28,500 research outputs found
Systemwide Clinical Ultrasound Program Development: An Expert Consensus Model.
Clinical ultrasound (CUS) is integral to the practice of an increasing number of medical specialties. Guidelines are needed to ensure effective CUS utilization across health systems. Such guidelines should address all aspects of CUS within a hospital or health system. These include leadership, training, competency, credentialing, quality assurance and improvement, documentation, archiving, workflow, equipment, and infrastructure issues relating to communication and information technology. To meet this need, a group of CUS subject matter experts, who have been involved in institution- and/or systemwide clinical ultrasound (SWCUS) program development convened. The purpose of this paper was to create a model for SWCUS development and implementation
To share or not to share: Publication and quality assurance of research data outputs. A report commissioned by the Research Information Network
A study on current practices with respect to data creation, use, sharing and publication in eight research disciplines (systems biology, genomics, astronomy, chemical crystallography, rural economy and land use, classics, climate science and social and public health science). The study looked at data creation and care, motivations for sharing data, discovery, access and usability of datasets and quality assurance of data in each discipline
Artefacts and Errors: Acknowledging Issues of Representation in the Digital: Imaging of Ancient Texts
It is assumed, in palaeography, papyrology and epigraphy, that a certain amount of
uncertainty is inherent in the reading of damaged and abraded texts. Yet we have
not really grappled with the fact that, nowadays, as many scholars tend to deal with
digital images of texts, rather than handling the texts themselves, the procedures for
creating digital images of texts can insert further uncertainty into the representation
of the text created. Technical distortions can lead to the unintentional introduction
of ‘artefacts’ into images, which can have an effect on the resulting representation. If
we cannot trust our digital surrogates of texts, can we trust the readings from them?
How do scholars acknowledge the quality of digitised images of texts? Furthermore,
this leads us to the type of discussions of representation that have been present in
Classical texts since Plato: digitisation can be considered as an alternative form of
representation, bringing to the modern debate of the use of digital technology in Classics
the familiar theories of mimesis (imitation) and ekphrasis (description): the conversion
of visual evidence into explicit descriptions of that information, stored in computer
files in distinct linguistic terms, with all the difficulties of conversion understood in the
ekphratic process. The community has not yet considered what becoming dependent
on digital texts means for the field, both in practical and theoretical terms. Issues of
quality, copying, representation, and substance should be part of our dialogue when
we consult digital surrogates of documentary material, yet we are just constructing
understandings of what it means to rely on virtual representations of artefacts. It is
necessary to relate our understandings of uncertainty in palaeography and epigraphy
to our understanding of the mechanics of visualization employed by digital imaging
techniques, if we are to fully understand the impact that these will have
The Wiltshire Wills Feasibility Study
The Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office has nearly ninety thousand wills in its care. These records are neither adequately catalogued nor secured against loss by facsimile microfilm copies. With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund the Record Office has begun to produce suitable finding aids for the material. Beginning with this feasibility study the Record Office is developing a strategy to ensure the that facsimiles to protect the collection against risk of loss or damage and to improve public access are created.<p></p>
This feasibility study explores the different methodologies that can be used to assist the preservation and conservation of the collection and improve public access to it. The study aims to produce a strategy that will enable the Record Office to create digital facsimiles of the Wills in its care for access purposes and to also create preservation quality microfilms. The strategy aims to seek the most cost effective and time efficient approach to the problem and identifies ways to optimise the processes by drawing on the experience of other similar projects. This report provides a set of guidelines and recommendations to ensure the best use of the resources available for to provide the most robust preservation strategy and to ensure that future access to the Wills as an information resource can be flexible, both local and remote, and sustainable
Assessing the wider benefits arising from university-based research
In November 2012, the Government announced its intention to assess the broader economic, social and environmental benefits arising from all elements of government research investment, including those benefits arising from university-based research. In support of this work, the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, in consultation with the Australian Research Council, has prepared a discussion paper on Assessing the wider benefits arising from university-based research.The discussion paper is now available at www.innovation.gov.au/impactThe department invites responses to the issues raised in the paper.A preferred template for responses is also available online.Submissions are due by 16 August 2013. Scope of this paper: Research is undertaken across many sectors including industry, universities, research institutes and publicly funded research agencies. This paper relates specifically to research undertaken in universities because of the volume of data that is already collected from these institutions and the opportunity to build on the assessment of research quality through the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. The research and engagement activities undertaken within publicly funded research agencies, independent research institutes and within business outside of universities are out of scope for this consultation.  
The LIFE2 final project report
Executive summary: The first phase of LIFE (Lifecycle Information For E-Literature) made a major contribution to
understanding the long-term costs of digital preservation; an essential step in helping
institutions plan for the future. The LIFE work models the digital lifecycle and calculates the
costs of preserving digital information for future years. Organisations can apply this process
in order to understand costs and plan effectively for the preservation of their digital
collections
The second phase of the LIFE Project, LIFE2, has refined the LIFE Model adding three new
exemplar Case Studies to further build upon LIFE1. LIFE2 is an 18-month JISC-funded
project between UCL (University College London) and The British Library (BL), supported
by the LIBER Access and Preservation Divisions. LIFE2 began in March 2007, and
completed in August 2008.
The LIFE approach has been validated by a full independent economic review and has
successfully produced an updated lifecycle costing model (LIFE Model v2) and digital
preservation costing model (GPM v1.1). The LIFE Model has been tested with three further
Case Studies including institutional repositories (SHERPA-LEAP), digital preservation
services (SHERPA DP) and a comparison of analogue and digital collections (British Library
Newspapers). These Case Studies were useful for scenario building and have fed back into
both the LIFE Model and the LIFE Methodology.
The experiences of implementing the Case Studies indicated that enhancements made to the
LIFE Methodology, Model and associated tools have simplified the costing process. Mapping
a specific lifecycle to the LIFE Model isn’t always a straightforward process. The revised and
more detailed Model has reduced ambiguity. The costing templates, which were refined
throughout the process of developing the Case Studies, ensure clear articulation of both
working and cost figures, and facilitate comparative analysis between different lifecycles.
The LIFE work has been successfully disseminated throughout the digital preservation and
HE communities. Early adopters of the work include the Royal Danish Library, State
Archives and the State and University Library, Denmark as well as the LIFE2 Project partners.
Furthermore, interest in the LIFE work has not been limited to these sectors, with interest in
LIFE expressed by local government, records offices, and private industry. LIFE has also
provided input into the LC-JISC Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Economic Sustainability of
Digital Preservation.
Moving forward our ability to cost the digital preservation lifecycle will require further
investment in costing tools and models. Developments in estimative models will be needed to
support planning activities, both at a collection management level and at a later preservation
planning level once a collection has been acquired. In order to support these developments a
greater volume of raw cost data will be required to inform and test new cost models. This
volume of data cannot be supported via the Case Study approach, and the LIFE team would
suggest that a software tool would provide the volume of costing data necessary to provide a
truly accurate predictive model
Metadata quality issues in learning repositories
Metadata lies at the heart of every digital repository project in the sense that it defines and drives the description of digital content stored in the repositories. Metadata allows content to be successfully stored, managed and retrieved but also preserved in the long-term. Despite the enormous importance of metadata in digital repositories, one that is widely recognized, studies indicate that what is defined as metadata quality, is relatively low in most cases of digital repositories. Metadata quality is loosely defined as "fitness for purpose" meaning that low quality of metadata means that metadata cannot fulfill its purpose which is to allow for the successful storage, management and retrieval of resources. In practice, low metadata quality leads to ineffective searches for content, ones that recall the wrong resources or even worse, no resources which makes them invisible to the intended user, that is the "client" of each digital repository. The present dissertation approaches this problem by proposing a comprehensive metadata quality assurance method, namely the Metadata Quality Assurance Certification Process (MQACP). The basic idea of this dissertation is to propose a set of methods that can be deployed throughout the lifecycle of a repository to ensure that metadata generated from content providers are of high quality. These methods have to be straightforward, simple to apply with measurable results. They also have to be adaptable with minimum effort so that they can be used in different contexts easily. This set of methods was described analytically, taking into account the actors needed to apply them, describing the tools needed and defining the anticipated outcomes. In order to test our proposal, we applied it on a Learning Federation of repositories, from day 1 of its existence until it reached its maturity and regular operation. We supported the metadata creation process throughout the different phases of the repositories involved by setting up specific experiments using the methods and tools of the MQACP. Throughout each phase, we measured the resulting metadata quality to certify that the anticipated improvement in metadata quality actually took place. Lastly, through these different phases, the cost of the MQACP application was measured to provide a comparison basis for future applications. Based on the success of this first application, we decided to validate the MQACP approach by applying it on another two cases of a Cultural and a Research Federation of repositories. This would allow us to prove the transferability of the approach to other cases the present some similarities with the initial one but mainly significant differences. The results showed that the MQACP was successfully adapted to the new contexts, with minimum adaptations needed, with similar results produced and also with comparable costs. In addition, looking closer at the common experiments carried out in each phase of each use case, we were able to identify interesting patterns in the behavior of content providers that can be further researched. The dissertation is completed with a set of future research directions that came out of the cases examined. These research directions can be explored in order to support the next version of the MQACP in terms of the methods deployed, the tools used to assess metadata quality as well as the cost analysis of the MQACP methods
Metadata quality issues in learning repositories
Metadata lies at the heart of every digital repository project in the sense that it defines and drives the description of digital content stored in the repositories. Metadata allows content to be successfully stored, managed and retrieved but also preserved in the long-term. Despite the enormous importance of metadata in digital repositories, one that is widely recognized, studies indicate that what is defined as metadata quality, is relatively low in most cases of digital repositories. Metadata quality is loosely defined as "fitness for purpose" meaning that low quality of metadata means that metadata cannot fulfill its purpose which is to allow for the successful storage, management and retrieval of resources. In practice, low metadata quality leads to ineffective searches for content, ones that recall the wrong resources or even worse, no resources which makes them invisible to the intended user, that is the "client" of each digital repository. The present dissertation approaches this problem by proposing a comprehensive metadata quality assurance method, namely the Metadata Quality Assurance Certification Process (MQACP). The basic idea of this dissertation is to propose a set of methods that can be deployed throughout the lifecycle of a repository to ensure that metadata generated from content providers are of high quality. These methods have to be straightforward, simple to apply with measurable results. They also have to be adaptable with minimum effort so that they can be used in different contexts easily. This set of methods was described analytically, taking into account the actors needed to apply them, describing the tools needed and defining the anticipated outcomes. In order to test our proposal, we applied it on a Learning Federation of repositories, from day 1 of its existence until it reached its maturity and regular operation. We supported the metadata creation process throughout the different phases of the repositories involved by setting up specific experiments using the methods and tools of the MQACP. Throughout each phase, we measured the resulting metadata quality to certify that the anticipated improvement in metadata quality actually took place. Lastly, through these different phases, the cost of the MQACP application was measured to provide a comparison basis for future applications. Based on the success of this first application, we decided to validate the MQACP approach by applying it on another two cases of a Cultural and a Research Federation of repositories. This would allow us to prove the transferability of the approach to other cases the present some similarities with the initial one but mainly significant differences. The results showed that the MQACP was successfully adapted to the new contexts, with minimum adaptations needed, with similar results produced and also with comparable costs. In addition, looking closer at the common experiments carried out in each phase of each use case, we were able to identify interesting patterns in the behavior of content providers that can be further researched. The dissertation is completed with a set of future research directions that came out of the cases examined. These research directions can be explored in order to support the next version of the MQACP in terms of the methods deployed, the tools used to assess metadata quality as well as the cost analysis of the MQACP methods
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