Collaboration to Data Curation: Harnessing Institutional Expertise

Abstract

It can be argued that institutional repositories have not had the impact (Lynch 2003; Salo 2008), initially expected, on academic scholarly communications (the exception being in a few well-developed and successful instances). So why should data repositories expect to fare any better? First, data repositories can learn from publication repositories' experiences and their efforts to engage researchers to accept and use these new institutional services. Second, they provide a technical infrastructure for storing and sharing data with the potential for providing access to complimentary research support facilities. Finally, due to the interdisciplinary expertise required to develop and maintain such systems, stronger ties will be forged between libraries, information and computing services, and researchers. This will assist innovation and help to make them sustainable and embedded within academic institutional policy. This paper, while aware of the diverse nature of institutional and departmental practices, aims to highlight a number of initiatives in the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, showing how research data repository infrastructures can be effectively realized through collaboration and sharing of expertise. We argue that by employing agile community, strategic and policy judgment, a robust data repository infrastructure will be part of an integrated solution to effectively manage institutional research data assets.

A Study of Faculty Data Curation Behaviors and Attitudes at a Teaching-Centered University

“…However, past studies indicate that most scholars do not have the knowledge required to manage their data effectively. 4 5 These studies outline the gaps in researchers' and scholars' knowledge of data curation issues. Currently, researchers who want to submit and share their data lack guidance and training.…”

“…Reuse of data by the individual researcher is the focus of component (5). Faculty respondents were asked whether they believe their data will be valuable to them for future research projects and whether they have reused their data for other projects.…”

Is data curation education at library and information science schools in North America adequate?

“…Fast changing technology puts digital information at risk of being lost if not properly curated and preserved. Strategies to deal with research data require multidisciplinary skills in areas such as information management, computing, economics, and institutional governance (Macdonald and Martinez-Uribe, 2010). There are many known and uncountable unknown digital objects at academic institutions whose current value and future sustainability would be substantially increased through collection in a trusted repository (Salo, 2008).…”

Advancing Indigenous Research Sovereignty: Public Administration Trends and the Opportunity for Meaningful Conversations in Canadian Research Governance

“…Research is situated, globally and nationally, as a commodity of consequence commanding significant interest and resources from government and industry and conferring status on those that successfully conduct research (Cheek, 2017a;Macdonald & Martinez-Uribe, 2010). Alejandro Adem, the CEO of MITACS-a research and training non-profit organization based in Vancouver-was recently cited in University Affairs echoing a common sentiment: "Science is a global endeavour .…”