Category: Digital Curation & Digital Preservation

"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

"Establishing a Research Data Management Service on a Health Sciences Campus"

Kathryn Vela and Nancy Shin have published "Establishing a Research Data Management Service on a Health Sciences Campus" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

Objective: Given the increasing need for research data management support and education, the Spokane Academic Library at Washington State University (WSU) sought to determine the data management practices, perceptions, and needs of researchers on the WSU Spokane health sciences campus.

Methods: A 23-question online survey was distributed to WSU researchers and research support staff through the campus listserv. This online survey addressed data organization, documentation, storage & backup, security, preservation, and sharing, as well as challenges and desired support services.

Results: Survey results indicated that there was a clear need for more instruction with regard to data management planning, particularly as data management planning addresses the areas of metadata design, data sharing, data security, and data storage and backup.

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

"Case Study: the University of Glasgow’s Digital Preservation Journey 2017-2019"

Alison Spence, Valerie McCutcheon, and Matt Mahon have published "Case Study: the University of Glasgow's Digital Preservation Journey 2017-2019" in Insights.

Here's an excerpt:

This case study documents the University of Glasgow's digital preservation journey during 2017 and 2018. The University recognized that action was required to ensure the long-term preservation of key corporate records and archival material. Staff from the University’s Digital Preservation Working Group were therefore tasked with identifying the University’s priorities and requirements for preserving its key records, with the aim of producing recommendations for a preservation programme. Knowledge and skills were enhanced by participating in a national digital preservation pilot project and learning from practitioners through workshops and information exchange. The case study shares our reflections on the questions which emerged about metadata, workflows and integrating systems. A key priority will be to engage the support of key decision makers within the University, as it was emphasized repeatedly that successful digital preservation depends as much on resources and organizational strategy as it does on technology. Two of the authors have a particular interest in terminology and we share our work to examine digital preservation’s confusing and obscure vocabulary. We conclude that transforming digital preservation into standard practice within organizations can best be achieved through continued collaboration within the digital preservation community.

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

"Researchers May Need Additional Data Curation Support "

Robin E. Miller has published "Researchers May Need Additional Data Curation Support " in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice.

Here's an excerpt:

Twelve data curation activities were identified as "highly rated" services that academic institutions could focus on providing to researchers. Documentation, Secure Storage, Quality Assurance, and Persistent Identifier were the data curation activities that the majority of participants rated as "most important." Participants identified the data curation practices in place at their institutions, including documentation (80%), secure storage (75%), chain of custody (64%), metadata (63%), file inventory or manifest (58%), data visualization (58%), versioning (56%), file format transformations (55%), and quality assurance (52%). Participants reported low levels of satisfaction with their institutions’ data curation activities.

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

"Assessing Data Management Support Needs of Bioengineering and Biomedical Research Faculty"

Christie A. Wiley and Margaret H. Burnette have published "Assessing Data Management Support Needs of Bioengineering and Biomedical Research Faculty" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

Results: This study revealed the majority of researchers explore broad research topics, various file storage solutions, generate numerous amounts of data and adhere to differing discipline-specific practices. Researchers expressed both familiarity and unfamiliarity with DMP Tool. Roughly half of the researchers interviewed reported having documented protocols for file names, file backup, and file storage. Findings also suggest that there is ambiguity about what it means to share research data and confusion about terminology such as "repository" and "data deposit". Many researchers equate publication to data sharing.

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

"Using Linked Data for Discovery and Preservation"

Sayeed Choudhury has published "Using Linked Data for Discovery and Preservation" in EDUCAUSE Review.

Here's an excerpt:

Linked data has been discussed since the beginning of the World Wide Web 30 years ago (i.e., the so-called semantic web). For something potentially so important, this begs the question: Why hasn't linked data more directly affected galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (aka GLAM)?

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

What to Keep: A Jisc Research Data Study

Jisc has released What to Keep: A Jisc Research Data Study.

Here's an excerpt:

What to keep in terms of research data has been a recognised issue for some time but research data management and in particular appraisal and selection (i.e. 'what to keep and why') has become a more significant focus in recent years as volumes and diversity of data have grown, and as the available infrastructure for 'keeping' has become more diverse.

The purpose of the What to Keep study is to provide new insights that will be useful to institutions, research funders, researchers, publishers, and Jisc on what research data to keep and why, the current position, and suggestions for improvement.

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

"Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review"

Kristin A. Briney has published "Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review" in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.

Here's an excerpt:

INTRODUCTION Data handling in library learning analytics plays a pivotal role in protecting patron privacy, yet the landscape of data management by librarians is poorly understood. METHODS This critical review examines data-handling practices from 54 learning analytics studies in academic libraries and compares them against the NISO Consensus Principles on User’s Digital Privacy in Library, Publisher, and Software-Provider Systems and data management best practices. RESULTS A number of the published research projects demonstrate inadequate data protection practices including incomplete anonymization, prolonged data retention, collection of a broad scope of sensitive information, lack of informed consent, and sharing of patron-identified information. DISCUSSION As with researchers more generally, libraries should improve their data management practices. No studies aligned with the NISO Principles in all evaluated areas, but several studies provide specific exemplars of good practice. CONCLUSION Libraries can better protect patron privacy by improving data management practices in learning analytics research.

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

"Access, Preservation And Analysis in a Consortial Journal Archive: The Evolution of Scholars Portal Journals"

Sabina Pagotto and Wei Zhao have published "Access, Preservation And Analysis in a Consortial Journal Archive: The Evolution of Scholars Portal Journals" in Insights.

Here's an excerpt:

This article discusses Scholars Portal Journals (SP Journals), a library consortium-run platform that aggregates and archives licensed scholarly journal content in the province of Ontario, Canada. Born in the early days of e-journals out of a need to provide consistent and long-term access to scholarly materials in the sometimes volatile world of online publishing, SP Journals has evolved into a major digital repository and archive. With over 55 million full-text articles and serving a student population of just under half a million, SP Journals represents a major investment in access to online scholarship. This article explains the lifecycle of content on the platform, from initial publisher negotiations to delivering usage reports, and discusses considerations of running a locally hosted journal platform.

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

"Never Best Practices: Born-Digital Audiovisual Preservation"

Julia Kim, Rebecca Fraimow and Erica Titkemeyer have published "Never Best Practices: Born-Digital Audiovisual Preservation" in Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

The sheer conditionality of [born-digital audiovisual file preservation] recommendations leaves practitioners mired in a sea of questions as they struggle to set realistically adhered to policies for their institutions. Should files be accepted as-is, or transcoded to an open and standardized format? When is transcoding to a preservation file specification worth the extra storage space and staff time? If transcoding, what are the ideal target specifications? When developing policies and workflows for batch transcoding a variety of different formats, each with different technical specifications, how do you make sure that preservation files maintain all the perceptible, let alone "significant" characteristics of the original files?

This paper presents case studies from three institutions—a university special collections library, a federal government department, and a public broadcasting station—demonstrating how the factors listed above might lead to 'tiered' processing and decision-making around 'good enough' practices for the preservation of born-digital a/v files.

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

"Could Collaborative Research between Two Major Libraries Help Consolidate Digital Preservation and Break the ‘Project Cycle’?"

Somaya Langley et al. have self-archived "Could Collaborative Research between Two Major Libraries Help Consolidate Digital Preservation and Break the 'Project Cycle'?."

Here's an excerpt:

An ongoing challenge for Bodleian Libraries (of Oxford University) and Cambridge University Library (CUL) has been taking outputs from time-bound digital preservation projects and turning them into ongoing uninterrupted services. . . . The Digital Preservation at Oxford and Cambridge (DPOC) project (2016–2018) is a collaboration between Bodleian Libraries and CUL which is supported and funded by The Polonsky Foundation. Bodleian Libraries and CUL have historically strong ties, and have previously collaborated on digital preservation projects. Both organizations also have experience creating digital preservation resources, for which stewardship at the end of projects has been transferred over to staff within the libraries for maintenance. However, siloed preservation activities have so far not translated into institution-wide, ongoing programmatic digital preservation activities.

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

"Expanding the Research Data Management Service Portfolio at Bielefeld University According to the Three-pillar Principle Towards Data FAIRness"

Jochen Schirrwagen et al. have published "Expanding the Research Data Management Service Portfolio at Bielefeld University According to the Three-pillar Principle Towards Data FAIRness" in Data Science Journal (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License).

Here's an excerpt:

Research Data Management at Bielefeld University is considered as a cross-cutting task among central facilities and research groups at the faculties. While initially started as project “Bielefeld Data Informium” lasting over seven years (2010–2015), it is now being expanded by setting up a Competence Center for Research Data. The evolution of the institutional RDM is based on the three-pillar principle: 1. Policies, 2. Technical infrastructure and 3. Support structures. The problem of data quality and the issues with reproducibility of research data is addressed in the project Conquaire. It is creating an infrastructure for the processing and versioning of research data which will finally allow publishing of research data in the institutional repository. Conquaire extends the existing RDM infrastructure in three ways: with a Collaborative Platform, Data Quality Checking, and Reproducible Research.

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

"LOCKSS Networks: Community-Based Digital Preservation"

Aaron Trehub et al. have self-archived "LOCKSS Networks: Community-Based Digital Preservation."

Here's an excerpt:

Starting with the first Community LOCKSS Network—the MetaArchive Cooperative, in 2004—CLNs have spread throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Europe. . . . . The authors examine five geographically and administratively diverse CLNs: the MetaArchive Cooperative, an international PLN with members in the United States, Brazil, and Spain; the Alabama Digital Preservation Network (ADPNet), a statewide PLN serving a diverse set of institutions in an economically challenged state; the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) WestVault CLN, a network serving academic libraries in western Canada; the Public Knowledge Project Preservation Network (PKP-PN), a network for preserving content from Open Journal Systems (OJS) journals; and the Indiana Digital Preservation (InDiPres) CLN, a new statewide collaborative within the MetaArchive Cooperative.

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

"Announcing Publication of NDSA’s 2017 Web Archiving Survey Report"

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance has released "Announcing Publication of NDSA's 2017 Web Archiving Survey Report."

Here's an excerpt:

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance is pleased to announce the release of the 2017 Web Archiving Survey Report. . . .

The goal of these surveys is to better understand the landscape of Web archiving activities in the United States by investigating the organizations involved; the history and scope of their Web archiving programs; the types of Web content being preserved; the tools and services being used; access and discovery services being offered; and overall policies related to Web archiving programs.

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

A Preservationist’s Guide to the DCMA Exemption for Software Preservation

The Software Preservation Network and the Cyberlaw Clinic have released "A Preservationist's Guide to the DCMA Exemption for Software Preservation."

Here's an excerpt:

The Library of Congress recently adopted several exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provision prohibiting circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The exemptions went into effect on October 28, 2018 and last until October 28th, 2021. This guide is intended to help preservationists determine whether their activities fall under the new exemption.

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

Digital Preservation Network Shuts Down: "Community Announcement—DPN Sunsets"

The Digital Preservation Network has released "Community Announcement—DPN Sunsets."

Here's an excerpt:

After careful analysis of the Digital Preservation Network's membership, operating model, and finances, the Board of Trustees of DPN passed a resolution to affect an orderly wind-down of DPN. The DPN Board carefully considered potential changes to DPN’s current preservation and membership models and determined that it is not feasible to design and implement changes that would ensure sustainability.

The Digital Preservation Network has provided innovative digital preservation services and leadership to the cultural heritage community for the past six years.  At its largest, DPN had 62 members and deposits from 27 institutions. However, membership has fallen to 31, a number insufficient to maintain the organization. The landscape of digital preservation services has changed considerably in the past six years, as have the community's preservation needs. . . .

It is clear that there are numerous unforeseen challenges with our community-based organizations that need to be addressed. A number of organizations formed by our community are facing sustainability challenges, despite initial momentum. The DPN board and staff hope that the community enters into conversations that may help other organizations in the challenge of sustainability.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"OCLC Research and euroCRIS Release Report on International Research Information Management Practices"

OCLC Research has released "OCLC Research and euroCRIS Release Report on International Research Information Management Practices."

Here's an excerpt:

OCLC Research and euroCRIS, the international organization for research information, have published a joint research report, Practices and Patterns in Research Information Management: Findings from a Global Survey, which examines how research institutions worldwide are applying research information management (RIM) practices.

The report, written by a working group comprised of experts from both organizations, details the complexity of research information management practices. It examines how commercial and open-source platforms are becoming widely implemented across regions, coexisting with many region-specific solutions as well as locally developed systems. It also considers the factors that have led to the need for complex, cross-stakeholder teams to support institutional RIM activities, which increasingly includes the library.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap