Lifecycle perspectives

Lifecycle perspectivesA “big picture” of research data

today

Monday, August 9, 2010

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OutlineThis has been a decade for data! The research lifecycle.The data lifecycle.The data services lifecycle.Distinguishing data from all that

is digital.

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Data’s shameful neglectNature, September 10, 2009

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Data as an assetOne of the most significant changes of the

past decade has been the widespread recognition of data as an asset rather than the refuse of research.

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Drivers behind this changePolicy Shifts

OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy Ministerial Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding, January 30, 2004.

Public or open access to research findings and data sharing policies by research councils in the United States (NIH), the UK (BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC) and Canada (CIHR).

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Drivers behind this changePractice Shifts

A sea change in digital instrumentation in research and in society.

Big science investments in e-science or cyberinfrastructure that capitalize on high-speed networks, grid technology and large data centers.

The rising expectation for access to all kinds of data on the Internet.

Large-scale investments in digitization projects by the library and heritage sectors.

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Data as an assetAs an asset, data need proper management

and stewardship to ensure their long-term preservation and access.

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Data management consists of all activities dealing with data throughout the full research lifecycle.

Data stewardship ensures that the roles and responsibilities of those engaged in these activities are clearly identified and known.

Data management consists of all activities dealing with data throughout the full research lifecycle.

Data stewardship ensures that the roles and responsibilities of those engaged in these activities are clearly identified and known.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/campaigns/res3/jischelp.aspx

Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/campaigns/res3/jischelp.aspx

Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

Data deposit

Lifecycle management The research lifecycle is a representation of the

activities that occur throughout a research project. Grouped into sequential steps or stages, they cover everything from conceptualization to knowledge transfer.

Each stage consists of a set of related activities that culminate in a significant product or outcome that is then passed to the next stage.

By linking together a series of stages in a logical sequence, the research process is described.

Within the research lifecycle, several stages involve the production and management of data and metadata.

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Lifecycle management As with any project management operation,

the views of a project vary depending on the granularity at which activities are described.

Similarly, the stages in the research lifecycle can be aggregated or disaggregated into larger or smaller groupings, depending on the viewpoint one desires.

Keep these points in mind while examining the following lifecycle representations.

Now let’s move from a research lifecycle to a data lifecycle.

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Data lifecycle

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http://www.iassistdata.org/files/images/DDIlifecycle.jpg

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16http://www.dcc.ac.uk/lifecycle-model/

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/lifecycle-model/17

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This table lists changes to the stages in the DCC model, re-aggregating activities in the lifecycle to create a data services viewpoint.

DCC Data service

create or receive

data production

appraisal and select

dissemination

ingest, store, access and

usedata repository

discovery

transform repurpose19

Data services lifecycle

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Data Repurposing

Data ProductionData Repository

Data Dissemination

Data Discovery

Lifecycle contributionsLifecycle management can help in preparing a data

management plan that will ensure the research process is well documented. This includes using standardized metadata to drive many of the tasks throughout the research process and to facilitate access to the data and its submission for preservation.

Lifecycle management also can help identify those individuals or groups who have responsibilities across the stages of the research process. The essence of data stewardship is identifying the persons or agencies with responsibilities for data throughout the research process.

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Research Data“Is everything that is digital also data?”This was a question raised during the

Canadian National Data Archive Consultation in 2001.

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“By research data, we are referring to digital information that has been structured by methodology for the purpose of producing new knowledge.”National Data Archive Consultation: Phase One Needs Assessment Report. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2001.

“By research data, we are referring to digital information that has been structured by methodology for the purpose of producing new knowledge.”National Data Archive Consultation: Phase One Needs Assessment Report. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2001.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/campaigns/res3/jischelp.aspx

Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

Data deposit

Observe, experiment,

compute

Observe, experiment,

compute

Methods of producing data

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Observational Methods

Experimental Methods

Computational Methods

Focus is on developing observational instruments to collect data

Focus is on manipulating causal agents to measure change in a response agent

Focus is on modeling phenomena through mathematical equations

Correlation Causation Prediction

Replicate the analysis (same data or similar)

Replicate the experiment Replicate the simulation

Statistics summarize observations

Statistics summarize experiment results

Statistics summarize simulation results

C. Humphrey, Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians. Download from Day 1, Session Powerpoint at http://datalib.library.ualberta.ca/wisll/downloads/Downloads.html

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Take a break!When we come back… we’ll discuss

social science data.

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