Managing Data: The Long View FORCE15 – 12 January 2015 Amy Friedlander, Ph.D.

Managing Data:The Long View

FORCE15 – 12 January 2015Amy Friedlander, Ph.D.

Credits: Stephen Houston; Stephen Salpukas, College of William & Mary ; Jean Clottes (France); Angie Payne, University of Arkansas;

Angie Payne, University of Arkansas

About this talk: A slightly longer view

• A look at the last 20 years or so

• Future state: Information is ubiquitous

• Next steps (next 6-18 months)

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A quick look backwards

Capture and analytical technologies

Simulation

Connectivity and communications technologies

Text/word processing/collaboration/ presentation

IT, scholarly communication, and the nature of evidence

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What has happened?

• Heterogeneous data and objects• Invisible/visible – rising expectations

o Storage, preservation, and accesso Informal/formal communication

• Vocabulary and logic based on objects with properties

o Identifierso Description, including access rights and permissionso Location

• Software as a first class object

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Question 1

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Must managing data be collocated

with storing the data?

• Yes. Closely coupled architectures

• No. Distributed architectures (cloud)

• Where does that leave software?

Question 2

Who gets access to what? And when?

• Public/open access policies

• Restrictions/permissions on access

and use

• Standards and formats

Question 3

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What (and who) can I trust?

I don’t have an answer to that one.

But there is a lot of research.

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Future state:

Information is ubiquitous

Imagine. . .

An environment in which the investigator could upload once and the information could be discovered and used by many

An environment in which all publications were linked to the underlying evidence (data), analytical tools, and software

If so, what would it take to get there? What can government do? What can you do?

A collaborative research culture

• Build infrastructure oUnique, persistent identifiersoMetadata and descriptionoRepositories and storageoPlatforms that enable collaboration and

sharing

• Foster institutions that enable consensus building around standards and best practices

• Create rewards and incentives

What can government do?

• Articulate policy (international, national, state, agency)

• Develop implementations that:o Make it easy – and provide incentives -- to do

the “right” thing and difficult to go wrong o Are not over-engineered or prematurely

specified

• Encourage use of infrastructure elements adopted by the research communities

Some public/open access milestones• Berlin Open Access Initiative (2002); Bethesda

Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003); Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Scientific Knowledge (2003)

• NIH policy – 2008• NSF data management plan (2011); data citation

(2013)• RCUK (2011, 2012)• OSTP memo and Open Data executive order

(2013)• Gates Foundation (2014)• State and university policies

NSF’s DMP principles• Defer to the communities • Implicitly acknowledge a distributed

environment of multiple stakeholders and resources

• Provide high level coherence that allow for heterogeneity in data and research communities

• Address evidence

Next steps (6-18 months)

NSF’s approach to public access• Recognizes that science takes place in

communitieso Diversity of sciences with heterogeneous

research resultso Range of institutions, professional societies,

stewardship institutions, and publisherso Multiple funding streams

• Builds on current practice• Leverages resources across government,

higher education, and the private sector

The NSF Plan provides a framework.• Deploy in phases – “easy case”• Learn from one phase to inform the next• Focus on publications in the initial

implementation with the expectation that the architecture will extend to other kinds of research products

• Integrate the internal systems within the enterprise architecture to minimize burden on investigators and program staff

• Work with the communities to understand needs with respect to data and data management

and this is an international challenge

What should you expect?• NSF will post the approved plan to nsf.gov.• NSF will post FAQs and guidance to nsf.gov; these will evolve.• Technical pilot(s) will provide opportunities for feedback.• Changes to procedures will be announced with opportunities

for notice/comment as required by Federal-wide policies.• Waiver process for changes to the 12-month embargo• NSF will retain existing requirements and practices, to the

extent possible, including:o Data management plano Allowance for publication/data costs in the budget proposalso Data citation in Biographical Sketches

• Look for more specific guidance at the program/division/ directorate levels.

What can you do?• Adopt consistent practices concerning

citation and deposit of data and software• Recognize different kinds of contributions

• Data• Software

• Ask harder questions in panel and editorial reviews

• Encourage your students to become conversant in data and software

We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, 1776

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Thank you!

Amy Friedlander ([email protected])

Clifford Gabriel ([email protected])

Joanne Tornow ([email protected])