An Institutional Approach to Developing Research Data Management Infrastructure

This article outlines the work that the University of Oxford is undertaking to implement a coordinated data management infrastructure. The rationale for the approach being taken by Oxford is presented, with particular attention paid to the role of each service division. This is followed by a consideration of the relative advantages and disadvantages of institutional data repositories, as opposed to national or international data centres. The article then focuses on two ongoing JISC-funded projects, ‘Embedding Institutional Data Curation Services in Research’ (Eidcsr) and ‘Supporting Data Management Infrastructure for the Humanities’ (Sudamih). Both projects are intra-institutional collaborations and involve working with researchers to develop particular aspects of infrastructure, including: University policy, systems for the preservation and documentation of research data, training and support, software tools for the visualisation of large images, and creating and sharing databases via the Web (Database as a Service)

An Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Researchers’ Data Management Practices at UVM: Integrated Findings to Develop Research Data Services

This article reports on the integrated findings of an exploratory sequential mixed methods research design aimed to understand data management behaviors and challenges of faculty at the University of Vermont (UVM) in order to develop relevant research data services. The exploratory sequential mixed methods design is characterized by an initial qualitative phase of data collection and analysis, followed by a phase of quantitative data collection and analysis, with a final phase of integration or linking of data from the two separate strands of data. A joint display was used to integrate data focused on the three primary research questions: How do faculty at UVM manage their research data, in particular how do they share and preserve data in the long-term?; What challenges or barriers do UVM faculty face in effectively managing their research data?; and What institutional data management support or services are UVM faculty interested in? As a result of the analysis, this study suggests four major areas of research data services for UVM to address: infrastructure, metadata, data analysis and statistical support, and informational research data services. The implementation of these potential areas of research data services is underscored by the need for cross-campus collaboration and support

Om forskningsstödjande tjänster för forskningsdata i UH-bibliotek

This article presents data collected from a survey among the library directors of the 32 members of the UHR Library. The survey found that most academic libraries are currently offering or are planning to offer various consultative RDS, rather than technical or hands-on RDS. The majority of academic libraries provide support for training in skills related to RDS for their library staff. Almost all libraries collaborate with other units inside their institutions, or with outside institutions. The libraries reported they had or are planning to reassign existing staff to provide RDS. The library directors mainly agree on the importance of RDS among the academic libraries. This indicates that academic libraries want to continue to expand their responsibility within RDS through collaboration, and existing library staff

Necesidades de gestión de datos científicos en argentina. El caso de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario

Recientemente se sancionó en Argentina Ley 26.899 “Repositorios digitales institucionales de Acceso Abierto” que establece la obligatoriedad de desarrollar repositorios digitales de acceso abierto, propios o compartidos, por parte de los organismos e instituciones públicas que componen el Sistema Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación. Esta ley requiere el establecimiento de políticas institucionales para la gestión, el acceso público y la preservación de datos primarios de investigación. En el marco de los proyectos “Hacia un modelo teórico, metodológico y tecnológico para el repositorio institucional de acceso abierto de la UNR fundamentado en las prácticas de su comunidad académica” (ING351) y "Hacia el desarrollo y utilización de Repositorios de Acceso Abierto para Objetos Digitales Educativos en el contexto de las universidades públicas de la región centro-este de Argentina" se realizó una encuesta a docentes investigadores de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario donde se relevó la existencia de producción de datos primarios de investigación, como así también las prácticas en relación a la utilización de éstos datos y las necesidades de servicios en relación a la gestión de los mismos. La presentación comunicará las principales experiencias internacionales en relación a gestión de datos primarios en universidades, el contexto nacional y los resultados obtenidos en la encuesta. Se expondrá sobre los tipos de datos científicos que se producen en la UNR, los formatos y paquetes de software utilizados por los investigadores para trabajar con datos de investigación, las modalidades utilizadas para compartir datos con sus colegas, los factores motivadores y desalentadores para compartir datos científicos en repositorios digitales y las necesidades de servicios de asesoramiento en relación a la gestión de datos. Asimismo se plantean propuestas de acciones a realizar en función de responder a las necesidades de los investigadores.Fil: Bongiovani, Paola Carolina. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; Argentin

Towards a Unified University Infrastructure: The Data Management Roll-Out at the University of Oxford

Since presenting a paper at the International Digital Curation Conference 2010 conference entitled ‘An Institutional Approach to Developing Research Data Management Infrastructure’, the University of Oxford has come a long way in developing research data management (RDM) policy, tools and training to address the various phases of the research data lifecycle. Work has now begun on integrating these various elements into a unified infrastructure for the whole university, under the aegis of the Data Management Roll-out at Oxford (Damaro) Project.This paper will explain the process and motivation behind the project, and describes our vision for the future. It will also introduce the new tools and processes created by the university to tie the individual RDM components together. Chief among these is the ‘DataFinder’ – a hierarchically-structured metadata cataloguing system which will enable researchers to search for and locate research datasets hosted in a variety of different datastores from institutional repositories, through Web 2 services, to filing cabinets standing in department offices. DataFinder will be able to pull and associate research metadata from research information databases and data management plans, and is intended to be CERIF compatible. DataFinder is being designed so that it can be deployed at different levels within different contexts, with higher-level instances harvesting information from lower-level instances enabling, for example, an academic department to deploy one instance of DataFinder, which can then be harvested by another at an institutional level, which can then in turn be harvested by another at a national level.The paper will also consider the requirements of embedding tools and training within an institution and address the difficulties of ensuring the sustainability of an RDM infrastructure at a time when funding for such endeavours is limited. Our research shows that researchers (and indeed departments) are at present not exposed to the true costs of their (often suboptimal) data management solutions, whereas when data management services are centrally provided the full costs are visible and off-putting. There is, therefore, the need to sell the benefits of centrally-provided infrastructure to researchers. Furthermore, there is a distinction between training and services that can be most effectively provided at the institutional level, and those which need to be provided at the divisional or departmental level in order to be relevant and applicable to researchers. This is being addressed in principle by Oxford’s research data management policy, and in practice by the planning and piloting aspects of the Damaro Project

Editorial

Kevin Ashley, Chief Editor, introduces Volume 8, Issue 2 (2013) of the International Journal of Digital Curation

Research Data Management (RDM) Capabilities at the University of Ghana, Legon

The purpose of this study was to assess Research Data Management (RDM) capabilities at the University of Ghana (UG). The study focused on four key capability elements: policy framework, technological infrastructure, skills and knowledge, and support services. It explored the extent to which RDM is embedded in research practices at UG and provides insight into the preparedness of UG to develop RDM. A qualitative case study method was adopted for the study and data was gathered using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The instrument for the assessment was informed by the Collaborative Assessment for Research Data Infrastructure and Objectives (CARDIO) Matrix tool and respondents were drawn from the Library, IT department, Research Office and senior researchers. The results of the study show that RDM at UG is currently underdeveloped but with immense potential for growth. Though there is no formal RDM infrastructure in place, RDM is considered an essential research integrity issue. Capabilities were generally found to be limited, uncoordinated and not officially instituted. The study recommends that a clear and comprehensive policy framework for RDM should be developed to articulate RDM aspirations and express management’s commitment. It also recommends that research support staff should be supported to build their capacity for RDM promotion and support

Promoting Interactive Visualisation at University of Oxford: The Live Data Network

This article introduces the Live Data project funded by the Research IT Board of the University of Oxford’s IT Services department. The primary aim of the project is to support academics in creating interactive visualisations using a variety of cloud-based visualisation services, which the academic can freely embed within academic journals, blogs and personal websites through the use of iframes. To achieve this the project has been funded from October 2015 to March 2017 to recruit visualisation case studies from across the University and to develop software agnostic workflows for the creation of interactive visualisations. Within this report we present interactive visualisations as a vital component of the academic’s toolkit for engaging potential collaborators and the general public with their research data – thereby bridging the so-called ‘data gap’ between data, publication and researcher.