EIDCSR Policy and Guidance for Research Data – Report 4/21/2010

The Institutional Policy and Guidance for Research Data workshop took place on Monday 29 March

2010 at Rewley House, Oxford. This half-day event was organized as part of the dissemination activities

of the JISC-funded Embedding Institutional Data Curation Services in Research (EIDCSR) Project. The

aim was to to discuss issues around the development and implementation of institutional policy and

guidance for research data.

Over fifty delegates signed up for the workshop from the following institutions in the UK:

Fig 1. Oxford data curation institutional context

Dr Michael Fraser, Principal Investigator on the

EIDCSR project, began by welcoming

attendees to the event and explaining the

institutional context at the University of Oxford.

The University is committed to supporting

researchers with their data through the

deployment of a federated data repository

supported by suitable business models and in

cooperation with other agencies in the UK.

After this Mike provided an overview of the

EIDCSR project and the work that has been

undertaken to develop an institutional policy.

BBSRC University College London

Bournemouth University University of Bath

Charles Beagrie Ltd. University of Bristol

Digital Curation Centre University of Cambridge

Greater Manchester Comprehensive Research Network University of Edinburgh

IBM University of Oxford

Imperial College London University of Sheffield

Institute of Education, University of London University of Southampton

JISC University of Stirling

King´s College London University of the West of England

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine University of Warwick

The Open University University of York

UKRDS

EMBEDDING INSTITUTIONAL DATA CURATION SERVICES IN RESEARCH

(EIDCSR) PROJECT WORKSHOP

INSTITUTIONAL POLICY AND GUIDANCE FOR RESEARCH DATA

EIDCSR Policy and Guidance for Research Data – Report 4/21/2010

The EIDCSR policy work in Oxford has been led by the Research Office in collaboration with the

University of Melbourne. The aim of this work was to develop an institutional policy framework as well

as an implementation plan that ensures it is useful to researchers and their departments.

After the welcome and introduction, Kathryn Dally and Paul Taylor presented the Oxford experience of

developing an institutional policy. Kathryn explained how this work forms part of a wider programme in

promoting research integrity or the responsible conduct of research (RCR) at the University of Oxford.

Data management is an essential area of RCR, but , there is currently no formal guidance or policy in

place at Oxford, and there is also a a recognized need to ensure compliance with the requirements of

funders, regulatory agencies and codes of conduct. EIDCSR provided the opportunity and resources

for Paul Taylor from the University of Melbourne to be seconded to work on this. Paul conducted a

series of interviews with academics and administrative staff where a series of recurring themes were

identified such as the importance of knowing how long to retain data, where to locate it, who owns it and

where to go for advice. Currently work is taking place on drafting a policy and an implementation

strategy. Paul´s work has led to the following recommendations:

Fig. 2 Recommendations from the policy work undertaken as part of the EIDCSR Project

Donna McRostie and Anna Shadbolt from the University of Melbourne presented the history behind the

research records and management policy at Melbourne. In 1996 a project started that led to the

development of data guidelines in 1998. A review was later undertaken in 2004 and the guidelines were

endorsed as University policy in 2005.

When the policy was reviewed again in 2009 it

was revealed that it was ‘off the radar’ for most

researchers and that better researcher

engagement was needed. Some of the data

services envisaged to do this include data

portals with advice, training programs, and

establishing dedicated data librarians to work

with researchers.

Fig.3 Data services in Melbourne

EIDCSR Policy and Guidance for Research Data – Report 4/21/2010

Simon Porter, also from the University of Melbourne, talked about their central data registry: an

institution-wide record of all research data and records stored in the university including a description,

the name(s) of associated researchers and projects, the location of the data (digital and analogue),

access restrictions, and relocation and disposal schedules.

Fig. 4 Melbourne´s data registry screenshots

The registry makes use of a research public

profile system, has a public and a private view

and is populated automatically by scanning for

references to data in publications. A new

research management information system is

now being deployed at Melbourne and it will

support the integration of information about

research activity and outputs.

Prof. Jeff Haywood (Vice Principal Knowledge Management, Chief Information Officer & Librarian to the

University of Edinburgh) started his talk by describing the opportunity of managing research data better.

Jeff introduced enablers such as senior management recognition and researchers’ own interests, as

well as inhibitors such as a lack of clear resolution from research councils, plus some practical

difficulties.

After this, Jeff presented some of the initiatives

taking place at Edinburgh, including the

research computing strategy, the institutional

repository service, and projects like DataShare

and DAF, which have resulted in the

DataShare data repository, a draft policy for

research data management, data management

web pages, and pilot training courses.

Fig. 5 Edinburgh DataShare data repository

Kenji Takeda from the University of Southampton introduced the Institutional Data Management

Blueprint (IDMB) JISC project [http://www.southamptondata.org/]. IDMB aims at producing a framework

for managing research data for an HEI as well as scoping a pilot implementation plan for an institution-

wide data model.

EIDCSR Policy and Guidance for Research Data – Report 4/21/2010

Fig. 6 The three legged stool data model

Kenji explained how their approach is

research-centric, based on developing the

appropriate technology and governance with

adequate resources. A range of interviews

have taken place showing the necessity of

guidelines and support. Their expected

outcomes include a data management strategy

for the next decade and training courses.

The last presentation was by David McAllister from the BBSRC on how to implement an effective data

sharing policy. The background to the BBRSC data sharing policy can be traced back to the OECD´s

principles and guidance for research data document in 2007 and the bioscience data policy context,

with agencies such as MRC and Wellcome adopting data policies.

Fig. 7 BBSRC data sharing principles

The BBSRC policy is based on eight principles,

including sharing data with few restrictions, in a

timely manner, with appropriate metadata and

standards, and following regulatory

requirements. The attempt is to encourage and

enable data sharing and facilitate the reuse of

data.

The sharing of data is monitored from the

application stage and throughout the project.

The different needs of the different

communities are recognized and the policy

evolves continuously.

The final discussion touched on issues such as the importance of not only keeping research data but

also the processes involved, delivering compulsory and integrated postgraduate data management

training programmes, and the responsibility of research councils to avoid researchers simply creating a

plethora of independent websites to share their data but rather encouraging the development of

institutional data repositories.