Étiquette : research data

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EN

Foundational Practices of Research Data Management

Authors : Kristin A Briney, Heather Coates, Abigail Goben

The importance of research data has grown as researchers across disciplines seek to ensure reproducibility, facilitate data reuse, and acknowledge data as a valuable scholarly commodity.

Researchers are under increasing pressure to share their data for validation and reuse. Adopting good data management practices allows researchers to efficiently locate their data, understand it, and use it throughout all of the stages of a project and in the future. Additionally, good data management can streamline data analysis, visualization, and reporting, thus making publication less stressful and time-consuming.

By implementing foundational practices of data management, researchers set themselves up for success by formalizing processes and reducing common errors in data handling, which can free up more time for research. This paper provides an introduction to best practices for managing all types of data.

URL : Foundational Practices of Research Data Management

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e56508

Catégories
EN

Responsible, practical genomic data sharing that accelerates research

Authors : James Brian Byrd, Anna C. Greene, Deepashree Venkatesh Prasad, Xiaoqian Jiang, Casey S. Greene

Data sharing anchors reproducible science, but expectations and best practices are often nebulous. Communities of funders, researchers and publishers continue to grapple with what should be required or encouraged.

To illuminate the rationales for sharing data, the technical challenges and the social and cultural challenges, we consider the stakeholders in the scientific enterprise. In biomedical research, participants are key among those stakeholders.

Ethical sharing requires considering both the value of research efforts and the privacy costs for participants. We discuss current best practices for various types of genomic data, as well as opportunities to promote ethical data sharing that accelerates science by aligning incentives.

URL : Responsible, practical genomic data sharing that accelerates research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0257-5

Catégories
EN

Research Data Management as an Integral Part of the Research Process of Empirical Disciplines Using Landscape Ecology as an Example

Authors : Winfried Schröder, Stefan Nickel

Research Data Management (RDM) is regarded as an elementary component of empirical disciplines. Taking Landscape Ecology in Germany as an example the article demonstrates how to integrate RDM into the research design as a complement of the classic quality control and assurance in empirical research that has, so far, generally been limited to data production.

Sharing and reuse of empirical data by scientists as well as thorough peer reviews of knowledge produced by empirical research requires that the problem of the research in question, the operationalized definitions of the objects of investigation and their representative selection are documented and archived as well as the methods of data production including indicators for data quality and all data collected and produced.

On this basis, the extent to which this complemented design of research processes has already been realized is demonstrated by research projects of the Chair of Landscape Ecology at the University of Vechta, Germany.

This study is part of a joined research project on Research Data Management funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

URL : Research Data Management as an Integral Part of the Research Process of Empirical Disciplines Using Landscape Ecology as an Example

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-026

Catégories
EN

Data Communities: Empowering Researcher-Driven Data Sharing in the Sciences

Authors : Rebecca Springer, Danielle Cooper

There is a growing perception that science can progress more quickly, more innovatively, and more rigorously when researchers share data with each other. However many scientists are not engaging in data sharing and remain skeptical of its relevance to their work.

As organizations and initiatives designed to promote STEM data sharing multiply – within, across, and outside academic institutions – there is a pressing need to decide strategically on the best ways to move forward. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism for conceptualizing and supporting STEM research data sharing.

Successful data sharing happens within data communities, formal or informal groups of scholars who share a certain type of data with each other, regardless of disciplinary boundaries. Drawing on the findings of four large-scale qualitative studies of research practices conducted by Ithaka S+R, as well as the scholarly literature, we identify what constitutes a data community and outline its most important features by studying three success stories, investigating the circumstances under which intensive data sharing is already happening.

We contend that stakeholders who wish to promote data sharing – librarians, information technologists, scholarly communications professionals, and research funders, to name a few – should work to identify and empower emergent data communities.

These are groups of scholars for whom a relatively straightforward technological intervention, usually the establishment of a data repository, could kickstart the growth of a more active data sharing culture. We conclude by offering recommendations for ways forward.

URL : Data Communities: Empowering Researcher-Driven Data Sharing in the Sciences

DOI : https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v15i1.695

Catégories
EN

Understanding the Data Management Plan as a Boundary Object through a Multi-stakeholder perspective

Authors : Live Kvale, Nils Pharo

A three-phase Delphi study was used to investigate an emerging community for research data management in Norway and their understanding and application of data management plans (DMPs). The findings reveal visions of what the DMP should be as well as different practice approaches, yet the stakeholders present common goals.

This paper discusses the different perspectives on the DMP by applying Star and Griesemer’s theory of boundary objects (Star & Griesemer, 1989). The debate on what the DMP is and the findings presented are relevant to all research communities currently implementing DMP procedures and requirements. The current discussions about DMPs tend to be distant from the active researchers and limited to the needs of funders and institutions rather than to the usefulness for researchers.

By analysing the DMP as a boundary object, plastic and adaptable yet with a robust identity (Star & Griesemer, 1989), and by translating between worlds where collaboration on data sharing can take place we expand the perspectives and include all stakeholders. An understanding of the DMP as a boundary object can shift the focus from shaping a DMP which fulfils funders’ requirements to enabling collaboration on data management and sharing across domains using standardised forms.

URL : Understanding the Data Management Plan as a Boundary Object through a Multi-stakeholder perspective

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v15i1.729

 

Catégories
EN

A Review of the History, Advocacy and Efficacy of Data Management Plans

Authors: Nicholas Andrew Smale, Kathryn Unsworth, Gareth Denyer, Elise Magatova, Daniel Barr

Data management plans (DMPs) have increasingly been encouraged as a key component of institutional and funding body policy. Although DMPs necessarily place administrative burden on researchers, proponents claim that DMPs have myriad benefits, including enhanced research data quality, increased rates of data sharing, and institutional planning and compliance benefits.

In this article, we explore the international history of DMPs and describe institutional and funding body DMP policy. We find that economic and societal benefits from presumed increased rates of data sharing was the original driver of mandating DMPs by funding bodies.

Today, 86% of UK Research Councils and 63% of US funding bodies require submission of a DMP with funding applications. Given that no major Australian funding bodies require DMP submission, it is of note that 37% of Australian universities have taken the initiative to internally mandate DMPs. Institutions both within Australia and internationally frequently promote the professional benefits of DMP use, and endorse DMPs as ‘best practice’.

We analyse one such typical DMP implementation at a major Australian institution, finding that DMPs have low levels of apparent translational value. Indeed, an extensive literature review suggests there is very limited published systematic evidence that DMP use has any tangible benefit for researchers, institutions or funding bodies.

We are therefore led to question why DMPs have become the go-to tool for research data professionals and advocates of good data practice. By delineating multiple use-cases and highlighting the need for DMPs to be fit for intended purpose, we question the view that a good DMP is necessarily that which encompasses the entire data lifecycle of a project.

Finally, we summarise recent developments in the DMP landscape, and note a positive shift towards evidence-based research management through more researcher-centric, educative, and integrated DMP services.

URL : A Review of the History, Advocacy and Efficacy of Data Management Plans

DOI : https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v15i1.525

Catégories
FR

Usages et pratiques en lien avec les données de recherche. Une enquête menée auprès des chercheurs de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3

Auteurs/Authors : Hans Dillaerts, Céline Paganelli, Lise Verlaet, Hugo Catherine

Cette enquête s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet de recherche intitulé « Science ouverte et données de la recherche en SHS : entre politiques d’incitation et pratiques de la communication scientifique, quelle place pour les institutions et les bibliothèques ? » qui bénéficie pour une durée de 2 ans d’un financement de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3.

Le projet vise à recueillir et analyser d’une part les usages et les pratiques des chercheurs de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 en matière des données de recherche et d’autre part les pratiques institutionnelles et notamment celles des professionnels de l’IST au sein des structures documentaires et des bibliothèques universitaires.

Une enquête quantitative a été menée en 2019 sur les pratiques et les usages des chercheurs de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 en lien avec les données de recherche. L’objectif de ce rapport est de présenter et analyser les résultats de cette enquête qui s’appuie sur un échantillon de 81 réponses complètes.

URL : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02902710