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

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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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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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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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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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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Carol Tenopir et al. have published "Changes in Data Sharing and Data Reuse Practices and Perceptions among Scientists Worldwide" in PLOS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

In this study, the DataONE Usability and Assessment working group addresses two primary goals: To examine the current state of data sharing and reuse perceptions and practices among research scientists as they compare to the 2009/2010 baseline study, and to examine differences in practices and perceptions across age groups, geographic regions, and subject disciplines. We distributed surveys to a multinational sample of scientific researchers at two different time periods (October 2009 to July 2010 and October 2013 to March 2014) to observe current states of data sharing and to see what, if any, changes have occurred in the past 3-4 years. We also looked at differences across age, geographic, and discipline-based groups as they currently exist in the 2013/2014 survey. Results point to increased acceptance of and willingness to engage in data sharing, as well as an increase in actual data sharing behaviors. However, there is also increased perceived risk associated with data sharing, and specific barriers to data sharing persist.

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Amanda K. Rinehart has published "Getting Emotional about Data: The Soft Side of Data Management Services" in College & Research Libraries News.

Here's an excerpt:

While I have yet to discover why researchers do not readily acknowledge that research, and the data that underpins that research, has emotional connotations, I have found that using active listening skills minimizes negativity during consultations.

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NISO has released Research Data Management: A Primer Publication of the National Information Standards Organization.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The primer on Research Data Management provides an overview of how data management has changed in recent years, and outlines best practices for the collection, documentation, and preservation of research data. The importance of creating a data management plan (DMP) before beginning a research data project is emphasized. Crucial questions regarding how the data will be managed are answered ahead of time in a DMP, thus making it easier for the researcher to collect and document the data properly for future use and reuse. Creating research data that is easily reproducible and transparent is the ultimate goal, and following the guidelines in this primer can help educate researchers to ensure their data is available for others. The differences between publishing papers and publishing datasets and the citation challenges the data community are working on solving are also discussed.

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Megan Sapp Nelson has published "Data Management Outreach to Junior Faculty Members: A Case Study " in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

New tenure track faculty members are generally in positions as leaders of a research laboratory or group for the first time. In addition to building up the infrastructure of a research lab (whether space, equipment, funding, or personnel), the new faculty member is also setting the research process and expectations for the first time as well. This article highlights outreach to new faculty members assisting those individuals with developing a data management protocol that effectively supports the laboratory researchers to make quality data available internally to and externally from a research laboratory. Using a self-assessment tool and reflective conversation, junior faculty were offered insight and advice into creating a data management protocol for use in their research laboratory.

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Mary Anne Kennan and Lina Markauskaite have published "Research Data Management Practices: A Snapshot in Time" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

There is increasing pressure from funders, publishers, the public, universities and other research organisations for researchers to improve their data management and sharing practices. However, little is known about researchers' data management and sharing practices and concerns. The research reported in this paper seeks to address this by providing insight into the research data management and sharing practices of academics at ten universities in New South Wales, Australia. Empirical data was taken from a survey to which 760 academics responded, with 634 completing at least one section. Results showed that at the time of the survey there were a wide variety of research data in use, including analogue data, and that the challenges researchers faced in managing their data included finding safe and secure storage, particularly after project completion, but also during projects when data are used (and thus stored) on a wide variety of less-than-optimal temporary devices. Data sharing was not widely practiced and only a relatively small proportion of researchers had a research data management plan.

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