UKOLN is supported by: e-Research: trends, requirements and challenges Dr Liz Lyon, UKOLN, University of Bath, UK Cross Research Council ICT Conference

UKOLN is supported by:

e-Research: trends, requirements and challenges

Dr Liz Lyon, UKOLN, University of Bath, UK

Cross Research Council ICT Conference

NeSC, Edinburgh, May 2004

www.bath.ac.uk

a centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

Cross Research Council ICT Conference 2

Overview

• Looking at the trends– Open access publishing– Diversification of resources

• Identifying requirements– Towards a common infrastructure – “Virtual research environments”

• The scholarly knowledge cycle– A changing landscape– The eBank UK Project

• Challenges for the future

Looking at the trends

“The next generation of research breakthroughs will rely upon new ways of handling the immense amounts of data that are being produced by modern research methods and equipment, such as telescopes, particle accelerators, genome sequencers and biological imagers….Similar developments are having an impact in the arts and humanities, and in the social sciences.”

A Vision for Research,

Research Councils UK, December 2003.


Report of the National Science Foundation

Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure

2003

http://www.cise.nsf.gov/sci/reports/toc.cfm


Open Access - a global initiative

• US Sabo Bill (“Public Access to Science”)• DAREnet Dutch scientific results• Australian government statement• Berlin Declaration (BOAI)• WSIS Declaration of Principles & Plan of Action • Wellcome Trust statement• JISC FAIR Programme• UK Parliament Science & Technology Committee

Inquiry on Scientific Publications



“The governments of …34 countries…recognising that open accessto….data promotes scientific progress… declare their commitment to work towards the establishment of access regimes for digital research data…in accordance with the following principles….

openness, transparency, legal conformity, formal responsibility, professionalism, protection of IPR, interoperability, quality and security, efficiency, accountability…..”

OECD Declaration on access to research data from public funding.

January 2004



e-Research trends summary

• Increasingly data–intensive, quantitative• Open access to data and information • Implementing new science • Inter-disciplinary • New disciplines e.g. Astro-informatics• New skills requirements

– IT + statistics + domain

• Collaborative• Highly distributed resources


Distributed resources….used in new ways

• Primary / original data – Observational, experimental, numeric, genomic, 2/3D molecular

structures, satellite images, electron micrographs, wave spectra, CAD, musical compositions, VR, performances, animations

• Data and information– Creation, discovery, gathering, aggregation, dis-aggregation, replication,

federation, manipulation, transformation, linking, annotation, editing/versioning, validation, (self-)archiving, deposit, publication, curation

• Knowledge extraction and management– Analysis (textual, musical, statistical, mathematical, visual, chemical,

gene……)– Mining (text, data, structures……)– Modelling (economic, mathematical, biological..)– Simulation (molecular, physical, environmental, games…)– Presentation (visualisation, rendering….)

Identifying requirements


Towards a common infrastructure

• UK e-Science Programme & JISC Development• e-Science Phase 2 2003 – 2006

– An Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII) based on open standards (Web Services)

• JISC Information Environment– Technical architecture based on open standards

(Web Services, OAI-PMH, Z39.50, RSS…..) http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/

• JISC e-Learning Programme– Technical Framework to support E-Learning

http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/frameworks/index.html


Virtual Research Environments – vision?• Standards-based, service-oriented framework

– Open standards WSRF, WSRP, WSDL?– “Modular”, distributed and interoperable tools

• Integrated– Resource creation, publishing, sharing, discovery

• Managed / secure / sustainable– Access, rights, archives

• Usable and accessible– Meet user requirements

• Personalised– Customised presentation and services

• Intelligent agents– Delegate routine tasks

• Extensible– Ease of adding new compliant tools

• Collaborative– Shared interaction, Access Grid?

• Portable / ubiquitous access– Wireless, mobile devices


Disciplinary differences• Arts and humanities, social sciences

– Lone researcher culture but changing

• Data– Qualitative– Observational– Not repeatable– Incomplete– Time dependent– Ethical and data protection issues– Not always shared

• Tools and methodologies– Partially developed– Legacy tools

• Cognitive styles, browsing, searching– Performing and visual arts

• Skills– Lack of experience of distributed computing


The scholarly knowledge cycle


Research & e-Science workflows

Aggregator services: national, commercial

Repositories : institutional, e-prints, subject, data, learning objects

Data curation: databases & databanks

Validation

Harvestingmetadata

Data creation / capture / gathering: laboratory experiments, Grids, fieldwork, surveys, media

Deposit / self-archiving

Peer-reviewed publications: journals, conference proceedings

Publication

Validation

Data analysis, transformation, mining, modelling

Searching , harvesting, embedding

Presentation services: subject, media-specific, data, commercial portals

Resource discovery, linking, embedding

Linking






Validation

Harvestingmetadata




Publication

Validation





Linking












Validation

Harvestingmetadata




Publication

Validation





Linking


Learning & Teaching workflows



Institutional presentation services: portals, Learning Management Systems, u/g, p/g courses, modules

Harvestingmetadata



Validation



Learning object creation, re-use


Quality assurance bodies

Validation









Validation

Harvestingmetadata





Publication

Validation







Validation



Linking




Aggregator services:

eBank UK




Validation

Harvestingmetadata





Publication

Validation







Validation



Linking


eBank UK project

• JISC-funded for 1 year from September 2003• UKOLN (lead), University of Southampton, University of

Manchester• “Building the links between research data, scholarly

communication and learning”• e-Science testbed Combechem

– Grid-enabled combinatorial chemistry– Crystallography, laser and surface chemistry– Development of an e-Lab using pervasive computing technology– National Crystallography Service

• Resource Discovery Network PSIgate physical sciences portal• http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/ebank-uk/

Challenges for the future


Issues and implications 1• Towards a common infrastructure

– Incremental convergence?– Common Information Environment

• Institutional– Grid client problem– Managing trusted digital repositories

• Describing resources– Standard metadata schema for data?– CLRC Scientific Metadata Model vs 1.0 2001 (under revision)

http://www-dienst.rl.ac.uk/library/2002/tr/dltr-2002001.pdf

– Richness and complexity vs simplicity and sharing– Semantic descriptions and shared ontologies– Identifiers: generic and domain


Issues and implications 2• Human resources

– Awareness of developments– Engagement and roles– Skills development– JISC Awareness & Training Environment for e-Social

Science– JISC ICT Awareness & Training Programme for A&H

• Cultural– Willingness to share data

• Legal– IPR, consent, privacy

• Funders– Incentives to engage




Aggregator services: eBank UK




Validation

Harvestingmetadata





Publication

Validation







Validation



Linking


Potential longer term impact

1. Track data, information and workflows in e-research and scholarly communications – knowledge audit??

2. Validate the accuracy and authenticity of derived works – ideas audit??

3. Facilitate explicit referencing and acknowledgment of original contributors – intellectual integrity??

4. Raise standards associated with publication of research outputs – academic publishing rigour??

5. Implement open access to and dissemination of data and information – enhance the research process??

6. Give students links to original data underpinning published works – enhance the learning process??


Thank you.

Questions?…..

Documents

UKOLN is supported by: e-Research: trends, requirements and challenges Dr Liz Lyon, UKOLN, University of Bath, UK Cross Research Council ICT Conference