SCOPING DIGITAL REPOSITORIES SERVICES FOR RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT A Project of the Office of the Director of IT 1 The management of research data in digital

SCOPING DIGITAL REPOSITORIES SERVICES

FOR RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT

A Project of the Office of the Director of IT1

The management of research data

in digital repositoriesOxford e-Research Centre Lunchtime Seminar, April 2008

Luis Martinez [email protected] Repositories Research Coordinator




• Background

• What are research data and data management?

• Benefits and challenges of managing research

data

• Digital repositories

• Web 2.0 tools

• Project

Summary




Background

“From Data to Wisdom: Pathways toSuccesful Data Management for AustralianScience ”

• The data deluge (Hey & Threfethen

2003)

• “More digital data will be produce in the

next 5 years than in whole human

history” (Australian DEST )

• The management of data is as key

component of the e-Infrastructure




What are research data?

SOME DATA CATEGORIZATIONS*

By needs they serve:

• Research data collections - to

meet the needs of specific

projects/groups

• Resource data collections -

serving a single community

• Reference data collections -

serving the need of large scale or

diverse communities

By their origin:

• Observational

• Computational

• Experimental

Other

• Raw/derived

• Quantitative/Qualitative

• Text/audio/image/numeric

• Static/dynamic

• Primary or secondary product of research *Taken from NSF’s report “Long Live Digital Data Collections”and also slide by

Michael Jubb at the DCC Data Management Forum n March 2008







Data Management

• Takes from knowledge/information management

• “…is understanding the current data needs and future

ones” (US Department of Defence)

• A mean to an end

• Not just technical infrastructure but also procedures and

policies

• Digital Curation and Sheer Curation




Benefits

• Ensuring data quality and authenticity

• Not re-inventing the wheel - data collection can be

expensive!

• Better access to information (which in many cases is

publicly funded) will produce high quality research

• Future access (preservation)

• Comply with requirements of funding agencies




Challenges

RIN‘s ”Stewardship of digital research data” (2007)

• Roles and Responsibilities - Who does what? (researchers, data managers, informaticians, librarians, computing services)

• Standards and Quality Assurance - What standards and procedures should be used? How do we ensure that data is of quality? Data peer-review?

• Access, Usage and Credit - Who owns the data? Are there metadata to help using the data? How to provide access? How to protect from misuse? How to cite data?

• Benefits and cost effectiveness - How to prove the benefits of managing research data?

• Preservation and sustainability - How to select which data needs to be preserved?




Digital Repositories

• Open Access to Scholarly

Communication

• Libraries set up repositories to

store, provide access and

preserve digital output produced

institutionally (e-prints and theses

mainly)

• Oxford Research Archive (ORA)

• What about data repositories?




Domain Data Centres

UKDA AHDSEBICERN NERCCCDC

Slide from Martn Lewis talk at DCC Data Management Forum March 2008




Data Repositories

• Current repositories good at services like:

– Storage/Access/Preservation/Resource description

• Research data may need extra repository services:

– Access control

– Data Visualization/Analysis

– Annotation

– ?




Initiatives, Services and Projects

• Oxford activities

– OeRC GRID datasets

– Image Bioinformatics Research Group

• Databases/tools&services/datawebs/ontologies

– JISC DataShare project/NEEO Project

– Neurogrid

– Beazley Archive/Lexicon of Greek Personal Names

• International scene

– Australian National Data Service (ANDS)

– Sustainable Digital Data Preservation and Access Network (DATANET)

– UK Research Data Service (UK RDS)




In the mean time…




Scoping Digital Repository Services for Research Data Management

Aim

“to scope the requirements, including for the underlying infrastructure and interoperability, for digital repositories services to store, curate, disseminate and preserve research data generated at Oxford.”

Objectives

• Capture researchers’ requirements for data management services

• Produce recommendations for provision of services

• Contribute to an interoperability plan for a federation of repositories

• Develop and initiate collaborations

• Raise awareness and communicate best practice




Progress and Next Steps

• Website and Blog

http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/odit/projects/digitalrepository/

• Literature Review

• Scoping Study Interviews

– Document current practices

– Capture requirements for data management services

– Produce recommendations

• Workshop

– Theme : Data management for researchers

– Raise awareness and encourage discussion




Thanks

Documents

SCOPING DIGITAL REPOSITORIES SERVICES FOR RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT A Project of the Office of the Director of IT 1 The management of research data in digital