e-Research

Keeping Research Data Safe2: Data Survey added to project website

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.

Just Published: Survey of Researchers’ Views on Research Data Preservation and Access

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.

Keeping Research Data Safe 2 – Project webpage and project plan now available

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.

Fedora and DSpace Merge to Create DuraSpace Organisation

A landmark development has been announced with the merger of DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons. Both are major players in digital preservation and open source content management systems particularly in the Higher Education sector. Both have been collaborating closely in recent years and the two organisations have now merged to form the new organisation DuraSpace.

DuraSpace will continue to support its existing software platforms, DSpace and Fedora but in addition is planning a number of new developments. The first new technology to emerge will be a Web-based service named “DuraCloud” – a hosted service that takes advantage of the cost efficiencies of cloud storage and cloud computing, while adding value to help ensure longevity and re-use of digital content. The DuraSpace organisation is developing partnerships with commercial cloud providers who offer both storage and computing capabilities to deliver this service.

I agree wholeheartedly with Cliff Lynch Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) who is quoted in the press release as follows:

“This is a great development. It will focus resources and talent in a way that should really accelerate progress in areas critical to the research, education, and cultural memory communities. The new emphasis on distributed reliable storage infrastructure services and their integration with repositories is particularly timely.”

For further information on DuraSpace see the new website and press release .

New Project: Keeping Research Data Safe 2

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.

UK Research Data Service (UKRDS) International Conference

160 people gathered today at the Royal Society at the one day international conference on the UK Research Data Service (UKRDS) Feasibility Study.

The eight page management summary from the final report has been made available on the UKRDS website to co-incide with the conference. This recommends to HEFCE that the UKRDS is feasible and should be funded over a period of at least 5 years. In the first instance it recommends a 2-year Pathfinder phase should be funded at a cost of £5.31m.  It estimates overall savings delivered by a scaled-up UKRDS service to be the financial equivalent of 63.5 FTEs over a period of five years.
You can also find the presentations from the day available online.

HEFCE is still considering the report but it said to regard it favourably. A final decision is awaited.

New International Society for Biocuration launched

A potentially important development in digital curation is the creation of a new International Society for Biocuration.

The mission of the Society will be to:

1. Define the work of biocurators for the scientific community and the public funding agencies;
2. Propose a discussion forum for interested biocurators, developers, scientists and students.
3. Organize a regular meeting where biocurators will be able to present their work and discuss their projects.
4. Lobby to obtain increased and stable funding for biocuration resources that are essential to research;
5. Build a relationship with publishers and establish a link between researchers and databases through journal publishers
6. Organize a regular workshop where new biocurators, or interested students can be trained in the use of the common tools needed for their work.
7. Provide documentation on the use of common database and bioinformatics tools.
8. Provide ‘Gold Standards’ for databases, such as the use of unique, traceable identifiers, use of shared tools, etc.;
9. Share documentation on standards and annotation procedures with the aim of developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
10. Foster connections with user communities to ensure that databases and accompanying tools meet specific user needs;
11. Maintain a biocurator job market forum.

The new Society will have its official launch at the 3rd International Biocuration Conference 16-19 April 2009 in Berlin.

A Digital Preservation Workshop at The Hague, April 2009

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.

ComputerWeekly tips digital preservation as an emerging technology

Digital Preservation has been tipped as an emerging technology to watch by a leading IT magazine.

Yesterday’s ComputerWeekly has an  article in its IT Management section on How to beat the recession using underutilised technology by Michael Pincher. It focuses on how IT vendors can look at emerging technologies and customer requirements to innovate and begin to buck the recession.

Its an interesting article looking at overlooked areas of corporate innovation, key markets, “hype cycles”, and emerging technologies.

The emerging technologies section particularly caught my eye mentioning that digital preservation is a growth area in data management. In addition related issues such as regulatory compliance technologies, content management and repositories, infrastructure protection, storage management, and risk management are highlighted.

The list of emerging technologies is provided to give food for thought and help advise on business and innovation potential in the marketplace. The content of the article however should be of interest to a much wider readership and I highly recommend reading it.

Merger of JSTOR and Ithaka

JSTOR and Ithaka have recently announced the merger of their organisations. The new combined enterprise will be called Ithaka and will be dedicated to helping the academic community use digital technologies to advance scholarship and teaching and to reducing systemwide costs through collective action.

JSTOR was founded in 1995 by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as a shared digital library to help academic institutions save costs associated with the storage of library materials and to vastly improve access to scholarship. Today, more than 5,200 academic institutions and 600 scholarly publishers and content owners participate in JSTOR.

Ithaka was started in 2003 with funding from the Mellon Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation. It is probably best known for incubating and hosting Portico its digital preservation service for e-journals and e-books. Ithaka is also the organisational home to NITLE, a suite of services supporting the use of technology in liberal arts education and has produced a number of influential reports including the 2007 “University Publishing in A Digital Age” and the 2008 “Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources.”

The merger makes sense in containing expenses at a time when endowments are under severe pressure. JSTOR and Ithaka already work closely together (for example over the Portico service) and share a common history, values, and a fundamental purpose. During 2008, the Ithaka-incubated resource Aluka was integrated into JSTOR as an initial step, further strengthening ties between the organisations. JSTOR will now join Portico and NITLE as a coordinated set of offerings made available under the Ithaka organisational name. In addition to JSTOR, Portico, and NITLE, Ithakas existing research and strategic services groups will be important parts of the enterprise.

Kevin Guthrie will remain President of Ithaka and Michael Spinella from JSTOR will become Executive Vice-President. The board will be composed of Ithaka and JSTOR Trustees, with Henry Bienen, President of Northwestern University, serving as Chairman and Paul Brest, President of the Hewlett Foundation as Vice Chairman.

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