Transcript Slide 1

UKSG webinar 5th September 2013
What is Research Data Management and
what is the library role in supporting it?
Andrew Cox
Information School, University of Sheffield
[email protected]
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
About you…!
• Around 200 people registered
– For this reason we may have to answer questions
after the event, but do use the chat facility to ask
anything you want
• Look at the Poll results
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Activity 1
• Q1 What best describes
your area of work?
– Research support / open
access
– Liaison work
– Collection management
– Electronic resource
management
– Metadata/cataloguing
– Special collections
– Library IT systems
– Policy/ senior management
– LIS Student
– Other
Jul-15
• Q2 What is your interest in
RDM?
– Just interested: keeping up to
date on what appears to be a
hot topic
– I think I might have a role in
supporting RDM in the future
– I have taken on a new
responsibility for RDM in the
last 6 months
– I have had a responsibility for
some aspect of RDM in my
institution for more than 6
months
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Learning outcomes
At the end of the session you will be able to:
• 1. Discuss the context in which improved
research data management has become an issue
• 2. Analyse the role of professional services,
especially libraries, in supporting RDM
• 3. Reflect for yourself as an individual and for
information professionals in general on the role
and priority of supporting RDM
• 4. Identify appropriate key reference sources
and further learning materials, including the free
to use/reuse RDMRose module
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
1. WHAT IS RESEARCH DATA
MANAGEMENT?
NAME SOME TYPES OF
RESEARCH DATA!
Jul-15
A list we came up with earlier...
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Weather measurements
Photographs
Results from experiments
Government records
GIS data
Simulation data
Log data
Field notes
Software
Jul-15
• Images (e.g. brain scans)
• Quantitative data (e.g.
household survey data)
• Historical documents
• Moving images
• Physical objects: such as
bones or blood samples
• Digitised photos / born
digital photos
• Social media data: tweets
• Metadata
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
What is research data like?
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Diverse
Some researchers use other terms, eg “sources”
Massive
Complex: data can be produced from other data
Fragile
Costly
Valuable
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Duffy (2013) on scale of the data issue
at University of Birmingham
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3000 items in institutional repository
50,000 items in special collections
75,000 publications for REF
2,700,000 items in library
700,000,000 folders in top 100 accounts
Perhaps 1,000,000,000 folders for the whole
university
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Complexity of information practices
• Information flow maps for life science research
(RIN, 2009) e.g. in neuroscience illustrate
– Multiple data sources, of different types
• Visual images, quantitative data, secondary data
– Storage devices
– Multiple analytic tools
• Some requiring grid power
– Supporting complex scholarly communication
• Different communities do things differently, eg in
terms of file types, tools used
Jul-15
Mandating good RDM
• Funders’ mandates
– Research Councils UK Common Principles on Data
Policy:
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/DataPolicy.aspx
– EPSRC principles and expectations:
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/standards/researchdata
/Pages/default.aspx
• Institutional policies
– DCC list, http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/policy-andlegal/institutional-data-policies/uk-institutional-datapolicies
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
“Digital curation is concerned with
actively managing data for as long
as it continues to be of scholarly,
scientific, research and/or
administrative interest, with the
aim of supporting reproducibility
of results, reuse of and adding
value to that data, managing
it from its point of creation
until it is determined not to be
useful, and ensuring its long-term
accessibility and preservation,
authenticity and integrity.”
(DCC, n.d., p. 6)
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
RDM: definition
• “Research data management concerns the
organisation of data, from its entry to the
research cycle through to the dissemination
and archiving of valuable results.” (Whyte &
Tedds, 2011)
• UK Data Archive lifecycle model, http://dataarchive.ac.uk/create-manage/life-cycle
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Drivers for good RDM
• Compliance to funders’ mandates
• Publishers’ requirements
• Public good obligations: to demonstrate return on
investment etc
• Direct benefits to researchers
– Provide access to reliable working data
– Allow conclusions to be validated externally
– Allow data sets to be combined in new and innovative
ways
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Some issues for researchers
• How important is it
relative to doing the
research; projects only
get short term funding
• Is infrastructure
available?
• Lack of RDM knowledge
and skills
• No checking of
compliance
Jul-15
• Legal, ethical and
commercial motives
• Desire to keep control
over data
• Informal sharing
practices already exist
• Lack of reuse culture
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Force field analysis of RDM
Compliance
Other priorities
Good research practice
Data storage and security
Open access
Data preservation
Jul-15
Nature of data
Good
Research Data
Management
practices
Academic culture & lack
of reuse culture
Lack of RDM knowledge
& skills
Legal, ethical & commercial
exceptions
2. WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL LIBRARY
ROLE IN RDM?
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Why do librarians have something to
contribute?
• Open access leadership role
• Liaison, negotiation skills and contacts with
academics
• Knowledge of information management, collection
development, metadata skills and practices
• Understanding of research data management as a
form of information literacy (IL)
• Established LIS networks for sharing best practice
across the profession
• Librarians are good at explaining complex things in
accessible ways
Library roles to support research
• Offering advice on funding sources
• Embedded or support roles conducting literature reviews or
current awareness alerts for research projects or groups
• Information literacy training
• Supporting REF
• Bibliometrics and measuring impact
• Bibliographic software training
• Advocacy for open access / institutional repository
• Offering data analysis advice
• Offering advice on copyright issues
• Offering advice on archiving of research records (e.g.
correspondence)
Dec-2012
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Areas where libraries can contribute to
RDM
• Policy
• Teaching appropriate literacies to PIs and
early career researchers, PGR and taught
students
• Advisory services on RDM; web sites
– Awareness of data for reuse; data citation
practices; copyright and licensing of data
• Signposting
• Auditing/ asset review of data sets
researchers have
• Data curation capacity, e.g. appraisal and
collection management policy, metadata
creation/advice
Involving many library teams: liaison team, metadata
specialists, systems team
• In collaboration with
other professional
services such as
computer services,
research office and
archives/records
management staff
• In collaboration with
researchers and
research
administrators
• In collaboration with
other stakeholders,
internal and external
Extra-Institutional
Stakeholders
Institutional
Stakeholders
PVC
research
Department
Perspectives on RDM
Other
Researchers
In the discipline
Computing
services
Researchers
In other
disciplines
Research Project
Commercial
Partners
and
Customers
The
Researcher
Research
Office
Data
repository
manager
Library
Other
HEIs
Human
resources
Records unit
and university archive
Funding
councils
The public and wider
Society
Individual
professional
perspective
3. WHAT ARE LIBRARIES DOING?
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
RDM in UK HEI libraries survey results
• 83 (c 50%) UK HEIs responded to our survey
(with Stephen Pinfield) conducted in
November 2012 [paper available from JOLIS
OnlineFirst doi:10.1177/0961000613492542
or from WRRO
http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/76107/ ]
• Take home finding: Low level of service
development; high priority for next 3 years
Current RDM services
Few welldeveloped or
extensive
services currently
being offered by
libraries but
some basic
services
Priorities for the next 3 years
Libraries see
RDM services
as a priority,
with a
particular
emphasis on
advisory, policy
support and
training
services
Rank by current
activity
Open access and policy
1
Copyright
2
Data citation
3
Awareness of reusable sources 4
External data sources
5
Early career awareness
6
PGR training
7
Advisory service
8
Licensing
9
RDM plan advice
10
Web portal
11
Data repository
12
Metadata
13
Audit RDM
14
Data analysis
15
PGT training
16
Data impact
17
UG training
18
Rank by top
future priority
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8
7
5
11
3
3
2
14
11
9
5
10
13
17
15
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18
Survey results: challenges
• “The skill set of the library workforce, the costs
of RDM and the difficult economic climate.”
• “Capacity and workload in a context of
shrinking resources”
Do library staff have right skills to play
a significant role in RDM?
• “A few library staff have some of the right skills”
• “Librarians have core skills regarding the
organisation of information but these need
extending to fully encompass the requirements of
data management.”
• “They may not be aware that the skills they have
are transferable however”
Challenges
• Librarians are already over-taxed with roles; they
operate in a highly dynamic context
• They often do not have personal experience of
research
• Translating library skills to research data issues
• Will researchers look to libraries for this support?
“Being taken seriously”
• Complexity and scale of issues
• Resources, infrastructure, management
structures have yet to be created in most
institutions
IF RDM WERE AN ANIMAL, WHAT
WOULD IT BE?
What some librarians drew when
asked “if RDM were an animal what
would it be”?
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A rather malicious looking spider in a web
A girly octopus
A dragon: (“a mystery animal I cannot defeat”)
A dung beetle
Ants that cling together to form a living raft to
save themselves in a flood
• A creature just coming into being
What librarians need…
• Confidence raising… demystification of a
complex social world
• Increased knowledge and competencies
• A change of identity – ability to take risks,
operate in undefined contexts
• Prompts to get started with RDM, rather than
waiting till policy or infrastructure is clear
Library starting points
• Collaborate with researchers (Garritano and Carlson (2009)
at Purdue)
• Create a web site with generic advice for all researchers
• Use the 23 things model to encourage library staff to find
the answers to key questions (
http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/openexeterrdm/blog/2012/04/11
/the-holistic-librarian-open-for-business/ )
• Perform a Data Asset Framework (DAF) survey to explore
what data the institution has and how it is managed
• Seek representation on faculty and departmental research
committees
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
4. LEARNING MORE
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
A guide to key resources for further
learning
• Pryor, G. (2012). Managing Research Data. London: Facet.
contains chapters on key aspects, including an excellent
overview by the editor and a chapter by Sheila Corrall on
librarians’ roles in RDM.
• Digital Curation Centre (DCC), http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
– Jones, Pryor and White (2013) explains the issues in setting up
RDM service, http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/
• JISC Managing Research Data programme of research,
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/mrd.aspx
• Auckland (2012) sets challenge of RDM in wider context of
need to support research more generally,
http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/re-skilling-research/
• RDMRose
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
The URL…
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Design approach to learning materials
Literature and
existing curricula
Focus groups
with library staff
• List of potential library
roles
• List of topics /
required
competencies
Feedback from
training sessions
with library staff
• Revised list of
topics
• Participatory design process
• Process based or emergent curriculum
• Trialled with 40+ library staff at Leeds, Sheffield
and York
Module overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Jul-15
Introductions, RDM, and the
role of LIS
The nature of research and
the need for RDM
The DCC curation lifecycle
model
Key institutions and projects
in RDM
What is data?
Managing data
Case studies: research
projects
Case study: Institutional
context, and conclusions
• Eight sessions
• Each equivalent to about half a
day of study
• Consist of introduction, slides,
activity sheets, resources
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Philosophy behind the curriculum
• Structured around different potential roles in RDM
• Open ended context demands exploration of issues,
with individual professional reflecting on how issues
relate to their own role and how the library
organisation might change
• More than about lists of competencies/knowledge,
also about professional identity
• Need to understand perspective of researchers
• Need to understand perspective of other professional
services: especially research office, computing service,
archives and records managers
• Not for specialist curators or data analysts
A sample of the activities
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An introduction to the theory of disciplinarity
A discussion of DCC curation lifecycle and alternative models
Carrying out an interview with a researcher about their work
Design of a guidance web site
Reading Data Management Plans; reading the local RDM
policy
• Writing potential collection policies for an institutional
repository
• Analysing recordings of interviews with five researchers
• Discussing research and professional staff stakeholders
perspectives through a complex fictional case study
How can you use the learning
materials?
• Gain a systematic grounding in RDM, through
self-directed CPD
• Undertake targeted learning about an RDM
topic that is key for your role
• Reuse material or ideas for teaching your
library colleagues and others – join an ongoing informal RDMRose user group
• Come to Sheffield to take RDM as a module on
one of our Masters courses
• This webinar is being made open access by
UKSG – so do share it with colleagues!
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FEEL
FREE TO USE CHAT OR MY EMAIL – WE
WILL PUT TOGETHER AN FAQ FOR THE
UKSG WEB PAGE
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Activity 2
• What best describes what you are going to do
next about RDM?
– Do more reading
– See if there are events I can go to where I can find
out more
– Find out what is happening in my institution
– Discuss with colleagues what we should be doing
– Continue to work on local policy and services
– Nothing, because I know enough for now
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
References
• Duffy, S. (2013) Managing research data in an open access world.
Presentation to RLUK members day, Exeter April 2013,
http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/presentations-and-slides-rlukmembers-meeting-exeter
• Garritano, J.R. and Carlson, J.R. (2009). A subject librarian’s
guide to collaborating on e-Science projects, Issues in Science
and Technology Librarianship, Spring No. 57. Available at
http://www.istl.org/09-spring/refereed2.html
• RIN. (2009). Patterns of information use and exchange : case studies
of researchers in the life sciences. London. Retrieved from
http://rinarchive.jisc-collections.ac.uk/our-work/using-andaccessing-information-resources/patterns-information-use-andexchange-case-studie.
• Whyte, A., & Tedds, J. (2011). Making the case for Research Data
Management. Edinburgh. Retrieved from
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/webfm_send/487.
Jul-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose