Complying with the NSF’s New Public Access Policy and Depositing a Manuscript in NSF-PAR

In 2016 the National Science Foundation (NSF) rolled out its new online public access repository, NSF-PAR for investigators funded by the NSF to deposit their manuscripts to comply with its new Public Access Policy. The NSF’s policy and its new publications repository differ in several key ways from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) public access policy and PMC, particularly in terms of requirements for compliance and procedures for deposit. While NIH grants may make up the majority of biomedical institutions’ research funds, the NSF is also an important source of biomedical funding, especially for career awards, research training grants, and translational research. In this webinar we will walk participants through the requirements for compliance and the process for deposit and share insights provided by the NSF Policy Office

Research Data Management and the Health Sciences Librarian

Published as Chapter 10 Research Data Management and the Health Sciences Librarian in Health Sciences Librarianship edited by M. Sandra Wood. Chicago: Rowman & Littlefield and the Medical Library Association, 2014. Link to book on publisher\u27s website. All rights reserved by the publishers. PDF of book chapter posted with publisher\u27s permission

Implementing a Case-Based Research Data Management Curriculum

OBJECTIVE: The Lamar Soutter Library of the University of Massachusetts Medical School is working with partner librarians at MBL-WHOI, Northeastern, Tufts and UMass Amherst on a NN/LM NER grant to author online modules and develop additional Research Data Management (RDM) Teaching Cases based on the UMMS/WPI Data Management Frameworks. The goal is to create an online curriculum to support these institution’s researchers’ data management (RDM) practices. METHODS: The criteria for module content were developed by an evaluation expert using the NSF data management plan requirements. To develop additional RDM Teaching Cases librarians conducted semi-structured data interviews with researchers. The librarians transcribed and coded these interviews using a validated RDM planning instrument to categorize the projects’ RDM challenges. The librarians then authored case narratives based on the data interview, highlighting these authentic challenges along with a set of discussion and comprehension questions to support learner outcomes. RESULTS: Currently there are seven modules in addition to the RDM Teaching Cases being authored by the project partners. The first drafts of the Module content and Teaching Cases are due for completion in spring 2013. CONCLUSIONS: A Data Management Curriculum and RDM Teaching Cases will provide libraries with an educational resource for teaching best practices and supporting their student and faculty research. These educational materials will help to provide researchers and future-researchers with valuable lessons to improve the management of their data throughout the stages of their projects, and will encourage them to see the relationships between managing their data and sharing their data in the future

Joining Together to Build More: The New England Software Carpentry Library Consortium

In 2017 a group of academic library and information technology staff from institutions across New England piloted a process of joining The Carpentries, an organization developed to train researchers in essential computing skills and practices for automating and improving their handling of data, as a consortium. The New England Software Carpentry Library Consortium (NESCLiC) shared a gold-level tier membership to become a Carpentries member organization. NESCLiC members attended a Software Carpentry workshop together and then participated in instructor training as a cohort, collaborating on learning the material, practicing, and beginning to host and teach workshops as a group. This article describes both the successes and challenges of forming this new consortium, suggests good practices for those who might wish to form similar collaborations, and discusses the future of this program and other efforts to help researchers improve their computing and data handling skills

Librarians Working with Institutional Stakeholders to Support Researchers Writing Data Management Plans: Piloting a Research Data Management Curriculum

Biomedical researchers face multiple challenges in maintaining proper stewardship of their research data. The collaborative nature of team science and funders’ requirements for data management plans have revealed a broad need for adherence to consistent research data management (RDM) best practices. UMMS and partnering libraries have developed the New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum (NECDMC), a case-based RDM curriculum to support researchers’ writing of data management plans. This poster presents ways that NECDMC is being used by a sample of pilot sites and initial feedback from researcher participants

Building the New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum

The need for a curriculum designed for librarians to use for teaching STEM research data management skills to their constituents from diverse STEM disciplines has been widely identified. (Qin and D’Ignazio 2010). From 2012-2014, a collaborative group of New England librarians, led by a project team from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, developed lecture notes, presentation slides, assignments, readings, and case studies for teaching research data management. The New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum (NECDMC) is unique in its flexibility; providing subject agnostic instructional materials in a modular format for teaching common data management best practices along with a suite of teaching cases illustrating data management in disciplinary contexts. This article is a follow-up to the “Teaching Research Data Management: An Undergraduate/Graduate Curriculum (Piorun et al. 2012) that was published in the Journal of eScience Librarianship

Local Arp2/3 dependent actin assembly modulates applied traction force during apCAM adhesion site maturation

Homophilic binding of immunoglobulin superfamily molecules such as the Aplysia cell adhesion molecule (apCAM) leads to actin filament assembly near nascent adhesion sites. Such actin assembly can generate significant localized forces that have not been characterized in the larger context of axon growth and guidance. We used apCAM-coated bead substrates applied to the surface of neuronal growth cones to characterize the development of forces evoked by varying stiffness of mechanical restraint. Unrestrained bead propulsion matched or exceeded rates of retrograde network flow and was dependent on Arp2/3 complex activity. Analysis of growth cone forces applied to beads at low stiffness of restraint revealed switching between two states: frictional coupling to retrograde flow and Arp2/3-dependent propulsion. Stiff mechanical restraint led to formation of an extensive actin cup matching the geometric profile of the bead target and forward growth cone translocation; pharmacological inhibition of the Arp2/3 complex or Rac attenuated F-actin assembly near bead binding sites, decreased the efficacy of growth responses, and blocked accumulation of signaling molecules associated with nascent adhesions. These studies introduce a new model for regulation of traction force in which local actin assembly forces buffer nascent adhesion sites from the mechanical effects of retrograde flow

Joining Together to Build More: The New England Software Carpentry Library Consortium

In 2017 a group of academic library and information technology staff from institutions across New England piloted a process of joining The Carpentries, an organization developed to train researchers in essential computing skills and practices for automating and improving their handling of data, as a consortium. The New England Software Carpentry Library Consortium (NESCLiC) shared a gold-level tier membership to become a Carpentries member organization. NESCLiC members attended a Software Carpentry workshop together and then participated in instructor training as a cohort, collaborating on learning the material, practicing, and beginning to host and teach workshops as a group. This article describes both the successes and challenges of forming this new consortium, suggests good practices for those who might wish to form similar collaborations, and discusses the future of this program and other efforts to help researchers improve their computing and data handling skills.</p