New Reports on Data Archiving and Citation

Two new reports have been published that deal with data issues in research, from proper documentation and archiving, through use of data in research and publication, down to citation. The first is the brief but concise Lost Science: Protecting Data Through Improved Archiving by Karen E. Simmons (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EO370006/abstract). This short but on-point article uses concrete examples from NASA data to show what can happen when digital data isn't properly documented, when documentation and formatting standards aren't followed or change rapidly, and the potential loss to science and society at large when bountiful, important, and historic information is lost.

The second report is from the U.S. CODATA and the Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI): Out of Cite, Out of Mind: The Current State of Practice, Policy and Technology for the Citation of Data (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/dsj/12/0/12_OSOM13-043/_article). From the abstract: "This report discusses the current state of data citation practices, its supporting infrastructure, a set of guiding principles for implementing data citation, challenges to implementation of good data citation practices, and open research questions." This is the second report on data citation issues from this group: the first, For Attribution-Developing Data Attribution and Citation Practices and Standards (2012), is available from the National Academies Press online at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13564

Upcoming Data-related Webinars

There are three upcoming webinars that may be of interest to data-minded folks:

• DuraSpace is hosting Stewarding Research Data with Fedora and Islandora, September 10, 2013, 11am-12pm Eastern. Mark Leggott from the University of Prince Edward Island and founder of the open source Islandora project will be speaking. From the blurb: “In one example at UPEI, Islandora tools are being built to sync data from systems like DropBox and Google Drive to Fedora, providing immediate preservation services for any arbitrary collection of data. This Physical Data Model is intended to provide a quick and seamless integration with Islandora where the researchers can subsequently enrich and optionally choose to share their data with others. In another example the Smithsonian is applying a set of Intellectual Data Models to steward research output from a variety of projects. In this case data is ingested into Islandora against a domain-specific data model that applies specific metadata forms, data transformations and data viewers to make the data more accessible immediately on ingest. Register here: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e7yc78n7872b1e63&llr=5iy95gcab.
• NISO is hosting a two-part webinar on Research Data Curation. Part 1 is on E-Science Librarianship (September 11, 1-2:30pm Eastern), and will discuss “new librarian strategies, tools, and technologies developed to support the lifecycle of scholarly production and data curation. Specific challenges that face research libraries will be described and potential responses will be explored, along with a discussion of the types of skills and services that will be required for librarians to effectively curate research output.”  Registration is here: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/webinars/escience. Part 2 is on Libraries and Big Data (September 18, 1-2:30pm Eastern), and will explore librarians and their role in data curation: “There are many challenges to effectively manage and curate this data—challenges that are both similar and different to managing document archives. Libraries can and are assuming a key role in making this information more useful, visible, and accessible, such as creating taxonomies, designing metadata schemes, and systematizing retrieval methods. Our panelists will talk about their experience with big data curation, best practices for research data management, and the tools used by libraries as they take on this evolving role.” Registration is here: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/webinars/data_curation.
• The National Research Council's Board on Research Data and Information will be hosting a public symposium titled Privacy in a Big Data World, September 23, 3-5:30pm Eastern. The symposium will discuss such issues as providing adequate privacy protection for individuals without impeding research and innovation, how different regulatory approaches to privacy impact national and transnational research, and how society’s perspective on privacy is evolving.More detail can be found here: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/brdi/PGA_084312