Conducting a Self-Assessment of a Long-Term Archive for Interdisciplinary Scientific Data as a Trustworthy Digital Repository

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PresentationsDate: 2009-05-19 03:00 PM – 04:30 PMLong-term preservation and stewardship of scientific data and research-related information is paramount to the future of science and scholarship. Disciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific data archives can offer capabilities for managing and preserving data for research, education, and decision-making activities of future communities representing various scientific and scholarly disciplines. However, meeting the requirements for a trusted digital repository presents challenges to ensure that archived collections will be discoverable, accessible, and usable in the future. Assessing whether scientific data archives meet the requirements for trustworthy repositories will help to ensure that todayâ s collections of scientific data will be available in the future. A continuing self-assessment of a long-term archive for interdisciplinary scientific data is being conducted to identify improvements needed to become a trustworthy repository for managing and providing access to interdisciplinary scientific data by future communities of users. Recommendations are offered for archives of scientific data to meet the requirements of a trustworthy repository.NAS

Implementing Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to Foster Attribution for Earth Science Data

Persistent identifiers, such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), can contribute to the discovery and access of online scientific data and related web-based resources over time. In addition to enabling continuing access to scientific data when persistent identifiers are maintained, DOIs also can contribute to the attribution of scientific data. Assigning DOIs to datasets and registering them for inclusion in open catalogs enables discovery of the metadata records by facilitating harvesting and indexing by other catalogs where the data can be discovered and accessed through the DOIs that serve as resolvable links to the landing pages for the scientific data. Similar to other publications that are cited in research articles, the DOIs for data can be included in the reference to the data when citing the data used for preparation of a research publication. Examples of landing pages and recommended citations for scientific data that are available from the NASA Socioeconomic Data! and Applications Center (SEDAC) demonstrate how access to scientific data can be facilitated through the assignment of DOIs and show how guidance may be provided for users of scientific data to provide attribution to the data that they use in their research

Workflow for Evaluating SEDAC Data for Dissemination

The depiction of the workflow for the evaluation of scientific data that are planned for dissemination by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) demonstrates the diversity of roles, groups, and activities that are involved in the evaluation of scientific data disseminated by SEDAC. The evaluation efforts described in the workflow include reviews, assessments, and testing activities of scientific data that are conducted throughout the data acquisition, product development, and dissemination processes

Sustainable Software for the Future of Science: A User’s Perspective

The sustainability of scientific software is critical for the future of science. Recent efforts by funding agencies to recognize software as a contribution to science demonstrate the importance of software for science. Scientific software should be prepared and maintained for subsequent use in the future. Developers of scientific software should consider potential users and the future usability of the software

Data Lifecycle Review of Research Data

The review of scientific data during the data lifecycle is described along with examples of reasons and drivers for conducting data reviews. Additional opportunities are offered to benefit from reviewing research data throughout the data lifecycle

Enabling Ongoing Access to Data Products and Services When Dependencies are No Longer Supported

Online scientific data and related products and services can be developed in a distributed manner across systems and organizations, creating dependencies that rely on continuing operations of coordinated services over time. Dependencies can include other online products and services that rely on disparate chains of hardware and software maintained by separate organizations with independent operational capabilities, support, and sustainability models. In the future, some aspects of such distributed networks of dependent capabilities may fail, requiring mitigation to maintain the online capabilities that users expect. Case studies are offered to describe opportunities for enabling continuing access to scientific data products and services that are dependent on external systems that may no longer be viable

Research Data Strategies to Support Studies of Human Interactions in the Environment

When trying to use scientific data, members of the research community need to know how the data can be found, how the data have been reviewed, whether the data have been preserved for future use, how the data are managed throughout the data lifecycle, and how the data have been used. The presentation answers these questions by describing a strategic approach to managing the workflow for the stewardship and curation of scientific data

A Scientific Data Center Perspective on Publishing Data

Answers to questions about publishing scientific data are offered and include, a description of the organization and role, a definition of publishing data, and descriptions of the scientific data center role, how data are published at the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), challenges with publishing data, and minimum requirements for publishing data

Meeting the Next Generation Science Standards with SEDAC Data

Many of the learning goals of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) can be achieved by utilizing scientific data in the classroom to foster understanding of science and its applications. The NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) offers access to data on human interactions in the environment that can be used in the classroom to improve understanding by students and meet NGSS learning goals

Improving the Review of Scientific Data for Public Dissemination

Establishing specifications for the review of scientific data can contribute to the quality of data products and services that are disseminated. Data reviews can take many forms. Ideally, specifications for the review of scientific data include the criteria and the procedures to be employed for conducting such reviews. Specifying and documenting the criteria and procedures for reviewing scientific data enables documentation of the review that was completed for a particular dataset, application of the same criteria and procedures for reviewing multiple datasets over time, and identification of opportunities for improving the criteria and procedures employed for reviewing scientific data. The criteria and procedures for reviewing scientific data at the NASA Socioeconomic Data and applications Center, SEDAC, are described along with recent improvements that have contributed to the quality of scientific data disseminated by SEDAC