Repositorios de información científica. Gestión de los datos para la investigación seminario

Date: Monday 17 November 2008
Venue: Salón de Actos, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid

In the UK there has been much activity and discussion surrounding the management of research data produced within academia both at a national and institutional level. These research datasets form part of a heterogeneous set of digital materials (text, numbers, images, audio, video, etc), the management of which entails their maintenance and curation through the research lifecycle from creation to storage, access, sharing or publishing. This seminar is aimed at presenting issues related to the inclusion of research data in digital repositories these include the main challenges encountered and solutions where applicable, case studies, data typologies and best practice. The event will also serve to introduce some of the current initiatives in the United Kingdom pertaining to research data management and their interface with the Institutional Repository landscape in addition to discussing repository developments for Universities members of the Consorcio Madroño. The event is designed for Library Directors, repository managers and IT staff working in repositories.

La finalidad de este seminario es presentar cuestiones relacionadas con la inclusión de los datos de la investigación en repositorios digitales, incluyendo los principales desafíos que se presentan, y soluciones donde puedan aplicarse,estudio de casos, tipologías de datos y mejores prácticas. El evento servirá también para presentar algunas de las iniciativas actuales en el Reino Unido con implicaciones en la gestión de datos de investigación y su interfaz con el horizonte del repositorio institucional, además de para tratar el desarrollo de los repositorios con los miembros de las Universidades y el Consorcio Madroño. Se ha diseñado para directores de bibliotecas y centros de investigación, gestores de repositorios y personal informático que trabaje en dichos repositorios. Asimismo, se abre la convocatoria a investigadores de diferentes ámbitos, en tanto que usuarios de los recursos de información.

Presentations include:

Scoping Digital Repository Services for Research Data Management Luis Martinez Uribe, Digital Repositories Research Co-ordinator, University of Oxford

Academic institutions are increasingly deploying and using digital repositories to provide mechanisms to securely store, disseminate and preserve digital research outputs. So far, those outputs are mostly research articles, theses and other grey literature but there is a growing need to provide similar services for research generated data. Nonetheless, managing research data represents a highly complex issue for organizations due to the heterogeneity of the data and the need to establish the roles and responsibilities of the different communities involved such as Libraries, Computing Services and researchers. Moreover, in comparison to e-prints type of material where repositories can harvest author’s outputs once they have finished writing them, with research data it is crucial to work closely with researchers from the moment they create them and embed some curatorial activities throughout their workflows in order to obtain a digital object with a standard metadata description that can be stored in a repository for others to use.

In this talk, Luis will be presenting the Oxford project Scoping Digital Repository Services for Research Data Management. A joint effort in between the Office of the Director of IT, the Library Services, the Computing Services and the e-Research Centre to scope the requirements for repository services to manage and curate research data generated by Oxford researchers. Luis will describe the process and findings of the requirements gathering exercise as well as the consultation with Oxford service providers to produce recommendations on how to move services forward to manage and curate research data generated in the University of Oxford.

DISC-UK DataShare and Web 2.0 Data Visualization Tools Stuart Macdonald, DISC-UK DataShare Project Officer, EDINA National Data Centre

“Open Data” as a concept is gathering momentum as the latest term in the “open” trilogy along with Open Source and Open Access. It indicates a recognition that there is a rising level of expectation among users for complete access to an intellectual work, not only the final published post-print, but the body of evidence drawn on to create that final output. This is in line with several recent initiatives to open up publicly-funded research data to public availability.

By working together across four universities (Edinburgh, Oxford, Southampton and the London School of Economics) and internally with colleagues already engaged in managing open access repositories for e-prints, the JISC-funded DISC-UK DataShare project aims to contribute new models, workflows and tools for data deposit, sharing and archiving to UK research institutions in addition to investigating surrounding legal, cultural and technical issues.

In his presentation Stuart Macdonald will discuss the DISC-UK DataShare project and a range of ‘open data’ utilities that can be deployed outside of the repository arena to visualize spatial and numeric data in a Web 2.0 environment. Numeric data tools such as Many Eyes, Swivel, Numbrary and InfoChimps allow researchers to upload, share and analyse their own data. There are also a whole range of geospatial visualizations or mashups using open geobrowsers such as Google Earth, MS Virtual Earth, and Open Layers which capitalize on and utilize the preponderance of location-based information. This has paved the way for research organisations and academics to explore and expose their findings in new and innovative ways in addition to conceptualising an array of add-ons and plugins that could enhance the data repository experience.

Infrastructures for the use and reuse of research data Celia Russell, Economic and Social Data Service and University of Manchester

The UK is currently developing a series of initiatives for supporting the use and re-use of research data within the academic sector. These include the Repositories Support Project, which delivers practical advice on the implementation of institutional repositories, the National Grid Service, which provides academics with a place to hold very large research databases, the proposed distributed Research Data Service, and the UKDA Store which is a new national self archiving system for the management and sharing of research data. In this presentation, Celia will be reporting on the uptake of these services and their role in the establishment of viable infrastructures for the archiving and dissemination of research data. Services designed to help users of repositories locate the data they need will also be highlighted. Finally, Celia will discuss the national data services which support and disseminate major secondary datasets used by the research community, and EU initiatives designed to aid sharing of data across international boundaries.

The seminar will conclude with a panel session on how national data centres can integrate with institutional repositories, the Grid and innovative tools to provide seamless access to research data.

Attendence at the seminar is by invitation only