One of the casualties of my recent stay in hospital was my moustache, which – of late – had grown to impressive proportions. As the NHS does not employ barbers to keep the inmates kempt, the moustache became unruly and had to go. I do not pretend that my ‘lip-joy’ has not divided opinion – but if you can see past it, perhaps the videos (linked below) of presentations that I have recently given may be of interest.
Encouraging Data Publication
I was invited to speak at the 1 June Repositories Support Project event at RIBA entitled Scholarly Communications: New Developments in Open Access. The event was extremely well-attended and featured an insightful keynote from Martin Hall, as well as an inspiring account of progress in Open Access from Alma Swan.
The theme of the event gave me the opportunity to discuss the various drivers for data publication (including the need for research findings to be verifiable and reproducible and the benefits of data re-use, particularly for metastudies) and to relate how the JISC Managing Research Data Programme has been seeking to encourage initiatives to link publications more effectively with the data which forms the evidence for research findings. One of the biggest successes for the Managing Research Data programme in this area has been the DryadUK Project, which engaged with UK publishers and helped the Dryad Data Repository initiative become truly international. I also took the opportunity to announce new JISC projects to promote data publication, about which more in a later post.
Video of presentation on the RSP YouTube Channel: Encouraging data publication – the JISC Managing Research Data Programme
UK Universities and Big Data
On 12 May, I gave a ‘lightning talk’ as part of the Eduserv Symposium on ‘Big Data’. The message I sought to communicate here is that many universities, as they start to tackle the research data challenge are realising just how much data is being stored by researchers in sub-optimal ways. This is a particular type of big data – it is unmanaged, vulnerable to loss and under exploited. The challenge, as often, is to develop better individual and organisations awareness of the issues involved. Decisions which are currently often made by accident or default – what data to retain and what to discard – should be made actively. And researchers should be encouraged to make data openly available, and supported by their institutions in this. I pointed to the work of the JISC Managing Research Data programme in this regard, and also to the pioneering work of the Australian National Data Service whose mantra of transforming data that are unmanaged, disconnected, invisible and have only a single use into structured collections that are managed, connected, findable and reusable offers a useful guide to how to deal with this type of ‘big data’.
Video of Presentation: Universities and (Big) Research Data
University Libraries, Librarians and Research Data
Back in March and April, I gave two presentations discussing the role of university libraries in responding to the research data challenge. The first was to the RLUK Members Meeting in Aberdeen and the second to an RLUK and DCC organised workshop with the aim of Clarifying the Roles of Libraries in Research Data Management. In both presentations, I discussed national and international developments and the work of projects in the JISC Managing Research Data programme, many of which are library-led. It is clear that university libraries must have a role in institutional responses to the data challenge, but it is equally clear that responses must be coordinated, involving a variety of campus agencies and stakeholders. Above all, cooperation between libraries, computing services and the research office is essential. But in all this, it is fundamental to work closely with research departments and groups to understand their requirements and perspectives on these issues.
Presentation to RLUK Members Meeting: Research Data Management, the institutional and national challenges
Presentation to RLUK Research Data Workshop: Changing research practices and the changing roles for university libraries to meet the research data challenge