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Getting Data Creators On Board with the Digital Curation Agenda

Dr Meriel PatrickDaMaRO Project, University of Oxford

Lessons Learned in Developing Training for Researchers

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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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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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

Almost 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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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Concerns about the risks of sharing data

Getting Data Creators On Board

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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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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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.

– Oxford RDM survey respondent

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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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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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

Getting Data Creators On Board

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Any questions?

Ask now, or email damaro@oucs.ox.ac.uk

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.

Getting Data Creators On Board