The MEG registry and SCART:complementary tools for creation, discovery and re-use of metadata schemas

SCART is an RDF schema creation tool designed for use by implementers working within digital library and learning environments. This schema creation and registration tool is being developed to work in conjunction with registry software. SCART will provide implementers with a simple tool to declare their schemas, including local usage and adaptations, in a machine understandable way based on the RDF Schema specification. This tool is optimised for use by the Metadata for Education Group, projects and services within the UK providing resource discovery in the domain of education. By providing a complementary creation tool and registry the aim is to facilitate easy discovery of existing schemas already registered in a schemas registry, and to enable implementers to re-use these existing schemas where appropriate

Introducing Safe Access to Sensitive Data at the University of Bristol

The economic and societal benefits of making research data available for reuse and verification are now widely understood and accepted. However, there are some research studies, particularly those involving human participants, which face particular challenges in making their data openly available due to the sensitivities of the data. Despite its potential value to society this material is invariably kept locked away due to concerns over its inappropriate disclosure. The University of Bristol’s Research Data Service has developed the institutional infrastructure, including policies and procedures, required to safely grant access to sensitive research data in a way that is transparent, secure, sustainable and crucially, replicable by other institutions. This paper looks at the background and challenges faced by the institution in dealing with sensitive data, outlines the approach taken and some of the outstanding issues to be tackled. This paper looks at the background and challenges faced by the institution in dealing with sensitive data, outlines the approach taken and some of the outstanding issues to be tackled

Disciplinary data publication guides

Many academic disciplines have very comprehensive standard for data publication and clear guidance from funding bodies and academic publishers. In other cases, whilst much good-quality general guidance exists, there is a lack of information available to researchers to help them decide which specific data elements should be shared. This is a particular issue for disciplines with very varied data types, such as engineering, and presents an unnecessary barrier to researchers wishing to meet funder expectations on data sharing. This article outlines a project to provide simple, visual, discipline-specific guidance on data publication, undertaken at the University of Bristol at the request of the Faculty of Engineering

Disciplinary Data Publication Guides

Many academic disciplines have very comprehensive standard for data publication and clear guidance from funding bodies and academic publishers. In other cases, whilst much good-quality general guidance exists, there is a lack of information available to researchers to help them decide which specific data elements should be shared. This is a particular issue for disciplines with very varied data types, such as engineering, and presents an unnecessary barrier to researchers wishing to meet funder expectations on data sharing. This article outlines a project to provide simple, visual, discipline-specific guidance on data publication, undertaken at the University of Bristol at the request of the Faculty of Engineering

User-centered development of a Virtual Research Environment to support collaborative research events

This paper discusses the user-centred development process within the Collaborative Research Events on the Web (CREW) project, funded under the JISC Virtual Research Environments (VRE) programme. After presenting the project, its aims and the functionality of the CREW VRE, we focus on the user engagement approach, grounded in the method of co-realisation. We describe the different research settings and requirements of our three embedded user groups and the respective activities conducted so far. Finally we elaborate on the main challenges of our user engagement approach and end with the project’s next steps