A centre of expertise in digital information management UKOLN is supported by: Dealing with the Data Cloud Dr Liz Lyon, Director, UKOLN, University of Bath, UK Associate Director, UK Digital Curation Centre Research Committee University of Bath, November 2008 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0

Themes 1.Research in the Cloud : a changing landscape 2.Institutions & Assets : emerging initiatives 3.Dealing with Data at Bath : Developing Curation & Preservation Strategies

Research in the Cloud Wikiomics (Nature July 2008)

Cloud Content & Services

OPENCLOSED Continuum of Openness

What does the C21st researcher look like? From users to choosers (Yanosky) Pro-sumers (Toffler) Digital nomads Working on the Webtop Highly collaborative Multi-disciplinary Virtual team science

Link Tag Share Mash Integrate Aggregate Trade What do users do in the Cloud? Map Visualise Search Mine Model Simulate Game Socialise Network Collaborate Tweet Blog Discuss Comment Rate Vote Recommend

Some issues for the Institution…. What is the policy on open science? Do your students / staff blog their results? Should there be an institutional mandate for deposit of research outputs in a repository? Which outputs? Do academic / research staff have the skills to tag, blog, tweet etc. ? How can social networking technologies facilitate collaboration and interdisciplinary research?

Institutions and Assets

State-of-the Nation Analysis Research funder policies Data centres and facilities International comparators Options analysis and appraisal Baseline for Costs Stakeholder analysis, Success criteria Emerging survey themes: Advocacy, Co-ordination and information, Coherence, Data Depository, Skills and training, Seeding the Data Commons Case studies: Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Oxford

University of Oxford case study 37 interviews with researchers + Workshop Report published July 2008

Background A recommendation to JISC: JISC should develop a Data Audit Framework to enable all universities and colleges to carry out an audit of departmental data collections, awareness, policies and practice for data curation and preservation Liz Lyon, Dealing with Data: Roles, Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships, (2007)

Data Audit Framework Launch: 1 st October Benefits: Prioritisation of resources Capacity development and planning Efficiency savings – move data to more cost- effective storage Manage risks associated with data loss Realise value through improved access & re-use Positioned as a self-audit tool Scale: departments, institutions

Methodology

School of GeoSciences pilot audit A leading international centre for research 80 academics, 70 research fellows, 130 PhD students Annual research grant and contract income of £4-6M Staff contribute to >1 of five Research Groups Involvement in inter-University Research Consortia and Research Centres 15Tb data on main server Interviews with 35 staff Create Inventory of 25 datasets and classify them Assess most significant assets in detail, collect basic set of data elements based on Dublin Core Draft Report and Recommendations to the School of GeoSciences and to Information Services

GeoSciences pilot: lessons learned Little documentation / knowledge of what exists: a nightmare There are no standards in creating & managing data assets Variable openness of staff and their data Ensure appropriate timing (avoid exams, field trips, Boards…) and enough time Get support from senior management (VP level) Inventory as a representative sample

GeoSciences pilot: some outcomes Preliminary but positive Requirement for institution-wide data policy and guidelines Requirement for researcher training Issues associated with data ownership: individual or institution? Training for auditors Scaling up audits: 6 further data audits in process (including Physics, Biol Sci., Education, History, Classics & Archaeology, Biomedical Sciences)

Some (more) issues for the Institution…. What is the state-of-the nation for research data at Bath? Do academic / research staff have the skills to deal with their data ? Do they produce data management plans? Do they deposit their data in an archive? What data storage is available at Bath? Should there be a DAF data audit? Who should lead the work?

Dealing with Data at Bath

Data challenges? 1.Understanding the risks, awareness 2.Community consensus, advocacy 3.Data management plans 4.Appraisal: selection criteria 5.Data documentation: metadata, schema, semantics 6.Data formats: applying standards 7.Instrumentation: proprietary formats 8.Data provenance: authenticity 9.Data citation & versions: persistent IDs 10.Data validation and reproducibility 11.Data access: embargo policy 12.Data linking: text, images, software

UK Digital Curation Centre Policy & Advocacy: briefing papers, curation manual Audit & Certification: DRAMBORA Community Development: 2 nd Research Data Forum November Manchester Training and skills: workshops, summer school Curation 101, February 2009 tbc Research: database archiving Dissemination: International Conference, e-journal IJDC

PoWR Handbook to download at

Digital Preservation Policies Study High-level pointers and guidance Outline policy model/framework Mappings to institutional strategies Exemplars Report October 2008

And more issues for the Institution…. Should the University develop a Data Preservation Strategy? Web archiving? How does this relate to other strategies? Should there be an overarching e-Strategy addressing wider e-Infrastructure issues? Who should lead / be responsible? Should new academic staff induction include data curation training? Would a DCC Workshop be a good start to raise awareness of the issues? How should Research Committee engage?

Thank you. Slides will be available at :