BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY

Preserving research data without breaking the bank

This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

UK: England & Wales License

Gareth Knight

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

gareth.knight@lshtm.ac.uk

M25 Academic Libraries Conference 2015

28 April 2015

Overview

1. Motivation & challenges for preserving research data

2. Overview of sustainability research

3. Data management as a sustainable economic activity– Creating incentives to manage research data

– Acquiring resources to manage process

– Assigning roles & responsibilities

4. Providing centralised support– Challenges for RDM support services

– Managing process using limited resources

5. Conclusion

London School of Hygiene &

Tropical Medicine

Institution

• A university for research and postgraduate education in public health and tropical medicine

• Recognised as one of world’s highest rated universities for collaborative research

• Research taking place in 100+ countries

RDM Support Service

• Researcher-demand for central support

• Established as part of Library & Archives Service in 2012

– Wellcome Trust funded 2012-15

– Institutional funded 2015 onwards

Research data in the university

Context

• Digital information is fragile & needs to be managed over time

• Significant amount of research data held in varied forms

• Library & Archives Services well placed within institution to help researchers and provide curation function

Challenge:

• Long-term management needs rarely addressed in short-term funding

• Difficult to place value on preservation benefits if not in institution’s core business

• Institutions unwilling to allocate large amount of centralised funding

• Little co-ordination of preservation activities & lack of clear responsibility within projects

"One of the greatest risks we run in not preserving our own digital assets for ourselves is that we simultaneously cease to preserve our own viability as

institutions"Halbert & Skinner (2010)

Towards Sustainable resources

“sustainability is the ability to generate or gain access to the resources… needed to protect and increase the value of the content or service for those who use it”

JISC - Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today (2009)

Preservation as a

sustainable economic activity

“ sustainable economics for digital preservation is not just about finding more funds”Blue Ribbon Task Force (2010)

Rusbridge & Lavoie (2011)Draft Reference Model for Economic Sustainability of Digital Curation

Benefits & Incentives

Build case for preserving research data in institution

Rusbridge & Lavoie (2011)Draft Reference Model for Economic Sustainability of Digital Curation

Establish benefits

• Outcomes that will be possible as a result of activity

• Objectives that won’t be achievable if not performed

Identify key stakeholders

• Establish role in organisation

• Relation to research data preservation

Tailor message

• Target their “self interests”

• Encourage them to invest & accept responsibility

Establishing buy-in: Incentives

Outcomes that may result from improved data management practice

Data Creators

Improve likelihood of research funding

Potential to use data in further research

Fulfil publisher obligations & achieve higher rate of citation

Spend less time answering data user

questions

Research Leaders

Contribution to “reproducible research”

agenda

Enhanced data handling practice & less

duplication of effort

Greater take-up of research outputs in research & teaching

Senior Management

Better able to achieve strategic goals to maximise

research impact

Build capacity within institution & collaborators

Remain competitive with other institutions

Ensure compliance with regulatory and

contractual obligations

Establishing buy-in: Challenges

Reaching audience

• Staff don’t read emails

• Ignore 1-to-1 meeting requests

• Work overseas

Too much work,too little time

• Sciences are highly regulated

• Concern over institutional ‘red tape’

Varying motivations

• Many researchers are supported with no data management req.

• Uncertainty on how it applies to their field

Absence of case studies in subject area

• “These practices may apply to domain X, but my research is different”

Departure of local champions

•Replacement staff unaware of need / less willing to champion

•Need to restart process

Acquiring data management

resources

Various resources:

• Staff

• IT Systems

• Funding

Appropriately allocated:

Should fulfil:

• Current needs

• Scalable to future needs

Calculating resource allocation:

• Need to tailor to local needs

• Several resource calculators exist

Roles & responsibilityP

roje

ct s

taff • Role:

• RDM responsibility during project.

• Limited RDM role in post-project

• Supported by research funder(?)

• Challenges:

• Staff may not have expertise

• Not all funders support RDM costs

• RDM costs often removed during negotiation phase R

DM

sta

ff • Role:• Post-project curation & preservation

• Typically located within Library, Research Office or Archives

• Challenges:• How to fund model in long-term

• Standard - Standard (institutional fund)

• Project-specific support (day rate)

• Out-sourced/in-house data repository

• How to pass charges to project

• Flat vs. variable

• Oxford Research Archive £140 + £5 per GB

• Archaeology Data Service – data type

Management structure for maintaining data

Scientific Data Management

• Research methods can be difficult to understand for non-experts

• Language varies between– Subject domains

– Science & technology(DOI has a different meaning!)

Specialised software & file formats• Characterisation tools don’t identify

• Limited conversion options

• Few recognised preservation formats

Using staff time effectively

Providing RDM support using limited resources

Plan proposal

Project Start

Project End

Possible deletion

Identify RDM

resources

Develop funder DMP

Create & store data

Journal data needs

Data sharing

agreementPrepare data for deposit

Data description

Preservation & sharing Qs

RDM Website Training sessions RDM videos

Responding to evolving needs

Support requests:• Monitor demand over time

– 88 (2013)

– 120 (2014)

– 42 (Jan-Mar 2015)

• Produce/Update guidance to reflectcommon questions

Data Management Plans

• Tailored feedback on request

• Produce sample DMPs for common fundershttp://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/researchdataman/plan/

Top 10 RDM topics raised in 2014http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/rdmss/support-planning/

Enhancing RDM Practice

Mandate that projects without a funder DMP obligation should produce a institutional DMP

Strategy for minimising resource allocation:

1. Prioritise key projects: LSHTM-led projects are mandated, consultancies & others encouraged

2. Avoid duplication: Allow projects to submit a Research Protocol or other DMP if they have produced one

3. Acquire DMPs for funded projects only: Analysis of 2013 funding bids found that:

– 247 met eligibility criteria at pre-award

– 97 met eligibility criteria at post-award

Ensure Data Management is considered from outset

End of project support

Guidance on ‘data archiving’ process:

• (re)familiarisation with funder/publisher requirements

• Prepare data for transfer

• Locating appropriate repository

– Domain repository preferred

– LSHTM repository for non-sensitive ‘homeless data’

Liaise with projects in final 3 months of funding

Concluding thoughts

• Need to embed digital preservation within research process and institution structure

• Emphasise outcomes of digital preservation to obtain commitment to maintain digital resources in long-term

• University library & archives well placed to drive change - collaborative approach necessary to fulfil objectives

• Future levels of support cannot be guaranteed - careful management of resources is needed to support and enhance data handling practice

“ sustainable economics for digital preservation is… about building an economic activity firmly rooted in a compelling value proposition, clear incentives to act, and well-defined preservation

roles and responsibilities.”Blue Ribbon Task Force (2010)

Thank You for your attention!

Gareth Knight.Project Manager, LSHTM Research Data Management ServiceEmail: gareth.knight@lshtm.ac.uk

Questions

References

Blue Ribbon Task Force - Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet http://brtf.sdsc.edu/biblio/BRTF_Final_Report.pdf

eSpida balanced scorecard handbook - http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/library/espida/

Balanced value Impact Model - http://www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/impact.html

A Digital Roadmap for Long‐Term Access to Digital Heritage Conference (2013) -http://www.unesco.nl/sites/default/files/uploads/Comm_Info/digital_roadmap_-_report.pdf

Keeping Research Data Safe - http://www.beagrie.com/krds/

JISC - Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today (2009)http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/programmerelated/2009/scaithakaprojectstoday.aspx

Rusbridge & Lavoie (2011). Draft Reference Model for Economic Sustainability of Digital Curation https://unsustainableideas.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/sustainability-strategy-revised/

JISC. Funding for sustainability: How funders' practices influence the future of digital resources http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614201525/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/programmerelated/2011/fundingforsustainability.aspx