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

"Bigger on the Inside: Building Research Data Services at the University of Virginia"

Michele Claibourn has published "Bigger on the Inside: Building Research Data Services at the University of Virginia" in Insights: the UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Every story has a beginning, where the narrator chooses to start, though this is rarely the genesis. This story begins with the launch of the University of Virginia Library's new Research Data Services unit in October 2013. Born from the conjoining of a data management team and a data analysis team, Research Data Services expanded to encompass data discovery and acquisitions, research software support, and new expertise in the use of restricted data. Our purpose is to respond to the challenges created by the growing ubiquity and scale of data by helping researchers acquire, analyze, manage, and archive these resources. We have made serious strides toward becoming 'the face of data services at U.Va.' This article tells a bit of our story so far, relays some early challenges and how we've responded to them, outlines several initial successes, and summarizes a few lessons going forward.

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"Assessment of Data Management Services at New England Region Resource Libraries"

Julie Goldman et al. have published "Assessment of Data Management Services at New England Region Resource Libraries" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

The focus of data management literature has been on programs at individual institutions and on higher-education initiatives as a whole (Reznik-Zellen et al. 2012). In contrast, this assessment distinctively surveys New England Region (NER) medical and biomedical libraries and their development of educational programs and appropriate services for research data management. Unique to this study, this group of special libraries shared their institution's status on offering data services, how their librarians are becoming educated on data management, and if their users are in need of these types of services.

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"Data Stewardship in the Earth Sciences"

Robert R. Downs et al. have published "Data Stewardship in the Earth Sciences" in D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

In the Earth Sciences, for the past 15+ years, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has been working to make Earth science data more discoverable, accessible, and usable by more people. As a part of this effort, the ESIP Data Stewardship Committee has worked on a variety of recommendations, best practices, and guidelines that have significantly moved data stewardship in the Earth sciences forward, with impacts ranging from influencing how data management is done within government agencies and by other data stewards, to providing guidelines for citation of Earth science data used by publishers in the Earth sciences. Completed and ongoing activities of the committee are described. Interested readers are invited to join our community.

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RDM Workflows and Integrations for HEIs Using Hosted Services

Arkivum has released RDM Workflows and Integrations for HEIs Using Hosted Services.

Here's an excerpt:

This report aims to look at what workflows are typically in place, where the gaps are, and how hosted RDM services could help fill these gaps or simplify the processes. In particular, this report aims to:

  • Describe the workflows/processes involved when researchers and institutions use or operate RDM infrastructure (tools, services, platforms).
  • Provide practical examples of how RDM workflows are implemented and supported at a range of UK Higher Education Institutions, including integration of systems/tools.
  • Define/compare the strengths/weaknesses when using hosted RDM infrastructure, onsite infrastructure or a combination.

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"Articulating a Vision for Community-Engaged Data Curation in the Digital Humanities"

Lydia Zvyagintseva has self-archived "Articulating a Vision for Community-Engaged Data Curation in the Digital Humanities."

Here's an excerpt:

The purpose of this study was to identify critical elements in a conceptual model for a community-engaged data curation in the digital humanities, to propose a set of evaluation criteria that would act as guiding principles in pursuing such work in the future, and to explore ways in which community-engaged data curation practice can further the mission of public digital humanities.

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"PLOS Recommended Data Repositories"

Daniella Lowenberg has published "PLOS Recommended Data Repositories" in EveryOne.

Here's an excerpt:

In line with our updated Data Policy, we are pleased to announce a PLOS Data Repository Recommendation Guide.

To support the selection of data repositories for authors, PLOS has identified a set of established repositories, which are recognized and trusted within their respective communities. To develop the list, we consulted with editors, organizations running data repositories, and other publishers in order to cover the breadth of disciplines and subject areas published by PLOS.

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"Meeting the Needs of Data Management Training: The Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Data Management for Scientists Short Course"

Chung-Yi Hou has published "Meeting the Needs of Data Management Training: The Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Data Management for Scientists Short Course" in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

In order to assist scientists and their library and information partners to gain familiarity, skills, and knowledge of data management, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has developed the Data Management for Scientists Short Course. The Short Course provides training on a range of data management topics, including metadata, file formats, and interoperable content. This paper provides an overview of the background and motivation for data management, followed by an introduction to the Short Course. The discussion on the Short Course' features demonstrates the advantages of learning the fundamentals of data management through the Short Course. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of familiarity with data management practices for both researchers and their library and information partners.

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"Examination of Federal Data Management Plan Guidelines"

Jennifer L. Thoegersen has published "Examination of Federal Data Management Plan Guidelines" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship .

Here's an excerpt:

This paper examines federal funding agencies' data management plan guidelines in relation to the broad elements of data management identified by the Interagency Working Group on Digital Data: Description, Impact, Content & Format, Protection, Preservation, Access, and Transfer of Responsibility. Specifically, statements in agencies' guidelines were categorized into the most applicable category (or categories). The representation of each category within each agency's guidelines was addressed, and the statements falling in each category were analyzed. Some categories, including Access and Preservation, were represented in all or nearly all of the guidelines examined. Other categories-Impact and Transfer of Responsibility-were rarely addressed.

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Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 5

Digital Scholarship has released Version 5 of the Research Data Curation Bibliography. This selective bibliography includes over 350 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 "digital curation" concept is still evolving. In "Digital Curation and Trusted Repositories: Steps toward Success," Christopher A. Lee and Helen R. Tibbo define digital curation as follows:

Digital curation involves selection and appraisal by creators and archivists; evolving provision of intellectual access; redundant storage; data transformations; and, for some materials, a commitment to long-term preservation. Digital curation is stewardship that provides for the reproducibility and re-use of authentic digital data and other digital assets. Development of trustworthy and durable digital repositories; principles of sound metadata creation and capture; use of open standards for file formats and data encoding; and the promotion of information management literacy are all essential to the longevity of digital resources and the success of curation efforts.

Most sources have been published from January 2009 through December 2014; 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 (see the "Note on the Inclusion of Abstracts" for more details).

It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

"A System for Distributed Minting and Management of Persistent Identifiers"

Lukasz Bolikowski, et al. have published "A System for Distributed Minting and Management of Persistent Identifiers" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

Minting persistent identifiers and managing their metadata is typically governed by a single organization. Such a single point of failure poses a risk to longevity and long-term preservation of identifiers. In this paper we address the risk by proposing a radically different approach, in which minting and management of persistent identifiers is distributed, and the integrity of the distributed system is guaranteed by public-key cryptography. We describe the general architecture of the system, analyse its robustness and discuss potential deployment scenarios

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"Data Literacy Instruction in Academic Libraries: Best Practices for Librarians"

Amanda Wanner has published "Data Literacy Instruction in Academic Libraries: Best Practices for Librarians" in See Also:.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of bringing data literacy instruction to academic libraries. Information literacy and digital literacy in libraries has been widely discussed in the library sciences and education literature, but until recently very little focus has been given to data literacy. However, new e-government and open data initiatives over the past decade have created widely available public data that is of great interest to students and academics. Increased technological capabilities to process "big data" have also created new opportunities for the layperson and researcher alike. One popular article claims, "Ensuring that big data creates big value calls for a reskilling effort that is at least as much about fostering a data-driven mindset and analytical culture as it is about adopting new technology" (Harris, 2012). The influx of available data presents unique challenges for librarians. How can libraries play a role, for example, in this "reskilling effort" to develop a "data-driven mindset"?

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Institutional ORCID Implementation and Cost-Benefit Analysis Report

JISC has released the Institutional ORCID Implementation and Cost-Benefit Analysis Report .

Here's an excerpt:

In May 2014, Jisc and ARMA commissioned eight HEI ORCID Pilot projects to support the broader use of ORCID unique researcher identifiers (ORCID iDs) in UK higher education. Information Power Ltd and Research Consulting Ltd were commissioned to prepare this report on the results of the eight pilot projects in order to:

  • Inform how ORCID is implemented in UK HEIs;
  • Enable institutional managers to build a business case for ORCID adoption in HEIs; and
  • Encourage wider adoption of ORCID IDs

The report is based on semi-structured interviews with the Jisc-ARMA ORCID pilot projects and other research community stakeholders conducted either face-to-face or through telephone/Skype interviews, attendance at the September 2014 and January 2015 pilot project workshops and desk-based review of other relevant evidence.

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"Two Years of Transformative Open Data for Public Good"

The White House has released "Two Years of Transformative Open Data for Public Good."

Here's an excerpt:

Two years ago, President Obama signed an Executive Order (E.O.) to improve how our government shares information for the benefit of the American people. The E.O. meant that for the first time in history, Federal government data was required to be open by default with common standards and machine-readable formats. As a result, government information is now more easily discoverable with the necessary safeguards to prevent release of sensitive and personally identifiable information. . . .

Today, more than 130,000 datasets reside on data.gov, the repository for the U.S. Government's open data. Data.gov is updated daily with datasets on important issues such as Climate, Public Safety, Health, and Education. Users can find data on the consumer complaints filed against their banks, on-time performance of airlines, or health indicators in their communities such as the prevalence of heart disease or cancer. One reason this is so important is that open data allows businesses, software developers, and anyone else who's interested to create consumer-friendly applications to help us all make better-informed decisions about health care, transportation, energy use, and more. Open data also has other positive impacts, such as fueling creation of new businesses and jobs. And the best part is that we're just getting started.

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American’ Views on Open Government Data

The Pew Research Center has released American' Views on Open Government Data.

Here's an excerpt:

Few Americans think governments are very effective in sharing data they collect with the public:

  • Just 5% say the federal government does this very effectively, with another 39% saying the federal government does this somewhat effectively.
  • 5% say state governments share data very effectively, with another 44% saying somewhat effectively.
  • 7% say local governments share data very effectively, with another 45% responding somewhat effectively.

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Preparing the Workforce for Digital Curation

The National Academies Press has released Preparing the Workforce for Digital Curation .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The massive increase in digital information in the last decade has created new requirements arising from a deficit in the institutional and technological structures and the human capital necessary to utilize and sustain the abundance of new digital information. This National Research Council consensus study report focuses on the need for education and training in digital curation to meet the societal demands for access to and meaningful use of digital information, now and in the future. For the purposes of this study, digital curation is defined as: "The active management and enhancement of digital information assets for current and future use." This definition provided the committee with a shared understanding of the scope of digital curation. As discussed below, digital curation entails more than secure storage and preservation of digital information because curation may add value to digital information and increase its utility.

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"Next Up for Agency Public Access Plans: NOAA"

SPARC has released "Next Up for Agency Public Access Plans: NOAA" by Heather Joseph.

Here's an excerpt:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its plan to create policies ensuring public access to articles and data resulting from its funded research, as required by the February 2013 White House directive. . . .

The NOAA plan calls for all agency-funded intramural and extramural researchers to deposit final, accepted manuscripts into the agency's repository upon acceptance in a peer-reviewed journal. Unlike many of the other agencies that have released plans to date, NOAA will also require its investigators to submit technical reports, data reports, and technical memoranda into the repository as well—significantly increasing the scope of the materials covered by the agency's policy.

NOAA will use the OSTP-suggested 12-month embargo period as its baseline. Like other agencies, it will provide stakeholders with a mechanism for petitioning the agency to change the embargo period. The plan indicates that requests must include evidence that outweighs the public benefit of having the embargo remain at one year. . . .

Currently, funded researchers are required to make data "visible and accessible" within two years. The new plan calls for this time frame to be shortened to just one year. It also indicates that data underlying the conclusions of peer-reviewed articles will most likely be required to be made available at the time of the article's publication, in appropriate repositories (presumably to be designated by NOAA).

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"Digital Curation Education and Training: From Digitization to Graduate Curricula to MOOCs"

Helen R. Tibbo has published "Digital Curation Education and Training: From Digitization to Graduate Curricula to MOOCs" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper traces the development of digital and data curation curricula. Due to the brief length of this paper, the focus is on North American initiatives and primarily on continuing education programs. It explores the strengths and weaknesses of professional workshops and the creation of graduate-level courses, certificates, degrees and MOOCs, as well as the role of funding agencies in this process. It concludes with an analysis of what is missing and what is needed to create the workforce required to steward digital assets in the foreseeable future

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"Geographic Information and Technologies in Academic Research Libraries: An ARL Survey of Services and Support"

Ann L Holstein has published "Geographic Information and Technologies in Academic Research Libraries: An ARL Survey of Services and Support" in Information Technology and Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

One hundred fifteen academic libraries, all current members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), were selected to participate in an online survey in an effort to better understand campus use of geographic data and geospatial technologies, and how libraries support these uses. The survey was used to capture information regarding geographic needs of their respective campuses, the array of services they offer, and the education and training of geographic information services department staff members. The survey results, along with review of recent literature, were used to identify changes in geographic information services and support since 1997, when a similar survey was conducted by ARL. This new study has enabled recommendations to be made for building a successful geographic information service center within the campus library that offers a robust and comprehensive service and support model for all geographic information usage on campus.

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"When Data Sharing Gets Close to 100%: What Human Paleogenetics Can Teach the Open Science Movement"

Paolo Anagnostou et al. have published "When Data Sharing Gets Close to 100%: What Human Paleogenetics Can Teach the Open Science Movement" in .

Here's an excerpt:

This study analyzes data sharing regarding mitochondrial, Y chromosomal and autosomal polymorphisms in a total of 162 papers on ancient human DNA published between 1988 and 2013. The estimated sharing rate was not far from totality (97.6% ± 2.1%) and substantially higher than observed in other fields of genetic research (evolutionary, medical and forensic genetics). Both a questionnaire-based survey and the examination of Journals' editorial policies suggest that this high sharing rate cannot be simply explained by the need to comply with stakeholders requests. Most data were made available through body text, but the use of primary databases increased in coincidence with the introduction of complete mitochondrial and next-generation sequencing methods. Our study highlights three important aspects. First, our results imply that researchers' awareness of the importance of openness and transparency for scientific progress may complement stakeholders' policies in achieving very high sharing rates. Second, widespread data sharing does not necessarily coincide with a prevalent use of practices which maximize data findability, accessibility, useability and preservation. A detailed look at the different ways in which data are released can be very useful to detect failures to adopt the best sharing modalities and understand how to correct them. Third and finally, the case of human paleogenetics tells us that a widespread awareness of the importance of Open Science may be important to build reliable scientific practices even in the presence of complex experimental challenges.

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Directions for Research Data Management in UK Universities

JISC has released Directions for Research Data Management in UK Universities.

Here's an excerpt:

This report addresses five key topics:

  • Policy development and implementation
  • Skills and capability
  • Infrastructure and interoperability
  • Incentives for researchers and support stakeholders
  • Business case and sustainability

For each topic we have included a summary of the main current issues, alongside a vision of where the sector should aim to be in five years' time. We then suggest actions for each topic, divided into 'first steps' and then longer term, more complex priorities. Readers should note that each of the five topics do raise interrelated actions, for example, a usage statistics service is flagged as a potential infrastructure solution and this issue arises again as an action area that can help to incentivise research data management and sharing.

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"Storage is a Strategic Issue: Digital Preservation in the Cloud"

Gillian Oliver and Steve Knight have published "Storage is a Strategic Issue: Digital Preservation in the Cloud" in .

Here's an excerpt:

Worldwide, many governments are mandating a 'cloud first' policy for information technology infrastructures. In 2013, the National Library of New Zealand's National Digital Heritage Archive (NDHA) outsourced storage of its digital collections. A case study of the decision to outsource and its consequences was conducted, involving interviews of the representatives of three key stakeholders: IT, the NDHA, and the vendor. Clear benefits were identified by interviewees, together with two main challenges. The challenges related to occupational culture tensions, and a shift in funding models. Interviewees also considered whether the cultural heritage sector had any unique requirements. A key learning was that information managers were at risk of being excluded from the detail of outsourcing, and so needed to be prepared to assert their need to know based on their stewardship mandate.

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"Research Data Explored II: the Anatomy and Reception of figshare"

Peter Kraker et al. have self-archived "Research Data Explored II: the Anatomy and Reception of figshare."

Here's an excerpt:

In this paper, we present an analysis of figshare, one of the largest multidisciplinary repositories for research materials to date. We analysed the structure of items archived in figshare, their usage, and their reception in two altmetrics sources (PlumX and ImpactStory). We found that figshare acts as a platform for newly published research materials, and as an archive for PLOS. Depending on the function, we found different bibliometric characteristics. Items archived from PLOS tend to be coming from the natural sciences and are often unviewed and non-downloaded. Self-archived items, however, come from a variety of disciplines and exhibit some patterns of higher usage. In the altmetrics analysis, we found that Twitter was the social media service where research data gained most attention; generally, research data published in 2014 were most popular across social media services. PlumX detects considerably more items in social media and also finds higher altmetric scores than ImpactStory.

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"Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles"

The Data Citation Synthesis Working Group has released the "Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles."

Here's an excerpt:

The Data Citation Principles cover purpose, function and attributes of citations. These principles recognize the dual necessity of creating citation practices that are both human understandable and machine-actionable.

See also "An Introduction to the Joint Principles for Data Citation."

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"A Reputation Economy: Results from an Empirical Survey on Academic Data Sharing"

Benedikt Fecher et al. have self-archived "A Reputation Economy: Results from an Empirical Survey on Academic Data Sharing."

Here's an excerpt:

We surveyed 2661 individual academic researchers across all disciplines on their dealings with data, their publication practices, and motives for sharing or withholding research data. The results for 1564 valid responses show that researchers across disciplines recognise the benefit of secondary research data for their own work and for scientific progress as a whole-still they only practice it in moderation. An explanation for this evidence could be an academic system that is not driven by monetary incentives, nor the desire for scientific progress, but by individual reputation-expressed in (high ranked journal) publications. We label this system a Reputation Economy. This special economy explains our findings that show that researchers have a nuanced idea how to provide adequate formal recognition for making data available to others-namely data citations. We conclude that data sharing will only be widely adopted among research professionals if sharing pays in form of reputation. Thus, policy measures that intend to foster research collaboration need to understand academia as a reputation economy. Successful measures must value intermediate products, such as research data, more highly than it is the case now.

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"The Educational Value of Truly Interactive Science Publishing"

Michael J. Ackerman has published "The Educational Value of Truly Interactive Science Publishing" in The Journal of Electronic Publishing.

Here's an excerpt:

Interactive Scientific Publishing (ISP) has been developed by the Optical Society of America with support from the National Library of Medicine at NIH. It allows authors to electronically publish papers which are linked to the referenced 2D and 3D original image datasets. These image datasets can then be viewed and analyzed interactively by the reader. ISP provides the software for authors to assemble and link their source data to their publication. But more important is that it provides readers with image viewing and analysis tools. The goal of ISP is to improve learning and understanding of the presented information. This paper describes ISP and its effect on learning and understanding. ISP was shown to have enough educational value that readers were willing to invest in the required set-up and learning phases. The social aspects of data sharing and the enlarged review process may be the hardest obstacles to overcome.

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