moving toward a shared goal of making DMPs machine-actionable to improve the experience for all involved by exchanging information across research tools and systems and embedding DMPs in existing workflows. This will enable parts of the DMP to be automatically generated and shared, thus reducing administrative burdens and improving the quality of information within a DMP.

This paper presents 10 principles to put machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs) into practice and realize their benefits. The principles contain specific actions that various stakeholders are already undertaking or should undertake in order to work together across research communities to achieve the larger aims of the principles themselves. We describe existing initiatives to highlight how much progress has already been made toward achieving the goals of maDMPs as well as a call to action for those who wish to get involved.

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

"Implementing Publisher Policies That Inform, Support and Encourage Authors to Share Data: Two Case Studies"

Leila Jones, Rebecca Grant, and Iain Hrynaszkiewicz have published "Implementing Publisher Policies That Inform, Support and Encourage Authors to Share Data: Two Case Studies" in Insights.

Here's an excerpt:

Open research data is one of the key areas in the expanding open scholarship movement. Scholarly journals and publishers find themselves at the heart of the shift towards openness, with recent years seeing an increase in the number of scholarly journals with data-sharing policies aiming to increase transparency and reproducibility of research. In this article we present two case studies which examine the experiences that two leading academic publishers, Taylor & Francis and Springer Nature, have had in rolling out data-sharing policies. We illustrate some of the considerations involved in providing consistent policies across journals of many disciplines, reflecting on successes and challenges.

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

Report on the Survey of Digital Data Management Practices at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

Boris Radosavljevic et al. have self-archived Report on the Survey of Digital Data Management Practices at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Here's an excerpt:

The GeoDataNode project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) conducted a survey of data management practices at GFZ. The aim was to assess the state of current practices and needs, and their alignment to institutional and national guidelines for data management. The target audience included scientific and technical employees at all levels. A response rate of 24% of the target demographic was achieved. The survey revealed a general need for improvement and structuring of research data handling. This includes provision of adequate storage space, back-up schedules, and the familiarization of young researchers with good scientific practice.

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

"Too Many Tags Spoil the Metadata: Investigating the Knowledge Management of Scientific Research with Semantic Web Technologies"

Samantha Kanza, Nicholas Gibbins, and Jeremy G. Frey have published "Too Many Tags Spoil the Metadata: Investigating the Knowledge Management of Scientific Research with Semantic Web Technologies" in the Journal of Cheminformatics.

Here's an excerpt:

Previous studies of Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) in academia and industry have identified semantic web technologies as a means for organising scientific documents to improve current workflows and knowledge management practices. In this paper, we present a qualitative, user-centred study of researcher requirements and practices, based on a series of discipline-specific focus groups. We developed a prototype semantic ELN to serve as a discussion aid for these focus groups, and to help us explore the technical readiness of a range of semantic web technologies. While these technologies showed potential, existing tools for semantic annotation were not well-received by our focus groups, and need to be refined before they can be used to enhance current researcher practices.

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

"Intelligent Infrastructure, Ubiquitous Mobility, and Smart Libraries—Innovate for the Future"

Yi Shen has published "Intelligent Infrastructure, Ubiquitous Mobility, and Smart Libraries—Innovate for the Future" in Data Science Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper presents an empirical research on the strategic development of a large-scale transdisciplinary area, named Intelligent Infrastructure for Human-Centered Communities or IIHCC, in the institutional context of Virginia Tech. . . . . Within such developments, this study discusses the developing scenarios of "smart" libraries as innovative testbeds for data exploration, community knowledge base, and intelligent information interface. It further projects an intelligent, learning, and adaptive library system, featuring exemplary data science platform and dynamic data management mechanism, smart design and innovation space, as well as collective intelligence and creative partnership. During this extraordinary time of horizon change, this timely work informs academic library transformation and its architectural innovation in the age of "smartness."

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