1. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 1 The Value of Recording each Step of the Research Process Keith G Jeffery Science and Technology Facilities Council Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, OX11 0QX UK e-mail: keith.jeffery@stfc.ac.uk

2. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 2 Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

3. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 3 RCUK Shared Services Centre Harmonisation of data and processes across all 7 RCs Manage ~£3 billion per year £120m project; –Finance, HR, procurement, payroll, Grants –Using Oracle EBS(e-business suite), Oracle ECM (enterprise content management) and Siebel CRM (customer relationship management)

4. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 4 RCUK Shared Services Centre In context of –RCs Outputs and Outcomes project –HEFCE REF project Data warehouse for public use –Plan to use CERIF

5. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 5 STRUCTURE The Research Process Step By Step – what is used and recorded The common data elements How they are (re-)used Importance of time Conclusion

6. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 6 The Issue Increasing numbers of researchers Increasing output per researcher –Publications –Patents –Products metadata for research datasets Effort to catalog - input metadata –Too great (for the user) –Does not scale (with increasing numbers)

7. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 7 The Notion The research process is a workflow with e- forms –At each step (meta) information is required and stored incrementally (re-use, minimal effort) The researcher sees benefit from the process: examples –Automated CV –Automated publication list –Tracking competing and cooperating teams –Research visible to intermediaries for exploitation –Boilerplate information for research proposals

8. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 8 The R&D Process Workprogramme Proposal Project Results Exploitation WealthCreation CRIS DATABASE Information from external systems and CRIS

9. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 9 STRUCTURE The Research Process Step By Step – what is used and recorded The common data elements How they are (re-)used Importance of time Conclusion

10. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 10 Research Process Workprogramme Proposal Project Results Exploitation WealthCreation CRIS DATABASE Information from external systems and CRIS

11. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 11 The R&D Process Recording WorkProgramme Workprogramme ProgrammeName Funding OrgUnit Person Workprogramme document CRIS DATABASE

12. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 12 The R&D Process Recording Proposal Proposal Title Abstract Person(s) OrgUnit(s) Proposal Document CRIS DATABASE

13. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 13 The R&D Process Recording Project Project Title Abstract Person(s) OrgUnit(s) Funding Project Plan CRIS DATABASE

14. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 14 The R&D Process Recording Results-Product Results Person(s) OrgUnit(s) Project(s) Product(s) Product Description CRIS DATABASE

15. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 15 The R&D Process Recording Results-Patent Results Person(s) OrgUnit(s) Project(s) Patent(s) Patent File CRIS DATABASE

16. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 16 The R&D Process Recording Results-Publication Results Person(s) OrgUnit(s) Project(s) Bibliographic Information Article CRIS DATABASE

17. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 17 The R&D Process Recording Exploitation Exploitation Person(s) OrgUnit(s) Business plan Finance Data Marketing Data Production Data Sales Data CRIS DATABASE

18. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 18 The R&D Process Recording Wealth Creation WealthCreation Person(s) OrgUnit(s) Annual Reports/Accounts Employment Records Dividends Records CRIS DATABASE

19. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 19 The R&D Process Workprogramme Proposal Project Results Exploitation WealthCreation Note: some CRIS developers limit recording of outputs from the process to areas indicated Nirvana

20. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 20 STRUCTURE The Research Process Step By Step – what is used and recorded The common data elements How they are (re-)used Importance of time Conclusion

21. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 21 Common Data Elements Project Person Organisational Unit Publication Funding CV Skills Service Facility Equipment Event Product Patent In many requirements for input or output of the record of research need :

22. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 22 PROJECTORGUNIT SkillsCV General Facility Particular Equipment Contact Results Publication Results Patent Results Product Service Funding Programme Event Classification Prize/Award PERSON CERIF

23. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 23 CERIF It is no accident that CERIF records these common data elements And that CERIF is extensible through the linking relation mechanism –Generally (everyone) –Specifically (for one implementation) Even to external systems e.g. for finance, human resources, project management, business plans, ……. the CERIF Task Group of euroCRIS manages the evolution of CERIF www.eurocris.org/cerif

24. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 24 STRUCTURE The Research Process Step By Step – what is used and recorded The common data elements How they are (re-)used Importance of time Conclusion

25. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 25 Dealing with the Issue: Progressive Recording early research ideas or work in progress : grey document –described by appropriate metadata (title, abstract….) input at the time of deposit. –publication metadata linked to pre-existing research information (such as person, organisational unit, project) in a temporal and role-based context.

26. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 26 Progressive Recording Grey Document Grey doc Publication metadata Person Project OrgUnit new Funding

27. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 27 Dealing with the Issue: Progressive Recording early research ideas or work in progress : grey document –described by appropriate metadata (title, abstract….) input at the time of deposit. –publication metadata linked to pre-existing research information (such as person, organisational unit, project) in a temporal and role-based context. grey document developed into a white publication –additional publication metadata is input at the time of submission. –linked through temporal and role-based relationships to the pre-existing grey publication –and to the pre-existing contextual information such as persons, organisational units etc.

28. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 28 Progressive Recording White document Grey doc Publication metadata Person Project OrgUnit White doc Publication metadata new Funding

29. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 29 Dealing with the Issue: Re-Use for Scalability Record (meta)data once: re-use many times Record only the metadata available and needed at each process step –Automated input assistance - quality –Reduces input required Addresses scalability and high user effort threshold, improves quality

30. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 30 STRUCTURE The Research Process Step By Step – what is used and recorded The common data elements How they are (re-)used Importance of time Conclusion

31. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 31 Time Time in the way research is done –Progressive Time in the way research is recorded –Workflow, prior claim Time in the way research is used –Timeliness, relevance Time in the way research is analysed –History, provenance, periodic

32. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 32 STRUCTURE The Research Process Step By Step – what is used and recorded The common data elements How they are (re-)used Importance of time Conclusion

33. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 33 CRIS Features Required Entity instance attribute data collected once and stored Entity instances related flexibly (n:m) Entity instances related by role and temporal limits (semantics) Input incremental, flexible, validated (minimum effort) System extensible (add new attributes,entities preserving previous datastructure for interoperation) System interoperable – CRIS (to create world view) System linkable – other systems used in research process (eg finance, HR, project management to utilise them for CRIS purposes)

34. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 34 CERIF-CRIS It is no accident that CERIF (Common European Research Information Format) provides a datamodel with exactly these desirable properties. Linking relations are the key feature –temporal and role information Critical to answer questions like: –“during what time interval was person A project leader of project P?” –“to which research group(s) did person A belong when she produced publication X?”

35. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 35 CERIF-CRIS Further features Inference: –in a multidimensional framework, –deduction or induction of relationships between entities eg between a grey internal report and a white published paper - and with other research outputs such as datasets or software. Fact generation –automated generation of facts eg (1) Person A on Project P produces Paper X; (2) Project P uses Equipment E (3) Paper X states used Equipment E  Person A uses Equipment E –the generated data may be recorded in the CERIF-CRIS deduced / induced afresh each time it is required.

36. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 36 CERIF-CRIS Further features Assertions –relationships between entity instances (eg documents) can also be expressed explicitly (i.e. asserted) eg references and / or citations can be recorded by directly inputting the information into the CERIF-CRIS. Metrics –role-based temporal relationships between entity instances (eg publications) –provides detailed research output metrics, –increasingly in demand from CRISs as research institutions seek to justify their funding and to improve their relative standing in league tables –while funding organisations seek to justify their decisions.

37. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 37 CERIF-CRIS Summary through the flexible and dynamic linking relations between entities, –with their role and time-stamped attributes, a rich context for understanding the R&D output is provided, including versions, history and provenance. This context is particularly important for other users of CRISs such as –entrepreneurs engaged in technology transfer and wealth creation –the media explaining to the public the importance of the research being done.

38. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 38 CERIF-CRIS at the Centre Acting as metadata Relating CRIS information to itself –Flexible linking relations And to information in other systems –Eg publications repository –Eg e-research datasets and software And Via GRIDs environment to other research process systems –E.g. finance, HR, project management

39. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 39 CERIF-CRIS at One Organisation Publication repository Dataset Software repository Finance system Human Resources system Project Management system CERIF-CRIS Web pages Directory Services This is fine for one organisation but research is international, so…

40. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 40 CERIF Interoperation CERIF-CRIS CERIF provides interoperation of CRIS and associated systems with formal syntax and declared semantics so that it is reliable and scalable. Interconnect Backplane

41. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 41 CRIS & e- Infrastructure network Data & Compute servers Detector arrays middleware applications CERIF-CRIS Access control / UI / accounting users

42. ©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 42 Prof. Keith G Jeffery CEng, CITP, FBCS, FGS, HFICS Director, IT & International Strategy STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory keith.jeffery@stfc.ac.uk