Building a Disciplinary, World-Wide Data Infrastructure

Sharing scientific data, with the objective of making it fully discoverable, accessible, assessable, intelligible, usable, and interoperable, requires work at the disciplinary level to define in particular how the data should be formatted and described. Each discipline has its own organization and history as a starting point, and this paper explores the way a range of disciplines, namely materials science, crystallography, astronomy, earth sciences, humanities and linguistics get organized at the international level to tackle this question. In each case, the disciplinary culture with respect to data sharing, science drivers, organization and lessons learnt are briefly described, as well as the elements of the specific data infrastructure which are or could be shared with others. Commonalities and differences are assessed. Common key elements for success are identified: data sharing should be science driven; defining the disciplinary part of the interdisciplinary standards is mandatory but challenging; sharing of applications should accompany data sharing. Incentives such as journal and funding agency requirements are also similar. For all, it also appears that social aspects are more challenging than technological ones. Governance is more diverse, and linked to the discipline organization. CODATA, the RDA and the WDS can facilitate the establishment of disciplinary interoperability frameworks. Being problem-driven is also a key factor of success for building bridges to enable interdisciplinary research.Comment: Proceedings of the session "Building a disciplinary, world-wide data infrastructure" of SciDataCon 2016, held in Denver, CO, USA, 12-14 September 2016, to be published in ICSU CODATA Data Science Journal in 201

Publishing Primary Data on the World Wide Web: Opencontext.org and an Open Future for the Past

More scholars are exploring forms of digital dissemination, including open access (OA) systems where content is made available free of charge. These include peer -reviewed e -journals as well as traditional journals that have an online presence. Besides SHA's Technical Briefs in Historical Archaeology, the American Journal of Archaeology now offers open access to downloadable articles from their printed issues. Similarly, Evolutionary Anthropology offers many full -text articles free for download. More archaeologists are also taking advantage of easy Web publication to post copies of their publications on personal websites. Roughly 15% of all scholars participate in such "self -archiving." To encourage this practice, Science Commons (2006) and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) recently launched the Scholar Copyright Project, an initiative that will develop standard "Author Addenda" -- a suite of short amendments to attach to copyright agreements from publishers (http://sciencecommons. org/projects/publishing/index.html). These addenda make it easier for paper authors to retain and clarify their rights to self -archive their papers electronically. Several studies now clearly document that self -archiving and OA publication enhances uptake and citation rates (Hajjem et al. 2005). Researchers enhance their reputations and stature by opening up their scholarship.Mounting pressure for greater public access also comes from many research stakeholders. Granting foundations interested in maximizing the return on their investment in basic research are often encouraging and sometimes even requiring some form of OA electronic dissemination. Interest in maximizing public access to publicly financed research is catching on in Congress. A new bipartisan bill, the Federal Research Public Access Act, would require OA for drafts of papers that pass peer review and result from federally funded research (U.S. Congress 2006). The bill would create government -funded digital repositories that would host and maintain these draft papers. University libraries are some of the most vocal advocates for OA research. Current publishing frameworks have seen dramatically escalated costs, sometimes four times higher than the general rate of inflation (Create Change 2003). Increasing costs have forced many libraries to cancel subscriptions and thereby hurt access and scholarship (Association for College and Research Libraries 2003; Suber 2004).This article originally published in Technical Briefs In Historical Archaeology, 2007, 2: -11

Framing Outcomes and Program Assessment for Digital Scholarship Services: A Logic Model Approach

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by the Association of College and Research Libraries in College and Research Libraries in March 2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.82.2.142Assessing digital scholarship services offered either through academic libraries or elsewhere on campuses is important for both program development and service refinement. Digital scholarship support is influenced by fluid campus priorities and limited resources, including staffing, service models, infrastructure, and partnership opportunities available at a university. Digital scholarship support is built upon deep, ongoing relationships and there is an intrinsic need to balance these time-intensive collaborations with scalable service offerings. Therefore, typical library assessment methods do not adequately capture the sustained engagement and impacts to research support and collaboration that come from digital scholarship services. This article discusses the creation of a logic model as one approach to frame assessment of digital scholarship services in the university environment.Publisher allows immediate open acces

Lessons learned in effective community-university-industry collaboration models for smart and connected communities research

In 2017, the Boston University Hariri Institute for Computing and the Initiative on Cities co-hosted two workshops on “Effective Community-University-Industry Collaboration Models for Smart and Connected Communities Research,” with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF). These efforts brought together over one hundred principal investigators and research directors from universities across the country, as well as city officials, community partners, NSF program managers and other federal agency representatives, MetroLab Network representatives and industry experts. The focus was on transdisciplinary “smart city” projects that bring technical fields such as engineering and computer science together with social scientists and community stakeholders to tackle community-sourced problems. Presentations, panel discussions, working sessions and participant white papers surfaced operational models as well as barriers and levers to enabling effective research partnerships. To capture the perspectives and beliefs of all participants, in addition to the presenters, attendees were asked to synthesize lessons on each panel topic. This white paper summarizes the opportunities and recommendations that emerged from these sessions, and provides guidance to communities and researchers interested in engaging in these types of partnerships as well as universities and funders that endeavor to nurture them. It draws on the collective wisdom of the assembled participants and the authors. While many of the examples noted are drawn from medium and large cities, the lessons may still be applicable to communities of various sizes.National Science Foundatio

A Review of Disciplinary Interventions in K12 Public Education

As a part of the Achieving Racial Equity in School Disciplinary Policies and Practices study from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, this literature brief offers an overview of school discipline interventions in K12 public education. This includes more punitive models that have been used in the past that have contributed to racial disparities in discipline outcomes, including corporal punishment and zero-tolerance policies. Additionally, this brief offers an overview of four prominent alternative approaches to school discipline: Trauma Informed Care, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and Restorative Practices. The literature brief offers the history, theory of action, and evidence of effectiveness for each alternative discipline approach and offers a discussion of how to effectively implement them in schools. Implications for the Commonwealth of Virginia are discussed throughout the brief

Discovering academics' key learning connections: An ego-centric network approach to analysing learning about teaching

The aim of this exploratory study is to investigate the role of personal networks in supporting academics’ professional learning about teaching. As part of a wider project, the paper focuses on the composition of academics’ networks and possible implications of network tendencies for academics’ learning about teaching. The study adopts a mixed-method approach. Firstly, the composition of academics’ networks is examined using Social Network Analysis. Secondly, the role of these networks in academics’ learning about teaching is analysed through semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal the prevalence of localised and strong-tie connections, which could inhibit opportunities for effective learning and spread of innovations in teaching. The study highlights the need to promote connectivity within and across institutions, creating favourable conditions for effective professional development

Embracing the future: embedding digital repositories in the University of London

Digital repositories can help Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to develop coherent and coordinated approaches to capture, identify, store and retrieve intellectual assets such as datasets, course material and research papers. With the advances of technology, an increasing number of Higher Education Institutions are implementing digital repositories. The leadership of these institutions, however, has been concerned about the awareness of and commitment to repositories, and their sustainability in the future. This study informs a consortium of thirteen London institutions with an assessment of current awareness and attitudes of stakeholders regarding digital repositories in three case study institutions. The report identifies drivers for, and barriers to, the embedding of digital repositories in institutional strategy. The findings therefore should be of use to decision-makers involved in the development of digital repositories. Our approach was entirely based on consultations with specific groups of stakeholders in three institutions through interviews with specific individuals. The research in this report was prepared for the SHERPA-LEAP Consortium and conducted by RAND Europe

An Inpatient Rehabilitation Interprofessional Care Pathway for Traumatic Hip Fracture: A Pilot Quality Improvement Project

Background: Each year over 300,000 older adults are hospitalized for hip fracture. The impact of the cost of hip fracture on the US health care system is estimated to be as high as $9 billion, with the typical cost of a hip fracture episode around$30,000. Formalized pathways have been developed and successfully utilized for many patient presentations, including hip fracture, in the acute setting. Although this research is important to the comprehensive care of the elderly hip fracture patient, very little research exists that outlines evidence-based best-practice for patients in the post-acute recovery period. Purpose: The primary aim of this project was to develop an evidence-based, comprehensive, coordinated, and interprofessional care pathway for hip fracture patients in the acute rehabilitation setting to improve the percentage of patients discharging to community settings by 20% from current baseline by the end of the pilot period. Methods: The design of this project was an observational cohort study. Descriptive statistics will be used to compare intervention groups to controls, including frequencies and distributions. Results: The hip fracture tool itself had inconclusive results, the impacts of the effects on team work and enhanced coordination of the care team was realized through reducing institutionalized days for hip fracture patients in acute rehabilitation