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We are starting up and partnering in a number of new and interesting consultancy projects which run into 2010 as follows:

Dryad is an emerging digital repository for supplementary data underlying published works in ecology, evolution, and related fields being developed by a consortium of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in the US and relevant scientific societies and academic journals. Its goals are to:

• – preserve all the underlying data reported in a paper at the time of publication, when there is the greatest incentive and ability for authors to share their data. This is particularly important in the case of data for which a specialized repository does not exist.

• – lower the burden of data sharing by providing one-stop data-deposition via handshaking with specialized repositories.

• – assign globally unique identifiers to datasets, thus enabling data citations.

• – allow end-users to perform sophisticated searches over data (not only by publication, but also by taxon, geography, geological age, biological concept, etc).

• – allow journals and societies to pool their resources for one shared repository.

• – enable bidirectional search and retrieval with data repositories from related disciplines.

The strategic priorities for Dryad emerged from a May 2007 workshop on “Data Preservation, Sharing, and Discovery: Challenges for Small Science in the Digital Era“, at which a variety of stakeholder journals and societies were represented.

I am pleased to announce that Charles Beagrie Limited will be working with the Dryad project team to develop a business plan and sustainability for the Dryad repository. Neil Beagrie and Julia Chruszcz will lead the consultancy with research support from Peter Williams. Further information on Dryad, the partners and the latest developments can be found on the Dryad website.

I2S2 – The  Infrastructure for Integration in Structural Sciences (I2S2) Project  is funded under the Research Data Management Infrastructure strand of the JISC’s Managing Research Data Programme, with a duration of 18 months (Oct 2009 to March 2011). It will identify requirements for a data-driven research infrastructure in “Structural Science”, focussing on the domain of Chemistry, but with a view towards inter-disciplinary application.

Two research data management pilots  will examine the business processes of research, and highlight the benefits of an integrated approach. Both pilots will address traversing administrative boundaries between institutions to national facilities in addition to issues of scale (local laboratory to national facilities, DIAMOND synchrotron and ISIS respectively).

A key component of the infrastructure will be a harmonised Integrated Information Model to include all stages of the Data Life Cycle. A “before and after” cost-benefit analysis will be performed using the Keeping Research Data Safe (KRDS2) model, which will be extended to address specific requirements in I2S2. We are looking forward to working with UKOLN (University of Bath and DCC), The Universities of Southampton and Cambridge, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the project.

The completed response from the eCrystals repository at the University of Southampton to the KRDS2 Survey has been added to the project webpage.

So far around 12 organisations from the UK and internationally have responded to the Survey. The eCystals response has been added to the project webpage as an exemplar for those still considering a response and for anyone interested in the information the Survey will contain.

Further information on the KRDS2 Survey are contained in an earlier blog posting on the Survey and on the project webpage.  KRDS2 invite you to contribute to the Survey if you have research datasets and associated cost information that you feel may be of interest to the study.

We anticipate that no organisation will have complete information on costs but most will have cost information in some areas. The aim of the survey is to compile an overview of what preservation cost information is collected.

The Survey proforma is available to download as an Acrobat form (requires Adobe Reader 8+ installed) or a Word form (requires Microsoft Word installed). The Survey proforma is available as a single main questionnaire or alternatively if you have multiple cost datasets you can complete a separate organisational cover sheet and multiple collection details as required. It should take less than 30 minutes to complete and KRDS2 is seeking responses (to info@beagrie.com) by the end of October 2009.

The Keeping Research Data Safe2 project (KRDS2) commenced on 31 March 2009 and will complete in December 2009. The project is identifying long-lived datasets for the purpose of cost analysis (including social sciences and humanities research) and is building on the work of the first “Keeping Research Data Safe” study completed in 2008.

We are currently undertaking detailed analysis of available cost information from 3 of our project partners and aim to develop guidance for how cost metrics can be captured and applied in future from this.

In addition we have now added a survey proforma to the project website to help us identify other research data collections with information on preservation costs and issues. We invite you to contribute to the data survey if you have research datasets and associated cost information that you feel may be of interest to the study.

We anticipate that no organisation will have complete information on costs but most will have cost information in some areas. The aim of the survey is to compile an overview of what preservation cost information is collected.

The Survey proforma is available to download as an Acrobat form (requires Adobe Reader 8+ installed) or a Word form (requires Microsoft Word installed). It should take less than 30 minutes to complete and we are seeking responses (to info@beagrie.com) by the end of October 2009.  The Survey proforma is available as a single main questionnaire or alternatively if you have multiple cost datasets you can complete a separate organisational cover sheet and multiple collection details as required. Please do not hesitate to contact us at info@beagrie.com if you have any difficulty or questions.

The latest Volume of Ariadne (issue 60 July 2009) publishes an article based on recent work by Charles Beagrie Limited and Serco Consulting for the UK Research Data Service (UKRDS) Feasibility Study. It should be of interest to an international as well as UK audience as may of the issues addressed apply to research and research data  issues in any national context.

Research Data Preservation and Access: The Views of Researchers present findings from a UKRDS survey of researchers’ views on and practices for preservation and dissemination of research data in four UK universities (Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, and Oxford) and place them in the wider UK and international context.

A preliminary report from the Survey was included in the UKRDS Interim Report . Elements of the Survey and its findings were also incorporated in the Final Report of the UKRDS Feasibility Study submitted to HEFCE . However space constraints precluded presentation of all the data and findings in full in these reports and they were mainly included in a separate unpublished appendix. This article therefore aims to publish more of this material and set it in its context  with updates from more recent published studies.

The Alliance of German Science Organisations has established a priority initiative for digital information. The digital information initiative is focusing on six major areas: national licensing; open access; a national hosting strategy for electronic resources; primary research data; virtual research environments; and legal frameworks.

I am pleased to announce that Charles Beagrie Limited in association with Globale Informationstechnik GmbH have been awarded the consultancy on behalf of the Alliance for German Scientific Organisations to develop recommendations for a national hosting strategy for electronic resources in Germany.

Neil Beagrie will lead the consultancy with Prof Matthias Hemmje. Charles Beagrie Associates working on the project are Mary Auckland, Julia Chruszcz, Diana Leitch, Tery Morrow, and Najla Rettberg.

The project plan and project webpage for the JISC-funded Keeping Research Data Safe 2 project (KRDS2) are now available on the Charles Beagrie website. The webpage has been set-up to support dissemination of information on the project and provide the background to the work, details of the project partners, and the project plan.

The first Keeping Research Data Safe study funded by JISC made a major contribution to the study of preservation costs by developing a cost model and indentifying cost variables for preserving research data in UK universities.

KRDS2 aims to extend this previous work on digital preservation costs. It is identifying long-lived datasets for the purpose of cost analysis and building on the work of the first “Keeping Research Data Safe” study completed in 2008.

The KRDS2 project commenced on 31 March 2009 and will complete in December 2009. For further information see  the project plan.

I am pleased to report that Charles Beagrie Ltd will be the lead contractor for Keeping Research Data Safe 2: a  new JISC-funded study of the identification of long-lived digital datasets for the purposes of cost analysis.

The study aims to build on the work from the original Keeping Research Data Safe consultancy and is being undertaken by a consortium consisting of 4 partners involved in the original  study (University of Cambridge, Charles Beagrie Ltd, OCLC, and University of Southampton) and 4 new partners (the Archaeology Data Service, University of Oxford, UK Data Archive, and University of London Computer Centre) with significant data collections and interests in preservation costs. All the partners bring considerable relevant expertise, knowledge and resources to the project.

The new study will identify and analyse sources of long-lived data and develop longitudinal data on associated preservation costs and benefits. We believe these outcomes will be critical to developing preservation costing tools and cost benefit analyses for justifying and sustaining major investments in repositories and data curation.

The project will utilise the Keeping Research Data Safe cost framework as a tool for organising and scoping its work. We will undertake a combination of desk research; a data survey; analytical work with national and disciplinary digital archives that have existing historic cost data for preservation of digital research data; and interaction with digital archives in research universities who have little or no historic cost data but a strong interest in this study and identifying criteria and metrics for capturing cost data going forward.

A project website will be available shortly and regular updates on the study will be posted to this blog.

The Dutch National Library (the KB), The Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche (Association of European Research Libraries – LIBER), and the Dutch Digital Preservation Coalition (NCDD) are holding a digital preservation workshop titled e-Merging New Roles and Responsibilities in the European Landscape on 17 April at the KB, The Hague, Netherlands.

The workshop aims to develop a basic understanding of the issues presented by long-term digital curation and preservation of resources which are (to be) deposited in institutional and subject-based repositories – both within research institutions and research communities. It will highlight the state of the art in digital curation and will cover best practices, including possibilities for outsourcing.

I will be chairing the afternoon session on “Policy, preconditions and costs: opportunities and pitfalls in long-term digital preservation”  with Marcel Ras, Head of the e-Depot at the KB. Attendees registering for the workshop have the opportunity to  list a specific question or problem they would like to see covered, so the session content will be tailored to your suggestions! For further information see the workshop webpages linked above.

We have been very pleased to add three new senior associates to the company over the Autumn who can help support the range of work Charles Beagrie can undertake in the library, archive, and higher education sectors. I am delighted to welcome Mary Auckland, Terry Morrow, and Duncan Simpson as associates and look forward to working with them on future projects.

Their profiles are as follows:

Mary Auckland is an acknowledged expert in library and information work and has been an independent consultant and trainer since 2005. This follows her long career in academic and research libraries, as Director of Library and Learning Resources at the University of the Arts London; Librarian at SOAS; and senior posts at the University of Southampton and LSE libraries. Mary has served on various strategic advisory bodies including the JISC’s Committee for Electronic Information, and she was the Chair of its Content Working Group. She also served on the Library Association Council for nine years and was its Chair for three. In 2003, Mary was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to libraries and awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

Terry Morrow is an established consultant who has extensive experience of academic computing, and electronic journals and bibliographic services. He has worked for the Regional Computer Centres based at the Universities of Manchester and Bath, and was part of the team that launched the successful JISC BIDS database service in the early 1990’s to provide bibliographic database services to the UK academic community. Following the transfer of BIDS in 1998 to the start-up company Ingenta, Terry was appointed Director of the BIDS Service. In 2003 Terry left Ingenta to become an independent consultant.

Duncan Simpson is a consultant with extensive senior management experience in archives, records management, and access to information. Until 2002 he was a Director of Government Services at the UK National Archives and led the introduction of the framework for electronic records management in government. He was a founder Director of the Digital Preservation Coalition and is an honorary senior research fellow at UCL specializing in the records management aspects of access to information and information management. He is particularly interested in access to information in local government and has also recently advised on the design of a National Records Centre for Tanzania.

I am pleased to forward the announcement that the final report for the UK Research Data Service (UKRDS) Feasibility Study Project has been submitted and an International Conference on the UKRDS Feasibility Study will be held at The Royal Society, London on Thursday, 26 February 2009.

Booking for this international conference of senior policymakers, funders, scientists, IT managers, librarians and data service providers has now opened: Attendance at the conference is free. Places are limited, so early booking is advised.

The UKRDS feasibility study was commissioned to explore a range of models for the provision of a national infrastructure for digital research data management. It has brought together key UK stakeholders, including the Research Councils, JISC, HEFCE, British Library, Research Information Network, Wellcome Trust, researchers, and university IT and library managers, and it builds on the work of the UK’s Office of Science and Innovation e-infrastructure group. It also takes into account international developments in this area.

The UKRDS final report is due to be released soon and makes important recommendations for investment in this key part of the UK national e-infrastructure.

The study has been funded by HEFCE as part of its Shared Services programme, with additional support from JISC, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and the Russell Group IT Directors (RUGIT). It has been led by the London School of Economics, with Serco Consulting as lead consultants supported by Charles Beagrie Limited and Grant Thornton as sub-contractors.