Peter Schirmbacher
Professor, School of Library and Information Science
Humboldt University of Berlin

Facilitating Replication of Research Results in Economics (Tochtermann)

Empirical studies are increasingly important in many disciplines, including in economics, where a rising number of journals publish empirical papers in which the authors have used data sets for their research. However, so far there have been few means to replicate these research results within the framework of the corresponding article and to verify the findings claimed in an empirical paper. The DFG (German Research Foundation) funded project EDaWaX is intended to meet some of these challenges. One of project’s main objectives is to develop a publication related data archive for economics journals.

http://www.edawax.de

re3data.org: Establishing a Registry for Research Data Repositories (Schirmbacher)

Research data are valuable and ubiquitous. The permanent access to research data is a challenge for all stakeholders in the scientific community. The long-term preservation and the principle of open access to research data offer broad opportunities for the scientific community.

More and more universities and research centers are starting to build research data repositories allowing permanent access to data sets in a trustworthy environment. Due to disciplinary requirements, the landscape of data repositories is rather heterogeneous, thus it is difficult for researchers, funding bodies, publishers and scholarly institutions to select appropriate repositories for archiving or retrieving research data.

The goal of re3data.org is to create a global registry of research data repositories that will cover research data repositories from different academic disciplines. The registry will be a source of information on the permanent storage and access of data sets to researchers, funding bodies, publishers and scholarly institutions. In the course of this mission, re3data.org aims to promote a culture of sharing, increased access, and better visibility of research data.

The alpha version of the registry has been online since December 2012. The launch of version 1.0 is planned for spring 2013. Metadata which has been entered from existing sources will be reviewed and complemented if necessary.
Partners in the project are:
• School of Library and Information Science at Humboldt University Berlin
• German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
• Library of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

The partners are actively involved in the German Initiative for Network Information (DINI), which is committed to improving information and communication services in higher education institutions by providing the necessary information infrastructures locally and nationally.

http://re3data.org

Kaitlin Thaney
Manager, External Relationships
Digital Science

The Web has transformed not only the approach to modern day science, but a number of other facets of the research cycle: tools for analysis, mediums which now serve as “information inputs,” how ideas are exchanged and even knowledge discovery. Digital Science, a technology company out of Macmillan Publishers, creates tools and supports start-ups working to make research more efficient through better (and smarter) use of software. This talk will take a deep dive into a few of those offerings, including open data platform figshare, and Altmetric and Symplectic Elements from the company’s metrics division.

http://digital-science.com
http://figshare.com
http://altmetric.com
http://symplectic.co.uk
http://readcube.com

Carly Strasser
Data Curation Specialist
California Digital Library

There is a large gap between the data management skills needed by modern researchers and their current abilities, and there is not yet a clear way to bridge this gap. In an effort to address this lack of skills, several institutions collaborated to create the DMPTool. Collaborators included the California Digital Library, DataONE, the Digital Curation Centre, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of California at Los Angeles Library, the University of California at San Diego Libraries, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library and Office of Cyberinfrastructure, and the University of Virginia Library. The result is a freely available web service with two principal goals: 1) allow researchers to quickly and easily produce a quality data management plan, and 2) inform researchers of relevant resources and support services across the community and within their institution. The tool clearly identifies what funders want grant applicants to address, and it allows users to edit, save, share, print and download their data management plans.

Following on prior Coalition for Networked Information briefings, this presentation will begin with an overview of data management planning for newcomers, with emphasis on the DMPTool. The session will include an update on current data management policies and, and it will also include discussion of the present landscape of data management planning. The history of the project will be described (a collaborative effort of eight institutions), its uptake and success, and plans for new functionality, grant funding, and governance. A brief demonstration of the DMPTool will be provided to seed a facilitated discussion on the future of the DMPTool, what services it could and should provide, and how these services and materials will better enable good data stewardship practices among researchers.

 http://dmp.cdlib.org/

Gary Strong
University Librarian
University of California, Los Angeles

Valorie Hollister
Director of Community Programs
DuraSpace

Last year the Association of Research Libraries/Digital Library Federation (DLF) E-Science Institute was created to help research libraries develop strategic agendas for e-research support, with a particular focus on the sciences. The Institute consisted of a series of interactive modules that took small teams of individuals from academic institutions through a dynamic learning process to strengthen and advance their strategy for supporting digitally dependent research, such as e-science or computational linguistics. The coursework included a series of exercises for teams to complete at their institutions, and culminated with an in-person workshop. Local institution assignments helped staff establish a high level understanding of research support background needs and issues. The first cohort of the Institute included seventy institutions and was well received.
Demand has continued to grow, so the DuraSpace organization is partnering with DLF to continue the Institute into the future. The second cohort is now underway, concluding with a Capstone event immediately following this Coalition for Networked Information meeting. The Institute has been improved based on feedback from the first cohort and is poised to help libraries of all types (large academic, college, corporate, public, government, etc.) develop approaches to digital research support, individually and collectively.

This presentation will include an overview of the challenges facing universities and libraries in dealing with digital research and especially data, the E-Science Institute approach of Strategic Agendas, a case study from a member of the Institute’s first cohort (University of California, Los Angeles), and an overview of the current Institute managed by DuraSpace.

http://www.arl.org/rtl/eresearch/escien/escieninstitute/index.shtml
http://duraspace.org/e-science-institute

Deanna Marcum
Managing Director, Ithaka S+R
Ithaka

Over the past year, Ithaka S+R has conducted studies of the changing research methods and practices of scholars in two major fields: history and chemistry. At the spring 2012 Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) meeting, researchers shared background information about this new program of work. This presentation will include the comprehensive findings regarding the needs of scholars in these fields to facilitate discussion about implications for the CNI community.

For history, even when research methods remain fairly traditional, new practices are transforming the needs of historians. For chemistry, thinking about the needs of the laboratory group and not just the individual chemist may open up new avenues for research support. This session will include recommendations for possible service models to address these needs, and it will also include extended discussion about the feasibility of these service models and others that may build on our findings.

Presentation

Declan Fleming
Chief Technology Strategist
University of California, San Diego

Lois Widmer
Chair, Digital Services and Shared Collections
University of Florida

Libraries around the country have evolved digital library infrastructure, workflows, and service from startup, grant-funded initiatives into core functions that define a research library in the 21st century. This shift has challenged our thinking about offering new services, moving projects into programs, and evaluating initiatives which may or may not deliver the expected outcomes. At the same time, researchers and other campus entities are looking to libraries as supporters and collaborators for research in the age of “big” research (meaning distributed, collaborative, and resource intensive research, and often referred to as e-research, e-science, research cyberinfrastructure, digital humanities, big humanities, digital scholarship, data science, etc.). Libraries now have many opportunities to leverage the infrastructure and programmatic support for digital libraries to serve also as a core component of the larger scholarly cyberinfrastructure.

This panel will discuss the challenges that three university libraries have experienced with institutionalizing digital library infrastructure and how they continue to adapt their services to meet a changing set of requests and needs from across their institutions. Each member of the panel will present a brief background of their institution and the unique collections and services which have shaped their institution’s thinking about digital library services. An overview of new initiatives each library has chosen to support and how they fit into the overall strategic direction of the institution will also be presented. Finally, all speakers will discuss challenges and opportunities in areas such as technical infrastructure, scaling of services, training and retention of professional staff to support both technical and nontechnical aspects of running repository infrastructure and services at scale.

http://ufdc.ufl.edu
http://digital.library.unt.edu
http://libraries.ucsd.edu/digital
http://rci.ucsd.edu/data-curation/index.html

Bill Mischo
Head, Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Beth Sandore Namachchivya
Associate University Librarian for Information Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Tyler Walters
Dean, University Libraries
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Julie Speer
Associate Dean, Research and Informatics, University Libraries
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Technology Innovation in Support of Institutional Priorities: Exemplars at the University of Illinois Library (Hahn, Mischo, Namachchivya)

This briefing describes two innovative approaches to developing discovery and access tools in a library. The two programs featured are:
• A program focused on design and implementation of federated search and discovery systems that incorporates research and mentoring of librarians, information professionals, and graduate students in library and information science (LIS) and computer science.
• A library technology prototyping service that employs and mentors undergraduate computer science minors from diverse backgrounds.

The panel takes an in-depth look at key products that have emerged from this work, what has fueled their success, and how lessons learned can shape future technology innovations that support the important organizational themes of effective discovery and growing diversity in technology design and development.

The Future is Now: Capacity Building and Partnership Development to Advance eResearch Programs (Walters, Speer)

Research universities are adapting to a changing environment where networked open research, cyberinfrastructure, and cyberlearning approaches are transforming them. Organizational change is inevitable and the pace of this change moves more quickly with each new disruptive development in the economic, policy, technological, and social realms. This milieu calls for entrepreneurial approaches and intra-organizational strategies that produce new technological and organizational platforms through which new partnerships of information and technology professionals with researchers, instructors, and learners are created. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) Libraries has developed two sets of strategies for advancing eResearch partnerships and programs within the university: 1) Internal strategy: developing new positions such as the Associate Dean for Research and Informatics, Research Environments Librarian, and other specialty positions such as the Engineering Informatics and Data Librarian and Art & Design Informatics Librarian; designing work units with a new, flexible model: the hub. The library-based hub fosters capacity-building to support eResearch and digital scholarship practices, processes, and technologies; 2) External strategy: establishing a research center (the VT Center for Digital Research and Scholarship [CDRS]) that also serves as a services center for mapping and integrating the Libraries into the research enterprise. The Center monitors and assesses changes in the university environments in which research and scholarly knowledge is produced. It offers tools and services that address the many research and scholarly environment needs of VT researchers. The Center partners with researchers and others to solve information/data/content-related academic problems and serves as a consultant on digital curation processes.

 http://minrvaproject.org/
https://github.com/minrva
http://minrvaproject.tumblr.com/
http://goo.gl/BxCuu
http://goo.gl/r7pyY
http://uofi-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com:1701/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?&vid=UIU
http://search.grainger.uiuc.edu/linker/
http://hades.grainger.uiuc.edu/guy/pip3.asp?geology

Carly Strasser
Data Curation Specialist, University of California Curation Center (UC3)
California Digital Library

John Kunze
Associate Director, University of California Curation Center (UC3)
California Digital Library

Three new data-centric developments that support scientists throughout the research data life cycle are highlighted in this session: the DMPTool, DataUp, and DataONE. The DMPTool is an online “wizard” that helps scientists and data librarians create comprehensive data management plans that meet sponsor requirements for well-documented, high-quality, sharable, and interpretable data. The DataUp tool enables the protection of the long-tail distribution of data (those data that all too frequently become orphaned) by helping scientists organize their tabular data (i.e. Microsoft® Excel), document it with standard metadata, and archive the data in a repository. Finally, DataONE, which became operational in July 2012, provides mechanisms to search data repositories worldwide for relevant biological, ecological, environmental and Earth science data (over 200,000 data products and growing weekly), as well as access to tools that support all aspects of the data life cycle and that are integrated with the data resources. In combination, the three new tools can greatly increase the nature and pace of science as will be demonstrated via several relevant examples.

 http://dataone.org
http://dataup.cdlib.org
http://dmptool.org

David Marques
Senior Vice President, Research Data Services
Elsevier

Funding agencies are displaying two counteracting trends regarding research data repositories: on the one hand, partly motivated by a need for reproducibility and fear of fraud, funding agencies are encouraging scientists and scholars to make their (raw and summarized) research data available in open, publicly accessible repositories; on the other, they are de-scoping and defunding the maintenance of many well-established data repositories. To address this dichotomy, and the clear and present need for the population and maintenance of open research data repositories, more technically and socially acceptable models of and tools for representing, uploading and storing research data are needed, as are innovative and collaborative business models for maintaining data repositories in a scalable, sustainable way.

Elsevier is interested in exploring novel (open, public access-based) collaborations and business models to address both of these needs, and provide uploading, maintenance and annotation tasks and tools in a service-based model. The company is interested in discussing and exploring the views of the Coalition for Networked Information community regarding the relative role of libraries, data repositories, and publishers to develop an open and sustainable research data infrastructure. Issues to discuss include the development of researcher-controlled distribution of research data, and the assessment of attribution, credit and impact of research data, as well as metadata and archiving standards. This talk will include Elsevier’s thoughts and current projects in this direction and then invite comments and ideas from the community on the practical, philosophical and financial possibilities for publishers and libraries to collaborate on this important and emerging topic.