The research data spring teams have been working tirelessly over the past month to progress on the projects. And we wanted to share with you what they have done so far and what you should be excited about over the next two months, before our second sandpit workshop. The workshop will take place on 13-14 July at Imperial College London.
I have put together a relatively short list with updates and links. You can follow the hyperlink on the project name to the IdeaScale site, where you can comment, make any suggestions or invite the project team to consider some of the work that you might be doing in the area. Each project has many partners and relatively big project teams. I have selected here a key contact person in case you would like to get in touch. I have also added links to the blogs or any other documents that the teams have shared:
| Project details | Update |
| DMAOnline – RDM Administration Analytics
Masud Khokhar, Lancaster University |
Initial set of RDM use case definitions have been drafted, database schema developed for these use cases, project partner meeting organised for June, informal update on project in Pure UG in May |
| Enabling Complex Analysis of Large Scale Digital Collections
Melissa Terras, University College London Blog; Website; Project plan |
We have 4 staged team meetings planned, including the 2 days of workshops. The data has gone from the BL to UCL research computing already, for ingesting. We have identified the early career researchers and two senior members of staff who we will be working with. |
| Develop a DataVault
Stuart Lewis, University of Edinburgh Blog; Website; Project plan |
Project plan written, kick-off meeting held, and month 1 tasks are now assigned in the project plan, and are underway. |
| Filling the Digital Preservation Gap
Jenny Mitcham, University of York Blog; Website; Project plan |
The project team from the Universities of York and Hull met for a kick off meeting to finalise the project plan, split our project into work packages and divide up the tasks. We have been ensuring we have a recent version of Archivematica we can use for testing at each institutions and have also been giving some thought to the nature of research data and how it is handled by digital preservation tools. |
| Collaboration for Research Enhancement by Active Metadata
Simon Coles, University of Southampton Blog; Website; Project plan |
The full project team meets 28th/29th April in Southampton. We have been sharing examples of schema and use cases. Collaboration agreements, websites etc. have been established and are being developed with a view to finalising at the upcoming project meeting. |
| Artivity (former “Use Semantic Desktop to Capture Contextual Research Data”)
Athanasios Velios, University of the Arts London |
We have identified stakeholders and scope for the Artivity tools. We have identified Inkscape as the creative application of choice for the first phase. We have started development and produced the basic components connecting the zeitgeist framework with Inkscape. At the same time we are working on finalising the agreements and engaging with stakeholders inside and outside UAL. |
| Software Reuse, Repurposing and Reproducibility
Ian Gent, University of St Andrews Blog; Website; Project plan |
Collaboration agreement underway. First meeting held, outline document started and we have a further meeting tomorrow to do the fine detail planning. We have also been in touch with Rachael from the BL about the DataCite meeting in July. |
| Unlocking the UK’s Thesis Data through Persistent Identifiers
Stephen Grace, University of East London Blog; Website; Project plan |
Had the first project meeting with partners from the British Library and University of Southampton. We are setting up the partnership agreement and have identified 8 universities who we will be working with for the case studies. |
| Clipper: Enhancing Time-based Media for Research
John Casey, City of Glasgow College Blog; Website; Project plan |
We are off to good start and are gathering interest from the BBC via Andy Turner. We had a meeting with the Disruptive media lab at Coventry University Art School for an ‘early door’s demo of a part working prototype. We also held our first project meeting, so things are speeding up nicely. |
| Giving Researchers Credit for their Data
Neil Jefferies, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford Blog; Website; Project plan |
We have a preliminary breakdown of Data paper publisher workflows from the RDA and are working on a GAP analysis between publishers and repositories. In parallel, we are preparing a brief questionnaire to assess publisher interest in a data publishing API. |
| Access Methods for Analysing Sensitive Data – AMASED
Becca Wilson, University of Bristol Blog; Website; Project plan |
We have requested and received a test dataset from the British Library and are currently investigating infrastructure options to house the data and pull it into DataSHIELD. We are also liaising with digital researcher regarding text analysis methods. |
| Open Source Database-as-a-service with Data Publishing
James Wilson, University of Oxford Blog; Website; Project plan |
Process of open-sourcing the ORDS software is now planned and initial responses sent to interested collaborators. |
| Extending OPD to cover RDM
Joy Davidson, University of Edinburgh Blog; Website; Project plan |
I’m defining the basic infrastructure components for the new RDM OPD profile. This involves a review of the EPSRC policy framework on research data and the CARDIO matrix for compliance with the RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy. We will share and seek feedback on the infrastructure components in mid-May. In early June, three HEIs will be mapping their infrastructure to the RDM OPD. At the July workshop, will take forward the idea around structuring the collection of costs associated with EPSRC compliance. |
| Sound Matters: a Framework for Use and Reuse of Sound
Ximena Alarcon, University of the Arts London Blog; Website; Project plan |
We have defined the three main stages of the project: Interviews and Review (April-May); Online community input (From May 12), and a possible date for co-design workshop (June 25th). We are conducting interviews with key interdisciplinary collaborators for the framework. We have covered a good deal of technical review of open source frameworks, libraries and tools for sonic retrieval. |
| A Consortial Approach to Building an Integrated RDM System – “Small and Specialist”
Carlos Silva, University for the Creative Arts Blog; Website; Project plan |
We have been busy consulting with heads of research and various designers to determine the baseline requirements for an overarching RDM system, and drilling down into the policy and institutional drivers. UCA, LTU, ULCC and Arkivum have been getting on with the systems reviews and technological development work that will inform the case studies: UCA’s RDIVA seminar will take place at Woburn House on 14 May. |
| Streamlining deposit: OJS to Repository Plugin
Ernesto Priego, City University London Blog and one more blog; Website; Project plan |
We have set up categories for blog updates related to the project on the Comics Grid and citylis news blogs. Our developer has been drawing plans for @figshare/ @pkp OJS plugin. We established contact with the Public Knowledge Project (@pkp) and sent proposal for the PKP Publishing Conference in Vancouver. |
Thank you everyone for the great work so far! You should expect one or two more updates from us before the sandpit workshop and a series of blog posts from the experts that attended the first sandpit.
If you are interested and would like to get involved, please get in touch and do follow the projects on their blogs or sign up to our JiscMail list: JISC-RESEARCHDATASPRING@jiscmail.ac.uk!