metajelo: A Metadata Package for Journals to Support External Linked Objects

We propose a metadata package that is intended to provide academic journals with a lightweight means of registering, at the time of publication, the existence and disposition of supplementary materials. Information about the supplementary materials is, in most cases, critical for the reproducibility and replicability of scholarly results. In many instances, these materials are curated by a third party, which may or may not follow developing standards for the identification and description of those materials. As such, the vocabulary described here complements existing initiatives that specify vocabularies to describe the supplementary materials or the repositories and archives in which they have been deposited. Where possible, it reuses elements of relevant other vocabularies, facilitating coexistence with them. Furthermore, it provides an “at publication” record of reproducibility characteristics of a particular article that has been selected for publication. The proposed metadata package documents the key characteristics that journals care about in the case of supplementary materials that are held by third parties: existence, accessibility, and permanence. It does so in a robust, time-invariant fashion at the time of publication, when the editorial decisions are made. It also allows for better documentation of less accessible (non-public data), by treating it symmetrically from the point of view of the journal, therefore increasing the transparency of what up until now has been very opaque

Increasing the Reuse of Data through FAIR-enabling the Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories

The long-term preservation of digital objects, and the means by which they can be reused, are addressed by both the FAIR Data Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and a number of standards bodies providing Trustworthy Digital Repository (TDR) certification, such as the CoreTrustSeal.  Though many of the requirements listed in the Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements 2020–2022 Extended Guidance address the FAIR Data Principles indirectly, there is currently no formal ‘FAIR Certification’ offered by the CoreTrustSeal or other TDR standards bodies. To address this gap the FAIRsFAIR project developed a number of tools and resources that facilitate the assessment of FAIR-enabling practices at the repository level as well as the FAIRness of datasets within them. These include the CoreTrustSeal+FAIRenabling Capability Maturity model (CTS+FAIR CapMat), a FAIR-Enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories-Capability Maturity Self-Assessment template, and F-UJI ,  a web-based tool designed to assess the FAIRness of research data objects.  The success of such tools and resources ultimately depends upon community uptake. This requires a community-wide commitment to develop best practices to increase the reuse of data and to reach consensus on what these practices are.  One possible way of achieving community consensus would be through the creation of a network of FAIR-enabling TDRs, as proposed by FAIRsFAIR

CoreTrustSeal

Open data and data management policies that call for the long-term storage and accessibility of data are becoming more and more commonplace in the research community. With it the need for trustworthy data repositories to store and disseminate data is growing. CoreTrustSeal, a community based and non-profit organisation, offers data repositories a core level certification based on the DSA-WDS Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements catalogue and procedures. This universal catalogue of requirements reflects the core characteristics of trustworthy data repositories. Core certification involves an uncomplicated process whereby data repositories supply evidence that they are sustainable and trustworthy. A repository first conducts an internal self-assessment, which is then reviewed by community peers. Once the self-assessment is found adequate the CoreTrustSeal board certifies the repository with a CoreTrustSeal. The Seal is valid for a period of three years. Being a certified repository has several external and internal benefits. It for instance improves the quality and transparency of internal processes, increases awareness of and compliance with established standards, builds stakeholder confidence, enhances the reputation of the repository, and demonstrates that the repository is following good practices. It is also offering a benchmark for comparison and helps to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a repository. In the future we foresee a larger uptake through different domains, not in the least because within the European Open Science Cloud, the FAIR principles and therefore also the certification of trustworthy digital repositories holding data is becoming increasingly important. Next to that the CoreTrustSeal requirements will most probably become a European Technical standard which can be used in procurement (under review by the European Commission)

CoreTrustSeal Certification of DataverseNO

Presentation at EOSC FAIR metrics and Data Quality Task Force Meeting, online, 10 March 2022.This presentation provides a short overview of the CoreTrustSeal certification of DataverseNO. The presentation is organized into the following sections: 1. Key facts about DataverseNO 2. CoreTrustSeal certification of DataverseNO - Motivation - Challenges and approaches - Where to get hel

Repository Experiences on Certification: DataverseNO

Presentation at the online EOSC-Nordic WP4 workshop: From Self-Assessment to Certification with FAIR Results, 03.06.21, arranged by EOSC-Nordic. https://www.eosc-nordic.eu/events/eosc-nordic-wp4-workshop-from-self-assessment-to-certification-with-fair-results/. This presentation gives a short introduction to the work done by DataverseNO to obtain CoreTrustSeal certification

Towards a European network of FAIR-enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDRs) - A Working Paper

This working paper is a bottom-up initiative of a group of stakeholders from the European repository community. Its purpose is to outline an aspirational vision of a European Network of FAIR-enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDRs). This initiative originates from the workshop entitled “Towards exploring the idea of establishing the Network”. The paper was created in close connection with the wider community, as its core was built on community feedback and the first draft of the paper was shared for community-wide consultation. This paper will serve as input for the EOSC Task Force on Long Term Digital Preservation. One of the core activities mentioned in the charter of this Task Force is to produce recommendations on the creation of such a network. The working paper puts together a vision of how a European network of FAIR-enabling TDRs could be based on the community’s needs and its most important functions: Networking and knowledge exchange, stakeholder advocacy and engagement, and coordination and development. The specific activities hosted under these umbrella functions could address the wide range of topics that are important to TDRs. Beyond these functions and the challenges they address, the paper presents a framework to highlight aspects of the Network to further explore in the next steps of its development

Risk in the CoreTrustSeal data repository certification process

Risk is a foundational concept in Trustworthy Digital Repository audit and certification processes. This poster examines attitudes about risk among staff members of CoreTrustSeal certified repositories. Findings indicate that repository staff members who have also served as reviewers for the CoreTrustSeal certification system, and those who have not, have similar at-titudes about potential sources of risk facing digital repositories. These groups also have similar attitudes about the importance of the CoreTrust-Seal requirement categories, however as a group those with experience as reviewers were more internally consistent in their responses than those without. This poster will examine these findings in greater detail, and will explore the similarities and differences between these two groups in order to understand whether and/or how the experience of serving as a reviewer shapes attitudes about risk in long-term digital preservation

metajelo: A metadata package for journals to support external linked objects

We propose a metadata package that is intended to provide academic journals with a lightweight means of registering, at the time of publication, the existence and disposition of supplementary materials. Information about the supplementary materials is, in most cases, critical for the reproducibility and replicability of scholarly results. In many instances, these materials are curated by a third party, which may or may not follow developing standards for the identification and description of those materials. As such, the vocabulary described here complements existing initiatives that specify vocabularies to describe the supplementary materials or the repositories and archives in which they have been deposited. Where possible, it reuses elements of relevant other vocabularies, facilitating coexistence with them. Furthermore, it provides an “at publication” record of reproducibility characteristics of a particular article that has been selected for publication. The proposed metadata package documents the key characteristics that journals care about in the case of supplementary materials that are held by third parties: existence, accessibility, and permanence. It does so in a robust, time-invariant fashion at the time of publication, when the editorial decisions are made. It also allows for better documentation of less accessible (non-public data), by treating it symmetrically from the point of view of the journal, therefore increasing the transparency of what up until now has been very opaque. &nbsp