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

"Dissertations and Data"

Joachim Schöpfel et al. have self-archived "Dissertations and Data."

Here's an excerpt:

The keynote provides an overview on the field of research data produced by PhD students, in the context of open science, open access to research results, e-Science and the handling of electronic theses and dissertations. The keynote includes recent empirical results and recommendations for good practice and further research. In particular, the paper is based on an assessment of 864 print and electronic dissertations in sciences, social sciences and humanities from the Universities of Lille (France) and Ljubljana (Slovenia), submitted between 1987 and 2015, and on a survey on data management with 270 scientists in social sciences and humanities of the University of Lille

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"Fostering Open Science Practice through Recognising and Rewarding Research Data Management and Curation Skills"

Joy Davidson has self-archived "Fostering Open Science Practice through Recognising and Rewarding Research Data Management and Curation Skills."

Here's an excerpt:

Researchers will need to acquire new research data management and curation skills that enable them to undertake a broader range of tasks along the entire research lifecycle—from undertaking new means of collaboration, to implementing data management and sharing strategies, to understanding how to amplify and monitor research outputs and to assess their value and impact. In parallel, information professionals who work to support researchers and the open science process will also need to expand their research data management and curation skillsets. It will be equally important that current recognition and reward systems are amended to reflect the application of such skillsets within a range of disciplines. This paper will explore the potential role that librarians can play in supporting and progressing open science and discuss some of the new skills that librarians may require if they are to fulfil this role effectively.

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"The FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship"

Mark D. Wilkinson et al. have published "The FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship" in Scientific Data.

Here's an excerpt:

A diverse set of stakeholders-representing academia, industry, funding agencies, and scholarly publishers-have come together to design and jointly endorse a concise and measurable set of principles that we refer to as the FAIR Data Principles. The intent is that these may act as a guideline for those wishing to enhance the reusability of their data holdings.

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"A New Approach to Configuration Management for Private LOCKSS Networks"

Tobin M. Cataldo has published "A New Approach to Configuration Management for Private LOCKSS Networks" in D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

The node-based configuration management model is an alternative approach to configuration management for Private LOCKSS Networks that reduces external dependencies and subsequent vulnerabilities by flattening the hierarchical vendor-consumer model into a preservation node-based service. The node-based configuration management model also describes approaches for leveraging the LOCKSS preservation protocols to distribute and preserve the configuration data, and maintain continuous service regardless of network membership changes or infrastructural failure.

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"Humanities Data in the Library: Integrity, Form, Access"

Thomas Padilla has published "Humanities Data in the Library: Integrity, Form, Access" in D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

Digitally inflected Humanities scholarship and pedagogy is on the rise. Librarians are engaging this activity in part through a range of digital scholarship initiatives. While these engagements bear value, efforts to reshape library collections in light of demand remain nascent. This paper advances principles derived from practice to inform development of collections that can better support data driven research and pedagogy, examines existing practice in this area for strengths and weaknesses, and extends to consider possible futures.

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"The RADAR Project-A Service for Research Data Archival and Publication"

Angelina Kraft et al. have published "The RADAR Project-A Service for Research Data Archival and Publication" in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information.

Here's an excerpt:

The aim of the RADAR (Research Data Repository) project is to set up and establish an infrastructure that facilitates research data management: the infrastructure will allow researchers to store, manage, annotate, cite, curate, search and find scientific data in a digital platform available at any time that can be used by multiple (specialized) disciplines. While appropriate and innovative preservation strategies and systems are in place for the big data communities (e.g., environmental sciences, space, and climate), the stewardship for many other disciplines, often called the "long tail research domains", is uncertain. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the RADAR collaboration project develops a service oriented infrastructure for the preservation, publication and traceability of (independent) research data. The key aspect of RADAR is the implementation of a two-stage business model for data preservation and publication: clients may preserve research results for up to 15 years and assign well-graded access rights, or to publish data with a DOI assignment for an unlimited period of time. Potential clients include libraries, research institutions, publishers and open platforms that desire an adaptable digital infrastructure to archive and publish data according to their institutional requirements and workflows.

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"Data Fluidity in DARIAH—Pushing the Agenda Forward"

Laurent Romary, Mike Mertens, and Anne Baillot have self-archived "Data Fluidity in DARIAH—Pushing the Agenda Forward."

Here's an excerpt:

This paper provides both an update concerning the setting up of the European DARIAH infrastructure and a series of strong action lines related to the development of a data centred strategy for the humanities in the coming years. In particular we tackle various aspect of data management: data hosting, the setting up of a DARIAH seal of approval, the establishment of a charter between cultural heritage institutions and scholars and finally a specific view on certification mechanisms for data.

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"Making Sense of Journal Research Data Policies"

Linda Naughton and David Kernohan have published "Making Sense of Journal Research Data Policies" in Insights: The UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

This article gives an overview of the findings from the first phase of the Jisc Journal Research Data Policy Registry pilot (JRDPR), which is currently under way. . . . The project undertook an analysis of 250 journal research data policies to assess the feasibility of developing a policy registry to assist researchers and support staff to comply with research data publication requirements. The evidence shows that the current research data policy ecosystem is in critical need of standardization and harmonization if such services are to be built and implemented. To this end, the article proposes the next steps for the project with the objective of ultimately moving towards a modern research infrastructure based on machine-readable policies that support a more open scholarly communications environment.

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Sloan Foundation Funds Frictionless Data initiative

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has given a $700,000 grant to Open Knowledge International to support its Frictionless Data initiative .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The funding will target standards work, tooling, and infrastructure around "data packages" as well as piloting and outreach activities to support researchers and civic technologists in addressing real problems encountered when working with data.

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IMLS and Partners Launch Fourth Digging into Data Challenge

The Institute of Museum and Library Services and 15 national funding agencies have launched the Fourth Digging into Data Challenge.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This year's competition is presented under the auspices of the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP), a consortium of sixteen international funders of social sciences and humanities research from Europe, South America, and North America. U.S. funding agencies are IMLS, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation. With new funders from Europe and, for the first time, South America, research teams will have opportunities for more diverse collaborations and subjects of inquiry. . . .

The Digging into Data funding opportunity is open to international projects that consist of teams from at least three member countries, and must include partners from both sides of the Atlantic. Projects must address a research question in humanities and/or social sciences disciplines by using large-scale, digital data analysis techniques, and show how these techniques can lead to new insights. Research partners will receive funding from their own national funding agencies for projects that can last for up to 36 months.

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Webinar Recording: "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity"

DuraSpace has released "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity."

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

On February 24, 2016, Rick Johnson (Program Co-Director, Digital Initiatives and Scholarship Head, Data Curation and Digital Library Solutions Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame; Visiting Program Officer for SHARE at the Association of Research Libraries) and Mike Conlon (VIVO Project Director, DuraSpace; Professor Emeritus, University of Florida) presented, "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity."

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Filling the Digital Preservation Gap: A Jisc Research Data Spring Project Phase Two Report—February 2016

Jenny Mitcham et al. have released Filling the Digital Preservation Gap: A Jisc Research Data Spring Project Phase Two Report—February 2016.

Here's an excerpt:

Phase 1 of the project investigated the need for digital preservation as part of a wider infrastructure for research data management and looked specifically at how the open source digital preservation system Archivematica could fulfil this function. . . .

Work in phase 2 had the following aims:

  • Work with Artefactual Systems to develop Archivematica in a number of areas (highlighted in our phase 1 report) in order to make the system more suitable for fitting into our infrastructures for research data management
  • Develop our own detailed implementation plans for Hull and York to establish how Archivematica will be incorporated into our local infrastructures for research data
  • Consider how Archivematica could work as an above campus installation
  • Consider how digital preservation is addressed by the projects in phase 2 of Research Data Spring

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DuraSpace and LYRASIS Boards Approve "Intent to Merge"

The DuraSpace and LYRASIS Boards have approved an "Intent to Merge".

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The respective boards unanimously approved an "Intent to Merge", which means the organizations, having done a careful initial investigation, will move into a public phase to consider an official plan and pathway for the potential coming together, including a full analysis of member benefits. The decision to eventually come together is not yet final. In this public phase of investigation, each organization seeks feedback from members of their organizations and will investigate carefully the value of all services, projects, membership models and organizational cultures to ensure a smooth transition for members of both organizations should a merger agreement occur.

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"An Update on Peer Review and Research Data"

Fiona Murphy has published "An Update on Peer Review and Research Data" in Learned Publishing.

Here's an excerpt:

As has been outlined here, the question of how to review research data and incorporate this into the publication process remains a knotty one. Various groups have made a certain amount of progress with potential recommendations, and domain-related and technical support functions are also emerging. However, the critical mass of active researchers has so far failed to engage.

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"Data Literacy Training Needs of Biomedical Researchers"

Lisa M. Federer, Ya-Ling Lu, and Douglas J. Joubert, have published "Data Literacy Training Needs of Biomedical Researchers" in the Journal of the Medical Library Association.

Here's an excerpt:

This article reports on an exploratory study that expands on the existing literature by considering the data literacy training needs of career-level researchers and related staff. This study was conducted to inform the development of the data services program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library, which serves staff at NIH and other agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Open Science, Open Data, Open Access

UKeiG has released Open Science, Open Data, Open Access for non-members.

Here's an excerpt:

Open Science is shown to be moving centre-stage, with a rationale of improving efficiency in science; increasing transparency and quality in the research validation process; speeding the transfer of knowledge; increasing knowledge spill-overs to the economy; addressing global challenges more effectively; and promoting citizens' engagement in science and research.

Open Data is shown to have undergone a surge in practical development, mirroring the well established repositories for research outputs. The development and application of model policies and of principles is also discussed.

The current major developments in Open Access are discussed in detail, including the identification and mirroring of success factors in funders' and institutions' policies and mandates for driving Open Access deposits and the growth in Gold Open Access.

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If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable

OCLC Research has released If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Some research libraries have been proactive in taking on the new role of supporting the research data management needs of researchers and the university, whereas others have been assigned this role without having sought it. Either way, additional financial or personnel resources rarely are in place to implement and sustain this activity. This brief document explores the pros and cons of seven possible funding sources. It also describes the current circumstances in seven countries outside the United States.

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"Open Data in Global Environmental Research: The Belmont Forum’s Open Data Survey"

Birgit Schmidt, Birgit Gemeinholzer, and Andrew Treloar have published "Open Data in Global Environmental Research: The Belmont Forum's Open Data Survey" in PLOS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper presents the findings of the Belmont Forum's survey on Open Data which targeted the global environmental research and data infrastructure community. It highlights users' perceptions of the term "open data", expectations of infrastructure functionalities, and barriers and enablers for the sharing of data. A wide range of good practice examples was pointed out by the respondents which demonstrates a substantial uptake of data sharing through e-infrastructures and a further need for enhancement and consolidation. Among all policy responses, funder policies seem to be the most important motivator. This supports the conclusion that stronger mandates will strengthen the case for data sharing.

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Massive Yahoo News Feed Dataset Released

Yahoo has released a massive News Feed dataset.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Yahoo News Feed dataset is a collection based on a sample of anonymized user interactions on the news feeds of several Yahoo properties, including the Yahoo homepage, Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Movies, and Yahoo Real Estate. The dataset stands at a massive ~110B lines (1.5TB bzipped) of user-news item interaction data, collected by recording the user-news item interaction of about 20M users from February 2015 to May 2015.

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"Data Citation Services in the High-Energy Physics Community"

Patricia Herterich and Sünje Dallmeier-Tiessen have published "Data Citation Services in the High-Energy Physics Community" in D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

In this article we present a case study of data citation services for the High-Energy Physics (HEP) community using digital library technology. Our example shows how the concept of data citation is implemented for the complete research workflow, covering data production, publishing, citation and tracking of data reuse. We also describe challenges faced and distil lessons learnt for infrastructure providers and scholarly communication stakeholders across disciplines.

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"RDAP Review: Research Data Integration in the Purdue Libraries"

Lisa D. Zilinski, et al. have published "RDAP Review: Research Data Integration in the Purdue Libraries" in the Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology.

Here's an excerpt:

In 2014, the Research Data group @ Purdue University Libraries developed and rolled out a new organizational structure, leading to increased collaborations across campus. This panel talk at the 2015 ASIS&T RDAP Summit gave an overview of the new Purdue model of data services and in-depth looks into how the specialists and liaisons have incorporated data services activities and education into their responsibilities and research. In this article, the panelists discuss their roles and how they integrate in the libraries' overall strategy.

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"Charles W. Bailey, Jr." (Interview with Bailey in Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture)

Michèle V. Cloonan has published "Charles W. Bailey, Jr." in Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture. (The image on the journal’s page for the article that appears instead of an abstract is one of Bailey’s digital pastel drawings.)

Here's an excerpt:

A sea change seems to be occurring in the attitudes of research libraries and some academic libraries toward digital preservation: it's increasingly being seen as mission critical, rather than being simply desirable. This will lead to greater resource allocations to this function, and that will have beneficial secondary effects for other libraries, such as more open source systems and tools being developed (and enhanced) and more interest in the field by commercial vendors.

Someday digital curation and preservation may be completely routine library activities that can be easily performed primarily by support staff, who are following widely accepted and proven methodologies and are using full-featured digital curation systems that seamlessly integrate with related library, institutional, and cooperative systems. In the meantime, there is a lot of innovative and challenging work to do, which is what makes digital curation and preservation such an attractive field.

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"Preparing to Accept Research Data: Creating Guidelines for Librarians"

Laura B. Palumbo et al. have published "Preparing to Accept Research Data: Creating Guidelines for Librarians" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

In order to provide a better defined workflow and mission for research data services, in July 2014, the Rutgers University Librarian organized a Task Force to investigate the evaluation process for technical, legal, and confidential issues involved in research data acceptance, and to establish an administrative and evaluation framework for the deposit of research data. . . . This paper will discuss the issues addressed by the Task Force; acknowledging ownership of data through an institutional data policy, preventing exposure of confidential or sensitive data, establishing a reconfigured data team, requirements for storage capacity and funding, creating a workflow which includes collaboration with research offices, and offering guidance for both researchers and librarians working with research data.

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"Research Data Management: A Case Study"

Gary Brewerton has published "Research Data Management: A Case Study" in Ariadne.

Here's an excerpt:

In April 2014 Loughborough University launched an innovative cloud-based platform [1] to deliver long-term archiving and discovery for its research data. The platform was based upon the Arkivum/100 [2] digital archiving service from Arkivum and the figshare for institutions solution from Figshare [3]. This article discusses the background and implementation of this new platform at the University.

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"Academic Librarians in Data Information Literacy Instruction: A Case Study in Meteorology"

College & Research Libraries has released an e-print of "Academic Librarians in Data Information Literacy Instruction: A Case Study in Meteorology."

Here's an excerpt:

This research assessed perceptions of data information literacy and attitudes on its instruction for graduate students in meteorology. As academic librarians have traditionally provided information literacy instruction, the research determined if they were perceived as having a role in data information literacy instruction. The modified Delphi method was applied to obtain the perspectives of a panel of experts, representing students, librarians, professors, and researchers, for the purpose of forecasting and consensus-making.

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