RDM Priorities, Stakeholders, Practice

PREFACE: Without wishing to state the obvious

Ideas are the currency used by all learned institutions - their generation, communication, and exchange precipitate knowledge.

However academic institutions are governed and influenced by a complex set of contributors:

history, culture, politics, legislation, economics, geography, jurisdiction

They may function under specific operational parameters:

public or privatecentralized or devolvedvocational or academiclarge or small

They may susceptible to sentient elements such as:

OpportunismSerendipityReputationCompetitionAspiration

But all things considered each is equipped with:

strategic directionresearch agendascurriculum developmentsupport infrastructurestechnological capabilities

THUS - What’s significant or appropriate for one institution may not be so for the another!

RDM Priorities, Stakeholders, Practice: an Edinburgh perspective

Stuart MacdonaldCISER Data Services Librarian

Associate Data LibrarianUniversity of Edinburgh

Emails: [email protected]@ed.ac.uk

Presented at the Cornell Univ. RDMS & Data Discussion Groups Meeting, 7 March, 2014

EDINA & Data Library (EDL)

• EDINA and University Data Library (EDL) together are a division within Information Services (IS) 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.

• Mission statement: “We develop and deliver online services and digital infrastructure for UK research and education ….. drawing upon knowledge and expertise gained through research, innovation and development.”

• Networked access to a range of online resources for UK FE and HE

• Services free at the point of use for use by staff and students in learning, teaching and research through institutional subscription

• Focus is on service but also undertake R&D (projects services)

• delivers about 20 online services • 5 - 10 major projects (incl. services in development)• employs about 80 staff (Edinburgh & St Helens)

EDINA National Data Centre

• Data Library & Consultancy

• JISC-funded projects – DISC-UK DataShare (2007-2009)

• Edinburgh DataShare Repository

– Research Data MANTRA (2010-2011)

– Data Audit Framework Implementation (2008)

Data Library services and projects

Data Library & Consultancy

Building relationships with researchers via postgraduate

teaching activities, research support projects, IS Skills workshops, Research Data Management training and through traditional reference interviews.

• finding…• accessing …• using …• teaching …• managing

Edinburgh DataShare

An online institutional repository of multi-disciplinary research datasets produced at the University of Edinburgh, hosted by the Data Library

Researchers producing research data associated with a publication, or which has potential use for other researchers, can upload their dataset for sharing and safekeeping. A persistent identifier and suggested

citation will be provided.

DataShare is a customised DSpace instance with a selection of standards-compliant metadata fields useful for dataset discovery, through Google and other search engines via OAI-PMH.

Research Data MANTRA

Partnership between:

Data Library & Institute for Academic Development

Funded by JISC Managing Research Data Programme (Sept. 2010 – Aug. 2011)

Grounded in three disciplinary contexts: social science, clinical psychology and geoscience

Aim was to develop online interactive open learning resources for PhD students and early career researchers that will:

• Raise awareness of the key issues related to research data management

• Contribute to culture change & good research practice

Eight units with activities, scenarios and videos:

• Research data explained• Data management plans• Organising data• File formats and transformation• Documentation and metadata• Storage and security• Data protection, rights and access• Preservation, sharing and licensing

Four data handling practicals: SPSS, NVivo, R, ArcGIS

Xerte Online Toolkits – University of Nottingham

• CC licence to allow manipulation of content for re-use with attribution• Portable content in open standard formats (e.g. SCORM)

Online learning module

A JISC-funded pilot project produced 6 case studies from research

units across the University in identifying research data assets and

assessing their management, using DAF methodology developed by

the Digital Curation Centre.

Background:

Edinburgh Data Audit Framework (DAF) Implementation Project(May – Dec 2008)

4 main outcomes:

• Develop online RDM guidance• Develop RDM training• Develop university research data management policy• Develop services & support for RDM (in partnership IS)

RDM Roadmap@Edinburgh- an institutional approach

• RDM policy containing 10 aspirational statements affirming both the

researchers’ and the University’s responsibilities, e.g.

•PI responsible for RDM•University will provide RDM support and training•University will provide RDM services (such as back-up, storage, deposit)•Data retained elsewhere will be registered with the University•RDM plans must ensure that data are available for access and re-use under appropriate safeguards

• UKRC Common Principles of Research Data Policy states:

•Publicly funded research are a public good produced in the public interest•Data with long terms value should be preserved & accessible for re-use

• UK Research Funders have all issued research data management policies demanding institutions take care of and preserve data for re-use

Drivers

An RDM Policy Implementation Committee was set up by the Vice Principal Knowledge Management, Professor Jeff Haywood to implement recommendations:

• Membership from across IS

• Charged with delivering services that will meet RDM policy objectives

• Iterate with researchers to ensure services meet the needs of researchers

The Vice Principal also established a Steering Committee led by Prof. Peter Clarke comprising members of Research Committee from the 3 colleges, IS, DCC and Edinburgh Research and Innovation (ERI).

Their role is to:

• Provide oversight to the activity of the Implementation Committee

• Ensure services meet researcher requirements without harming research competitiveness

Committees

•EPSRC expects funded projects to have developed a roadmap aligned with EPSRC’s RDM expectations by 1st May 2012, and to be fully compliant with these expectations by 1st May 2015.

•The Executive Summary of the Information Services Plan, 2012-13 states, “Research data management & storage – policies, training, curation, preservation, baseline 0.5Tb/user,” is a major IS-led project for the year.

•The Edinburgh RDM roadmap was set out as a high level plan for its delivery, noting objectives, outcomes, deliverables and target dates for an 18-month period - consisting of Phase 0 planning period (May – Sept. 2013) followed by 3 x six monthly phases up to April 2015.

•The RDM Roadmap forms the basis of the RDM Programme of service, support and communication activities.

RDM Roadmap

Costs !

•The roadmap follows up a business case submitted to the University IT Committee in Summer 2012 by Jeff Haywood which estimated one-off and recurrent costs.

•In May 2013 Vice Principal announced that funding would be in the order of £2 million split between infrastructure and RDM support and technical personnel.

•Currently the Roadmap does not include itemised costs.

•Freemium model - 1.6PB storage – allocated to Schools / Research Institutes / Research groups

General consultancy and support service throughout the research process

Example services might include:

• Tailored awareness and advocacy activities• Online Data Management guidance• Training (online / F-2-F)• Data Management consultancy (as part of grant funded research)

Support for planning activities that are typically performed before research data is collected or created

Example services might include:

• Bespoke Data Management Planning (DMP) support (as dependent upon funding body’s requirements)

• Customised DMPOnline tool (incl. boiler plate text)

Facilities to store data that is actively used in current research activities, to provide access to that storage, and tools to assist in working with the data

Example services might include:

• Accessible cross-platform Data Store• (Remote) File Access Services (e.g. Dropbox-like)• Data Synchronisation (e.g. mobile devices)• Web-based Collaboration tools• Structured Data Version Control (WebDAV)• Central Database service

Tools and services to aid in the description, deposit, and on-going management of completed research data outputs

Example services might include:

• Data archive service (vault) • Data asset register• Data repository (enhanced)• PURE Current Research Information System integrated with other systems

To describe how these services fit together we have differentiated each system by what it will hold & who can access the content.

The vertical axis differentiates between systems that hold metadata only from those that contain data files

The horizontal axis differentiates between private and public systems

• PURE is our Current Research Information System (CRIS).  It is a private system for the University to record metadata about the research outputs it generates.  (It can hold files, and has a public interface, but this is primarily for OA publications rather than research data).

• DataShare is our open data repository.  It holds and curates datasets (and associated metadata) for public consumption on behalf of the data creators. 

• What about the other two quadrants:

• Is there a case where we need a public store of metadata about research data?

• or a private store of finished data sets?

• We think there is!

Public Metadata:

Not only is it good practice for a research institution to know what research data it is creating, some research funders require this. In addition the University’s RDM policy requires (point 6.)

“Any data which is retained elsewhere, for example in an international data service or domain repository should be registered with the University.”

This need can be fulfilled by a Data Asset Register or DAR.

Private Data:

Whilst some data are suitable for sharing, some will need to have their access controlled. Thus there is a need for a secure place for keeping data. Once archived there files should only be accessible by the data creator. It should not be possible to change files, but only to create new versions or to remove/delete them.

This need can be fulfilled by a Data Vault – a place to store date-stamped golden copy data (associated with a paper, containing personal information, from completed research, or subject to retention rules)

Systems do not live in isolation, and become more powerful and more likely to be used if they are integrated with each other.

However, the last thing that we want is to introduce further systems that need to be fed with duplicate information.

This means interoperation for some or all of the components

Interoperation

Working on the premise that the DAR will become the main user interface for entering metadata about datasets:

It may also be the main user interface for uploading files into the Data Vault.

Thus the DAR and the Vault will need to be integrated.

PURE is the master system for holding records and relationships about research outputs including data sets. If some or all of these are being created in the DAR, then they will need to be pushed into PURE. Equally if data are being registered directly in PURE, it will be useful to pull this out of PURE and into the DAR

Finally, for instances where metadata is held in the DAR, corresponding files are held in the Data Vault, the data owner may decide to make the data openly available. Thus the DAR should be able to deposit these as a new item in the Data Repository.

There are a number of different groups within the university and outside with whom we need to communicate our RDM programme.

This will be done through a variety of communication activities.

RDM Programme Communications Plan

Target Audiences

1.University of Edinburgh staff need to understand the principles of RDM and how it is practiced and supported within the University:

• Research active staff • IS and School/college support staff • Other university committees and groups (research policy group,

library committee, IT committee, knowledge strategy committee)

2.External collaborators and stakeholders such as funding bodies, Russell Group, national and international RDM community e.g. RDA, DANS, ANDS, COAR, DPC, DCC

Key Messages: Co-ordinated, Consistent, Coherent

There are three key messages which will need to be tailored and made timely and relevant to our target audiences.

The core of each message however must be maintained to ensure that everyone gains the same level of understanding.

1.The University is committed to and has invested in RDM• services, training, support

2.What is meant by Research Data Management?• definitions, data lifecycle, responsibilities

3.The University is supporting researchers• encourage good research practice, effect culture change

Communication activities

• Awareness raising sessions

• In each of the 22 Schools (all researchers) – to ensure that all research staff have the same level of knowledge about RDM

• Attend School Research Committee meeting to ensure committee understands key RDM messages

• Regular (12 monthly) updates for IS staff on RDM Programme• Tailored sessions for specific support groups (ERI, Helpline)• Tailored sessions for School support staff – likely to be first port

of call for researchers• Segment into new staff induction sessions (run by IAD)

• Website – ‘One Stop Shop’ for all university RDM materials (FAQs, key messages, RDM planning guidance, service guides)

• Internal and external publications • Service leaflets• Data blog• Internal publications (newsletters, annual and community reports)• Emails to staff applying for grants• Emails to staff who have just received a grant• Information Packs for new grant recipients sent out by Research Office

(ERI) containing service leaflets, help guides, contact details• Outreach and dissemination (papers, posters, demos at conferences,

seminars, articles, blog posts)

• Training for researchers• Online via MANTRA• Training courses (1-2 hour sessions over 6 weeks delivered by IS)

• Training for support staff• Academic Support Librarian Training• Training for Research Office staff• Training for School Support staff (esp. research administrators, data

managers, IT support staff)

• Launch of Live Services – May 2014 !• External Events – IDCC, RDMF, RDA events, conferences where

appropriate

Jisc MRD Programme 2009-2013

• Jisc is ‘a registered charity [.. that ..] champions the use of digital technologies in UK education and research.’ It is funded by all the UK tertiary education funding councils.

• Jisc funded two Managing Research Data (MRD) strands:

• Strand 1 (Oct. 2009 – Sept. 2011)

• Piloting RDM infrastructures within institutions • Improving practice in RDM planning • Developing tools to help institutions plan their RDM practice • Demonstrating the benefits of citing, publishing and research data • Developing RDM Training materials – up-skilling researchers and

support staff

Strand 2 (Oct. 2011 – Jul. 2013) - Working closely with the DCC this strand aimed to improve institutional RDM capability.

• 17 institutional projects to help universities pilot or develop RDM infrastructures to provide quality support for research

• 8 projects for helping research groups or departments fulfill the requirements of research funders by implementing DMPs

• 2 projects to customize DCC’s DMP Online tool for institutional use

These activities were complemented by work:

• to improve the practice of data citation and explore innovative ways of publishing research data

• to develop disciplinary focused RDM training materials for other stakeholders, including discipline liaison librarians and research liaison officers.

Objectives are to:

1. Build support structures for researchers in depositing research publications in collaboration with Open Access Liaison Offices in 27 member states

2. Establish and operate an electronic infrastructure for handling scholarly communications and other value-added functionality (annotation tools, metrics and reporting tools)

3. Work with subject communities to explore the practices, incentives, workflows, and technologies required to deposit,

access, and manipulate research datasets associated with research publications.

The European Commission recently announced its €15 Billion Horizon 2020 Programme, intended to boost the  knowledge economy with a set of

"... new rules to make 'open access' a requirement for Horizon 2020, so that publications of project results are freely accessible to all.“

Open Access to Research Data

The EC has also announced a Pilot on Open Access to Research Data. This aims to maximise and share research data produced by EC funded projects ‘for the benefit of society and the economy’.

Each pilot project will have to develop an RDM Plan indicating what kind of data their project will create and how this data can be exploited and made available ‘for use by other researchers, innovative industries and citizens .

The EC has also issued Guidelines for Data Management and another set of guidelines for Open Access to Scientific Publications and Data.

THANK YOU!Links:Data Library Services: http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library

EDINA: http://edina.ac.uk/

Edinburgh University Data Policy: http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-data-policy

Edinburgh Data Audit Framework (DAF) Implementation: http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/283/

Research Data MANTRA course: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra

Edinburgh University RDM Roadmap: http://tinyurl.com/km99a9l

Managing Research Data Strand 1: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/mrd.aspx

Managing Research Data Strand 2: http://tinyurl.com/6w6g6qx

OpenAIRE: https://www.openaire.eu/en/home

Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020 [Dec. 2013]: http://tinyurl.com/ndfrdts

Guidelines on Data Management in Horizon 2020 [Dec. 2013]: http://tinyurl.com/leu4v7h

Acknowledgements:

Dr. Cuna Ekmekcioglu (Vice Principal’s Office) Sarah Jones (Digital Curation Centre)Stuart Lewis (Research & Learning Services)Kerry Miller (Research & Learning Services)Robin Rice (EDINA & Data Library)Dr. John Scally (Library and Collections)Tony Weir (IT Infrastructure)