Getting Data Creators On Board with the Digital Curation Agenda Lessons Learned in Developing Training for Researchers

Dr Meriel Patrick DaMaRO Project, University of Oxford

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Introduction

 University research projects are a key source of digital information with potential long-term value  Researchers can generate or collect vast quantities of data   Rare for any single project to fully exploit the potential of a dataset Researchers generally recognize the value of their data  But don’t always know how best to go about preserving it  Practical barriers may prevent data being made available for re-use Getting Data Creators On Board

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Research data management work at the University of Oxford

  A series of JISC-funded cross-departmental projects over the last four years Projects have developed:  Training resources – electronic and print guidance, plus face-to-face courses and events  Software tools – an online database service, an institutional data archive, and a metadata catalogue   An institutional policy on research data management All projects informed by requirements gathering, via interviews and surveys Getting Data Creators On Board

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KEY CHALLENGES

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Attitudes to data preservation and sharing

     For many researchers, preservation = sharing In a 2011 survey, 85% of researchers said they thought their data would be of interest to others But less than half this number (41%) said they would be happy to make their data available Only a third had previously published data 2012 Oxford RDM survey gave slightly more optimistic results – 30% said they would share all or most of their data, and another 40% would share at least some Getting Data Creators On Board

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Awareness of where and how to deposit data

 Oxford RDM survey asked researchers if they had deposited data in a repository or data store  61% hadn’t    Half of these said they didn’t know of an appropriate place to put it A lmost half (48%) had never heard of ORA, Oxford’s repository for textual research outputs Researchers also expressed uncertainty about how to prepare their data for long-term preservation/sharing  Concerns include selection, documentation, and licensing Getting Data Creators On Board

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Concerns about the risks of sharing data

  Researchers are worried about the risks of being ‘scooped’ Even post-publication, researchers may want to do further work on the data themselves  Data publication not viewed as on a par with journal papers or monographs  Academic reputation depends heavily on publication record  Pressure from institutions for outputs that count for the REF  Pressure from funding bodies to show good use has been made of grants

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Concerns about the risks of sharing data

In principle, you want material to be available, and I believe in sharing. On the other hand, if you’ve just spent five or ten years collecting a dataset and you haven’t yet milked it for what it’s worth, and you’ve had funding to do the project, then you’re very nervous about handing over that dataset.

– Comment from senior Oxford history researcher

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Lack of time to prepare or deposit data

   Data collected for personal use are often untidy and incomplete, or employ idiosyncratic standards Preparing data for sharing can be an arduous task This inevitably takes time away from other academic endeavours – such as traditional publications Part of my reluctance to share data is that my data is fairly roughly organised, and in various stages of polishedness... so it would be quite a big project to get it all presentable, and I'm not sure in what format I would do it.

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– Oxford RDM survey respondent Getting Data Creators On Board

Other barriers to sharing

 Ethical issues  Consent was not requested from research subjects  Legal issues   Data supplied by third parties comes with restrictions Financial issues  Costs of long-term preservation were not built into project budget Getting Data Creators On Board

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TRAINING AS PART OF THE SOLUTION

Getting Data Creators On Board

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Removing barriers to preservation

 Digital curation can be promoted by providing researchers with guidance on:  Collecting and organizing data with a view to future sharing  Data documentation  Selection of data for preservation  Data licensing and other IP issues  Where and how to deposit data  Budgeting for data preservation

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Timing of training

 Curation cannot be viewed simply as something to be bolted on to the end of the research process  Many barriers can be removed or reduced by planning  So training and guidance need to start early  In the planning stages of projects  Near the beginning of researchers’ careers – e.g. second term of graduate studies  Advice also needs to be available on an ongoing basis

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Form and content of training – what researchers want

 Researchers are busy people – they want training that’s flexible, concise, and to the point  Ideally multiple formats (e.g. face-to-face and online)  Informal training (e.g. via supervisors) may have benefits  Language needs to be familiar to researchers   Even terms like ‘repository’ or ‘data’ may be problematic Concrete examples help researchers relate abstruse concepts to their own work Getting Data Creators On Board

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Form and content of training – what researchers want

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Tone of training

 Essential that training covers not just the

how

of curation, but also the

why

  What makes it worth spending time on this?

Funders’ and institutional requirements can be effective as a means of compelling compliance  But they can also lead to weary resentfulness  Training needs to stress the benefits of data preservation, not just the penalties for failing to do it  A major cultural shift is needed – to precipitate a virtuous circle of sharing

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Summary and conclusions

 To ensure effective curation of research data, data creators need:  To be engaged from the earliest stages of a project – and on an ongoing basis  Guidance on the practicalities of curation    Encouragement to regard data curation as a worthwhile activity Training and guidance need to be concise, flexible, practically focused, and in familiar language Aim of training should be not to threaten, but to inspire

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Getting Data Creators On Board

Any questions?

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Rights and Re-use

This slideshow was produced by the DaMaRO Project at the University of Oxford. It is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share-Alike License .

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Getting Data Creators On Board