Engaging the Researcher in RDM

Stuart MacdonaldAssociate Data LibrarianEDINA National Data Centre & Edinburgh University Data Library

[email protected]

ANDS Data interviews webinar 13 August 2012

Engaging the researcher in RDM

EDINA and University Data Library (EDL) together are a division within Information Services of the University of Edinburgh.

EDINA is a JISC-funded National Data Centre providing national online resources for education and research.

The Data Library assists Edinburgh University users in the discovery, access, use and management of research datasets.

What is a Data Library

A data library refers to both the content and the services that foster use of collections of numeric, audio-visual, textual or geospatial data sets for secondary use in research.

Focus on re-use of data

Building relationships with researchers via PG teaching activities, research support projects, IS Skills workshops, Research Data Management training and through traditional reference interviews.

Data Reference Interview

1 hour appointment to discuss research question / context

Establish whether data the researcher requires is available, suitable level of granularity , suitable and accessible format, assess licensing, cost, use conditions, software dependency

Research Data sharing via research data repository Edinburgh DataShare - embargo, keywords, licenses (ODC), formatting, documentation, depositor agreement, copyright, dataset associated with publication

RIN Disciplinary Case Studies: understanding the information needs of life science researchers (Oct. 2008 – July 2009)

Seven case studies were conducted across a diverse range of laboratories and research groups from botany to clinical neuroscience.

http://tinyurl.com/d9j3yxs

Deployed a range of qualtitative methods and tools designed to ‘enhance understanding of how researchers locate, evaluate, organise, manage, transform and communicate information sources as an integrated part of the research process’.

5-day information diaries (x55) F-2-F interviews, (x24) Focus groups (1 per case)

Research data can be much more complex than the post-publication content that librarians typically encounter.

The data interview should be driven by the researcher and guided by the interviewer / librarian

What constitutes data may be interpreted differently by different people at different times in different contexts

Research data will have discrete issues or challenges associated with them thus it is important that the research data that are the subject of the interview are clearly defined

Interviewing researchers – considerations

• Identify base level of knowledge about domain-specific research process (librarian)

• Identify base level of knowledge about research data management (researcher)

• Iron out ambiguities / domain-specific jargon as definitions may differ across disciplines

• Use the ‘research data lifecycle’ as a framing device: Plan, Create, Use, Appraise, Publish, Discover, Re-use

Interviewing researchers – considerations

University of Edinburgh RDM Strategy

Establishment of IS RDM Steering and Action groupHigh profile ‘champion’– Peter Clark (Professor of Physics at the University of Edinburgh & CERN Fellow)

IS RDM Action group working on service implementation plans

• Data management support• Data management planning• Active data infrastructure• Data stewardship

Pilot studies with research groups• feedback into service implementation plans re. tools and services• who to engage with• Case studies

RDM Awareness Raising sessions with library & information professionals

Services Roadmap

Engagement toolsData Asset Framework (DCC/HATII) –http://www.data-audit.eu/

provides organisations with the means to: - find out what data assets are being

created and held within institutions

- explore how those data are stored, managed, shared and reused

- identify any risks e.g. misuse, data loss or irretrievability

- learn about researchers’ attitudes towards data creation and sharing

- suggest ways to improve ongoing data management.

Data Curation Profiles Toolkit (Purdue University)

http://datacurationprofiles.org/

Data Curation Profiles can:

• provide a guide for discussing data with researchers• give insight into areas of attention in data management• help assess information needs related to data collections• give insight into differences between data in various

disciplines• help identify possible data services• create a starting point for curating a data set for archiving

and preservation

‘Librarians will need to move beyond our focus on researchers’ needs as information consumers, and work towards building awareness of their disciplinary and sub-disciplinary information cultures and norms ..…. acquiring this depth of knowledge needs to be made a pre-requisite before new infrastructures or services for research data are developed. Conducting data interviews with researchers is one approach towards achieving this foundational understanding.’

Jake Carlson (2012)

All Images by PropagandaTimes - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

FIN !!

REFERENCES:Jake Carlson, (2012) "Demystifying the data interview: Developing a foundation for reference librarians to talk with researchers about their data", Reference Services Review, Vol. 40 Iss: 1, pp.7 – 23

Kristin Partlo (2009) “The pedagogical data reference interview”, IASSIST Quarterly, Vol. 33 Iss: Winter, pp.6 – 10 - http://www.iassistdata.org/downloads/iqvol334_341partlo.pdf