Upcoming data speakers on UW Campus

Several upcoming speakers on the UW campus will be of interest to local data folks:

• Tuesday, April 28 @ 1:30, Data Science Studio, 6th floor Physics/Astronomy Tower. Tony Hey will speak on Physics and Computing: Open Science Decoded. Abstract: "The talk will start with the OSTP memo on open access, and then go on to discuss executable papers and best practice for reproducibility of computational physics research. After looking at computing for Big Physics (e.g. the ATLAS collaboration at the CERN LHC), for Medium-scale Physics (with the UK's Collaborative Computational Projects), and for Long Tail Physics, the paper ends with some comments about open source, scientific software quality and career paths for scientific software developers."
• Wednesday, April 29 @ 2pm, Allen Auditorium, Allen Library. Data Librarian Jenny Muilenburg will address Data Management Plans: Reading, Writing, and Sharing. Topics will include some of the different agency requirements around DMPs, some local resources to help create DMPs, and some examples from different disciplines.
• Wednesday, April 29 @ 3:30pm, Data Science Studio. Cesar Hidalgo from the MIT Media Lab, Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies. Abstract: "The universe is made of energy, matter and information; but information is what makes the universe interesting. Without information, the universe would lack the shapes, structures, and order that gives the universe both its beauty and complexity. But where does information comes from and what are the natural, social, and economic mechanisms that help information grow? In this talk I will describe the growth of physical order—or information—from atoms to economies by explaining the physical mechanisms that allow order to exist, and the social and economic mechanisms that allow order to prevail in our society and economy."
• Tuesday, May 5 @ 4pm, Data Science Studio. There will be an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT)Info Session and Reception, useful for those wanting to know more about the Big Data IGERT PhD fellowship or the PhD program. Brief presentations from several IGERT students on current research will be features, as well as a Q&A session.

Data Management Plan Learning Session: 4/29, 2-3:30pm

On Wednesday, April 29, data librarian Jenny Muilenburg will lead a learning session titled "Data Management Plans: Reading, Writing and Sharing," from 2-3:30pm in the Allen Auditorium (Allen Library, University of Washington). During this 90 minutes, attendees will spend time learning about the different disciplinary and/or agency requirements for data management plans (DMPs), and will look at some examples from different disciplines. Tools and resources available to UW patrons will also be introduced, including DMP consults by librarians and DMPTool.

If you're unfamiliar with data management plans (or research data management in general), these very short videos from the University of Minnesota are a great introduction, and will be good preparation for the session.

This workshop is the last in a series began last fall. The first two were "Data Librarianship: Skills and Definitions," and "Archives & Repositories." See the workshop links here: http://staffweb.lib.washington.edu/units/Research-data-services/news/monday-april-20-2-3-30pm-data-management-plans-reading-writing-and-sharing.

Responses to NSF's (and Other Agencies') OSTP Response (Got That?)

Last month, the National Science Foundation released a report titled "Today's Data, Tomorrow's Discoveries: Increasing Access to the Results of Research Funded by the National Science Foundation." (We summarized yhehighlights in our blog post on March 18, 2015.) This plan is the first piece of the NSF goal to provide increased public access to NSF research outputs; more from NSF is expected this month.

There was a flurry of twitter-tivity following the report's release; you can follow the continued discussion via the hashtag #OSTPresp. You'll also be able to follow a discussion about other agencies' OSTP responses that were released in the few weeks prior to the NSF report. After several agencies updated or released new policies in close succession, Amanda Whitmire at Oregon State University updated her libguide describing Federal Public Access Plans, and also created a crowd-sourced document to keep track of agencies and their plans, available here: http://bit.ly/FedOASummary. Primarily maintained by academic library-based data specialists, the document is open to additions and edits, which will help everyone stay current as new plans come out (and old ones are edited). The document includes whether an agency's policy covers data as well as traditional research outputs, embargoes, data management plan (DMP) details, preferred repositories (if stated), and more.

The UW Libraries has created a simplified version of this document that is geared toward whether agencies have DMP requirements and what their preferred repository is, with an intended audience that is not in the librarian world. Here you'll find a list of agency requirements, where data and articles are made available, and whether or not there's a DMP requirement. It's a little easier for the layperson to digest than the full list, and can be helpful in presenting this information to faculty and researchers.

Continue to watch twitter and this blog for further information about OSTP responses and what they mean for researchers. And feel free to add anything we've missed in the comments.