Scientists’ Data and Information Practices and Needs Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee and Mike Frame, USGS June 15, 2011 UC3 Summer Webinar Series

Scientists’ Data and Information Practices and Needs: A Baseline Assessment & Implications for Libraries Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee and Mike Frame, USGS Co-Leaders of the DataONE Usability & Assessment Working Group 2

Provide universal access to data about life on earth and the environment that sustains it 1.Build on existing cyberinfrastructure 2.Create new cyberinfrastructure 3.Support new communities of practice 3

Scientists Data Managers Public Officials Citizen- scientists Libraries & Librarians Students & Teachers Assessment-stakeholders Publishers

5 CollectAssureDescribeDepositPreserveDiscoverIntegrateAnalyze Data Life Cycle Assessment

Baseline Assessment of Scientists (2010) n=1329 n=1317 6

Meet the Scientists: Joe & Mabel 7 Joe is a biodiversity scientist employed by a government agency. He acts as a program manager and consultant. Joe oversees collection of new data in the field and also manages historical data from other providers. Joe has data from a variety of different projects conducted over the years. Mabel is an academic environmental scientist. She collects and records data in the field on a variety of specimen variables and environmental impacts. Mabel has a data set related to her personal research interests, as well as data collected for a university museum collection.

Lessons Learned 8

1.Scientists need a variety of data types and many scientists are interested in sharing data. 9

10 Data Types

Current Sharing Practices

Many are interested in sharing data Percent agree

Joe & Mabel: About Sharing Data 13 “If NBII required anyone who extracted data through the portal to also share data with the portal, then a resounding yes.” “I’m interested in having data available to researchers interested in larger questions, particularly climate change questions.” “We are torn between putting it out there for everyone and worry about suffering the risk of something bad happening with it. Saddest thing would be if the data loses its use, where it isn’t shared.” “I don’t think I would be opposed to it. It would not be a decision I would make personally; we would have to have permission to share.”

2. There are many barriers to sharing data and conditions that must be met. 14

Gap Between Willingness to Share and Accessibility 15

Interest in Data Sharing 16

Conditions on data sharing Percent agree

More challenges.. Percent agree

More challenges.. Percent agree

Joe & Mabel: About Restrictions & Conditions to Sharing Data 20 “We want to make sure that those of us who have been involved in gathering the data get appropriate recognition for it.” “If someone were to ask about rare or endangered plants, I would limit that information to appropriate people: natural heritage, universities and federal agencies.” “We will share it with people who want to use the data for restoration or research. If a consultant wants data to make money, then we are hesitant to hand it out.” “Is there a mechanism by which we can know when our data is being used? Knowing how valuable we are to the general public comes from the use of our data.”

3. There are different needs, attitudes, and practices between scientists who work in government agencies and those who work in academia. 21

“I am satisfied with …” Percent agree/strongly agree

Academic respondents are more likely to have sole responsibility for approving access to some or all of their datasets. – Academic 83%, Government 63% 23 Responsibilities for Data

Government respondents are more likely to agree their organization was involved in: – “managing data during the life of the project” Government 52%, Academic 39%, – “storing data beyond the life of the project” Government 53%, Academic 46% 24 Organizational Involvement

25 “If other people are using my data then I somehow need to report that. I need to know how it’s being used and if any publications result.” “I don’t have anything I’m keeping private. I’m willing to put it all out there.” “I don’t have the authority to make decisions about data sharing. “ “Our data sharing policy makes it difficult for us to withhold parts of the datasets we receive. As a result, some data contributors only share sub-sets of their data.” Joe & Mabel: The View from Government & Academic Organizations

4. The skill level of scientists and use and access to appropriate tools varies across the data life cycle. 26

Metadata standard What metadata standard do you currently use?

28 “We are currently redoing all of our collection databases at the museum. We are building an in- house system. We looked at available standards and decided to write our own.” “For my research, very little metadata has been created. For metadata associated with the museum collection, Darwin Core has been used.“ “For contemporary sets, the person who submits the data also submits a metadata record. We create another record representing what we think it is. We have one version of the data, submitter may have a version they keep on their website. We want to be able to show that these are two different things.” “We write FGDC records.” Joe & Mabel: About Metadata

5. Scientists need assistance across the data life cycle. 29

30 % Government% Academic Training on best practices2321 Funds for data management long-term2720 Funds for data management short-term3429 Tools and technical support for data management long-term 3934 Tools and technical support for data management short-term 4843 My organization provides…

More challenges.. Percent agree

Joe & Mabel: Looking for Assistance 32 “It is cumbersome to put those data sets together, but only because it is important. If there were ways to automate some of that information collection out of the data sets, it would help.” “Maximum utility of the data would require geo- referencing of the data. We would need help geo-referencing the part of the collection that isn’t geo-referenced.” “Ideally, we would like for our research results to be disseminated in a way that’s accessible and digestible to not just academics but to everybody.” “Manpower. We need more people to handle these sorts of things.”

Are there standards? CollectAssureDescribeDepositPreserveDiscoverIntegrateAnalyze Data Life Cycle Scientist Challenges How do I preserve my data? What tools do I use? Will I get credit for my work? How much will it cost? What is a data management plan? Who can help me? What is metadata? Where do I preserve my data?

Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5 Scientists: BL Future Assessments Scientists: FU Librarians: BL Librarians: FU Policy Makers: BL Policy Makers: FU Educators: BL Educators: FU Library Policies: BL Library Policies: FU

Library and Librarian Surveys Library (1 per library) current practices Librarian (individuals) attitudes and perceptions Started with ARL libraries (spring and summer 2011; 38 library responses and 223 librarians so far) Will expand to other North American academic libraries and librarians

Stewardship role (select & deselect)? Librarian & Library Assessment CollectAssureDescribeDepositPreserveDiscoverIntegrateAnalyze Are RDS priority? Role in partnering with researcher? Level of knowledge & skills ? Is there an agency repository that accepts data? Level of participation with data? Role of librarian discovering data? Level of involvement with metadata? Role of the librarian to help preservation?

Library Survey Research Data Services (RDS) - Research data reference/consultation services to researchers are provided by individual discipline librarians (33%) or dedicated data librarians (17%) or a combination of both (50%). - Almost half of the libraries (45%) do not have policies and/or procedures associated with research data services.

Library Survey Collaboration for RDS n=18

Library Survey Staffing issues n=28

Library Survey Opportunities for Staff for RDS n=25

Librarian Survey – Distributed to 950 librarians – Science, data, metadata, scholarly communication, digital collection, electronic resources librarians – 223 people replied at least one question

Librarian Survey Interact with faculty, students, or staff in support of RDS 28% Yes-integral part, 41% Yes-occasionally, 32% No (n=221) With faculty or staff consultation on n=192 n=194 n=193

Frequency of research data services performed by the librarian n=167 n=166

Librarian Survey Outreach and collaboration w/ other RDS – Off campus 61% Never, 34% few times a year (n=157) – On campus 51% Never, 34% few times a year (n=157) Participation in … about RDS n=158 n=156

Librarian Survey Skills & Expertise n=157

Librarian Survey Most important motivation to be involved in RDS

Next steps Follow-up to ARL libraries and librarians Expand scope to other academic libraries Federal libraries/librarians Data Managers Other Working Groups looking at citizen scientists and UG educators

Questions? Carol Tenopir Mike Frame 48