Category: Digital Curation & Digital Preservation

Engaging Researchers with Data Management: The Cookbook

Connie Clare, et al. have published "Engaging Researchers with Data Management: The Cookbook".

Here's an excerpt:

Engaging Researchers with Data Management is an invaluable collection of 24 case studies, drawn from institutions across the globe, that demonstrate clearly and practically how to engage the research community with RDM. These case studies together illustrate the variety of innovative strategies research institutions have developed to engage with their researchers about managing research data.

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

"Evaluating Fair Maturity Through a Scalable, Automated, Community-Governed Framework"

Mark D. Wilkinson et al. have published "Evaluating Fair Maturity Through a Scalable, Automated, Community-Governed Framework" in Scientific Data.

Here's an excerpt:

We propose a scalable, automatable framework to evaluate digital resources that encompasses measurable indicators, open source tools, and participation guidelines, which come together to accommodate domain relevant community-defined FAIR assessments. The components of the framework are: (1) Maturity Indicators—community-authored specifications that delimit a specific automatically-measurable FAIR behavior; (2) Compliance Tests—small Web apps that test digital resources against individual Maturity Indicators; and (3) the Evaluator, a Web application that registers, assembles, and applies community-relevant sets of Compliance Tests against a digital resource, and provides a detailed report about what a machine "sees" when it visits that resource. We discuss the technical and social considerations of FAIR assessments, and how this translates to our community-driven infrastructure. We then illustrate how the output of the Evaluator tool can serve as a roadmap to assist data stewards to incrementally and realistically improve the FAIRness of their resources.

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

Research Data Rights Management Guide

The Australian Data Research Commons has released the "Research Data Rights Management Guide."

Here's an excerpt:

When taken together, data management, copyright and licensing issues relating to data can be complicated. Data is complicated and can take many forms. It can be a seemingly random compilation of numbers, or it could be a complex dataset containing recorded interviews or creative works. Combined data is often unable to be separated into component parts, unlike chapters in a book, so, unlike a book, it is difficult to separate different copyright conditions that might apply to certain sections of a dataset. Apart from legal ownership, other factors such as policy and business requirements, and relationships and norms can impact on data licensing decisions. For example, grant funding agreements may require a certain licence to be applied to research data outputs, or, in some cases, expectations or norms in a particular field of study will impact on licensing decisions.

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

"The Strategic Collaboration of Libraries in Digital Preservation"

Monika Zarnitz et al. have published "The Strategic Collaboration of Libraries in Digital Preservation" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

The German National Specialist Libraries cooperate closely in the field of digital preservation. One of the partners hosts the preservation system, while each library creates its own workflows and is free to ingest its digital material into this system. This paper delineates the factors for success of this collaboration. It describes the different aspects of collaboration in digital preservation and describes the benefits and costs of cooperation in this field as a case study.

Digital preservation is resource intensive and the required technology is complex. Therefore the libraries benefit from synergy effects: Reduced cost by sharing the preservation system, usage of similar workflows and formats of digital objects, work sharing in networking activities and staff training. The paper also stresses the advantages and difficulties while applying for certificates in a consortium. Their collaboration extends to intensive national and international networking activities, which yield more contacts than a single library could maintain if it acted on its own. The libraries' staffs are active in working groups of nestor—the German network for digital preservation—and in working groups of the Open Preservation Foundation.

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

"From Persistent Identifiers to Digital Objects to Make Data Science More Efficient "

Peter Wittenburg has published "From Persistent Identifiers to Digital Objects to Make Data Science More Efficient" in Data Intelligence.

Here's an excerpt:

In fact after 20 years of experience we can claim that there are trustworthy PID systems already in broad use. It is argued, however, that assigning PIDs is just the first step. If we agree to assign PIDs and also use the PID to store important relationships such as pointing to locations where the bit sequences or different metadata can be accessed, we are close to defining Digital Objects (DO) which could indeed indicate a solution to solve some of the basic problems in data management and processing. In addition to standardizing the way we assign PIDs, metadata and other state information we could also define a Digital Object Access Protocol as a universal exchange protocol for DOs stored in repositories using different data models and data organizations. We could also associate a type with each DO and a set of operations allowed working on its content which would facilitate the way to automatic processing which has been identified as the major step for scalability in data science and data industry. A globally connected group of experts is now working on establishing testbeds for a DO-based data infrastructure.

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

"How to Use Software Heritage for Archiving and Referencing Your Source Code: Guidelines and Walkthrough"

Roberto Di Cosmo has self-archived "How to Use Software Heritage for Archiving and Referencing Your Source Code: Guidelines and Walkthrough."

Here's an excerpt:

Software source code is an essential research output, and many research communities strongly encourage making the source code of the artefact available by archiving it in publicly-accessible long-term archives. Software Heritage is a non profit, long term universal archive specifically designed for software source code, and able to store not only a software artifact, but also its full development history. It provides the ideal place to preserve research software artifacts, and offers powerful mechanisms to enhance research articles with precise references to relevant fragments of your source code. Using Software Heritage for your research software artifacts is straightforward and involves three simple steps. This document details each of these three steps, providing guidelines for making the most out of Software Heritage for your research.

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

"Computational Intelligence to Aid Text File Format Identification"

Santhilata Kuppili Venkata and Alex Green have self-archived "Computational Intelligence to Aid Text File Format Identification."

Here's an excerpt:

One of the challenges faced in digital preservation is to identify the file types when the files can be opened with simple text editors and their extensions are unknown. The problem gets complicated when the file passes through the test of human readability, but would not make sense how to put to use! The Text File Format Identification (TFFI) project was initiated at The National Archives to identify file types from plain text file contents with the help of computing intelligence models. A methodology that takes help of AI and machine learning to automate the process was successfully tested and implemented on the test data. The prototype developed as a proof of concept has achieved up to 98.58% of accuracy in detecting five file formats.

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

Research Data Platform: "New Dryad Is Here"

Dryad has released "New Dryad Is Here."

Here's an excerpt:

Dryad’s newest features are centered around making data publishing as easy as possible for researchers:

  • In addition to supporting datasets as part of a journal submission, Dryad now also supports datasets being submitted independently
  • Data can be uploaded from cloud storage or lab servers
  • Datasets can be as large as 300GB
  • Datasets can easily be updated or versioned at any time in our process
  • Standardized data usage and citation statistics are updated and displayed for each published dataset
  • Data can be submitted and downloaded through our new REST APIs

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

"Teaching Practical Research Data Management Skills through Online Training and Data Management Plan Creation"

Beth Montague-Hellen and Holly Ranger have self-archived "Teaching Practical Research Data Management Skills through Online Training and Data Management Plan Creation."

Here's an excerpt:

Introduction: Research Data Management is growing in importance as a field as the amount of data which researchers must manage increases. It is important to ensure that postgraduate researchers are trained through engaging courses which practically prepare them to fulfil the data management requirements of funders and Universities, and to carry out their research in a transparent and effective manner. Description of program: We present a case study of the development and delivery of a new Research Data Management (RDM) online course for postgraduates and early career researchers. The course implements pedagogical theory and a reverse design paradigm in the development of library training provision enabling the creation of a course vastly more relevant to academic research practice than our previous offering. The course uses a simplified Data Management Plan to introduce students to Research Data Management Concepts, and by asking them to apply this knowledge, lifts the course from one which simply asks students to remember knowledge to one which shows them how to apply this knowledge in a way that is applicable to their own research. The course has been evaluated for effectiveness and student engagement at 3 months. Next steps: Although some analysis of the effectiveness of the new course has been undertaken, the course will continue to be evaluated. Although the course was developed for PGRs it has been popular with ECRs and Professional support staff and we will investigate how we can further meet the needs of these groups. The platform used will allow for the topics most often accessed to be identified and the course, and the University’s training provision will be adjusted based on this evidence. We hope that other institutions will be able to learn from our experience and implement similar courses.

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

"Policy Needs to Go Hand in Hand with Practice: The Learning and Listening Approach to Data Management"

Maria Cruz et al. have published "Policy Needs to Go Hand in Hand with Practice: The Learning and Listening Approach to Data Management" in Data Science Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

In this paper, we explain our strategy for developing research data management policies at TU Delft. Policies can be important drivers for research institutions in the implementation of good data management practices. As Rans and Jones note (Rans and Jones 2013), "Policies provide clarity of purpose and may help in the framing of roles, responsibilities and requisite actions. They also legitimise making the case for investment". However, policy development often tends to place the researchers in a passive position, while they are the ones managing research data on a daily basis. Therefore, at TU Delft, we have taken an alternative approach: a policy needs to go hand in hand with practice. The policy development was initiated by the Research Data Services at TU Delft Library, but as the process continued, other stakeholders, such as legal and IT departments, got involved. Finally, the faculty-based Data Stewards have played a key role in leading the consultations with the research community that led to the development of the faculty-specific policies. This allows for disciplinary differences to be reflected in the policies and to create a closer connection between policies and day-to-day research practice. Our primary intention was to keep researchers and research practices at the centre of our strategy for data management. We did not want to introduce and mandate requirements before adequate infrastructure and professional support were available to our research community and before our researchers were themselves willing to discuss formalisation of data management practices.

This paper describes the key steps taken and the most important decisions made during the development of RDM policies at TU Delft.

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

"Identifying Topical Coverages of Curricula using Topic Modeling and Visualization Techniques: A Case of Digital and Data Curation"

Seungwon Yang et al. have published "Identifying Topical Coverages of Curricula using Topic Modeling and Visualization Techniques: A Case of Digital and Data Curation " in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

Digital/data curation curricula have been around for a couple of decades. Currently, several ALA-accredited LIS programs offer digital/data curation courses and certificate programs to address the high demand for professionals with the knowledge and skills to handle digital content and research data in an ever-changing information environment. In this study, we aimed to examine the topical scopes of digital/data curation curricula in the context of the LIS field. We collected 16 syllabi from the digital/data curation courses, as well as textual descriptions of the 11 programs and their core courses offered in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. The collected data were analyzed using a probabilistic topic modeling technique, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, to identify both common and unique topics. The results are the identification of 20 topics both at the program- and course-levels. Comparison between the program- and course-level topics uncovered a set of unique topics, and a number of common topics. Furthermore, we provide interactive visualizations for digital/data curation programs and courses for further analysis of topical distributions. We believe that our combined approach of a topic modeling and visualizations may provide insight for identifying emerging trends and co-occurrences of topics among digital/data curation curricula in the LIS field.

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

"Decommissioning a Large Data Archive: Lessons Learned from Cleaning out the Attic"

Richard L. Moore et al. have self-archived "Decommissioning a Large Data Archive: Lessons Learned from Cleaning out the Attic"

Here's an excerpt:

This paper describes key elements of the decommissioning of a large tape-based data archive that the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) operated for its users from the center's inception in 1985 until ~2010. . . . Over the archive's last decade, data volume grew exponentially with a doubling period of ~16 months to a maximum size of ~10 PB. In ~2010, the National Science Foundation terminated funding for SDSC's tape archive and SDSC proceeded with decommissioning the archive over a ~2-year period. This paper briefly describes the principles and process by which we decommissioned this large archive, key issues that arose during this process, and implications for institutions that operate data archival systems and suggestions for operating archival systems in the FAIR data environment.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | 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 present an in-depth case study that follows collaborative data sharing, curation and reuse practices among eleven zooarchaeologists and two curators during a large data reuse project. A data life-cycle model highlights how factors in one life-cycle phase impacted other phases forming virtuous (positive) and vicious (negative) circles.

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

"Developing a Data Management Consultation Service for Faculty Researchers: A Case Study from a Large Midwestern Public University "

Virginia A Dressler et al. have published "Developing a Data Management Consultation Service for Faculty Researchers: A Case Study from a Large Midwestern Public University" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

To inform the development of data management services, a library research team at Kent State University conducted a survey of all tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure track faculty about their data management practices and perceptions. The methodology and results will be presented in the article, as well as how this information was used to inform future work in the library's internal working group. Recommendations will be presented that other academic libraries could model in order to develop similar services at their institutions. Personal anecdotes are included that help ascertain current practices and sentiments around research data from the perspective of the researcher. The article addresses the particular needs of a large Midwestern U.S. academic campus, which are not currently reflected in literature on the topic.

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

"National Archives Releases Digital Preservation Framework for Public Comment"

The National Archives has released "National Archives Releases Digital Preservation Framework for Public Comment."

Here's an excerpt:

The National Archives and Records Administration is seeking public comment and discussion on our digital preservation framework, which consists of our approach to determining risks faced by electronic files, and our plans for preserving different types of file formats. The public is encouraged to join the discussion, September 16 through November 1, 2019, on GitHub. . . .

This is evidenced by the June 2019 direction (M-19-21, Transition to Electronic Records) to Federal agencies to transition business processes and record keeping to a fully electronic environment and to end the National Archives’ acceptance of paper records by December 31, 2022.

The National Archives' digital preservation subject matter experts, led by Director of Digital Preservation Leslie Johnston, have been hard at work to prepare the National Archives for this change. They have formalized a set of documents that describe how we identify risks to digital files and prioritize them for action, and created specific plans for the preservation of these many file formats.

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

"Progress in Research Data Services: An International Survey of University Libraries"

Andrew M Cox et al. have published "Progress in Research Data Services: An International Survey of University Libraries" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

University libraries have played an important role in constructing an infrastructure of support for Research Data Management at an institutional level. This paper presents a comparative analysis of two international surveys of libraries about their involvement in Research Data Services conducted in 2014 and 2018. The aim was to explore how services had developed over this time period, and to explore the drivers and barriers to change. In particular, there was an interest in how far the FAIR data principles had been adopted.

Services in nearly every area were more developed in 2018 than before, but technical services remained less developed than advisory. Progress on institutional policy was also evident. However, priorities did not seem to have shifted significantly. Open ended answers suggested that funder policy, rather than researcher demand, remained the main driver of service development and that resources and skills gaps remained issues. While widely understood as an important reference point and standard, because of their relatively recent publication date, FAIR principles had not been widely adopted explicitly in policy.

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

"Updating the Data Curation Continuum: Not Just Data, Still Focussed on Curation, More Domain-Oriented"

Andrew Treloar and Jens Klump have published "Updating the Data Curation Continuum: Not Just Data, Still Focussed on Curation, More Domain-Oriented" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

The Data Curation Continuum was developed as a way of thinking about data repository infrastructure. Since its original development over a decade ago, a number of things have changed in the data infrastructure domain. This paper revisits the thinking behind the original data curation continuum and updates it to respond to changes in research objects, storage models, and the repository landscape in general.

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

"Research Data Management and the Evolutions of Scholarship: Policy, Infrastructure and Data Literacy at KU Leuven"

Tom Willaert et al. have published "Research Data Management and the Evolutions of Scholarship: Policy, Infrastructure and Data Literacy at KU Leuven" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

This case study critically examines ongoing developments in contemporary scholarship through the lens of research data management support at KU Leuven, and KU Leuven Libraries in particular. By means of case-based examples, current initiatives for fostering sound scientific work and scholarship are considered in three associated domains: support for policy-making, the development of research infrastructures, and digital literacy training for students, scientists and scholars. It is outlined how KU Leuven Libraries collaborates with partner services in order to contribute to KU Leuven's research data management support network. Particular attention is devoted to the innovations that facilitate such collaborations. These accounts of initial experiences form the basis for a reflection on best practices and pitfalls, and foreground a number of pertinent challenges facing the domain of research data management, including matters of scalability, technology acceptance and adoption, and methods for effectively gauging and communicating the manifold transformations of science and scholarship.

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

Digital Art through the Looking Glass: New Strategies for Archiving, Collecting and Preserving in Digital Humanities

Edition Donau-Universität has released Digital Art through the Looking Glass: New Strategies for Archiving, Collecting and Preserving in Digital Humanities.

Here's an excerpt:

The aim of this collection is to focus on how we need to redefine preservation methods for digital art by creating a transdisciplinary dialogue between all the involved stakeholders and how we can archive digital artworks by acknowledging their authenticity and mediality. The discussion goes beyond preservation as such and questions how digital artworks can be further re-used for curatorial and dissemination projects, and as research data.

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

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