Making research data more resourceful - Jisc digital festival 2015

RDM Programme @ Edinburgh
- An institutional approach

Universityof Edinburgh RDM Policy
 University of Edinburgh is one of
the first Universities in UK to adopt
a policy for managing research
data:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-
data-policy
 The policy was approved by the
University Court on 16 May 2011.
 It’s acknowledged that this is an
aspirational policy and that
implementation will take some
years.

An RDM Policy Implementation Committee was set up by the
VP of Knowledge Management charged with delivering
services that will meet RDM policy objectives:
• Membership from across Information Services
• Iterate with researchers to ensure services meet the needs of researchers
The VP also established a Steering Committee led by
Prof. Peter Clarke with members of the Research Committee
from the 3 colleges, IS, and the Research Office (ERI).
Their role is to:
• Provide oversight to the activity of the Implementation Committee
• Ensure services meet researcher requirements without harming research
competitiveness
Governance

Policy implementation:
RDM Roadmap Cross-divisional collaboration
 3 Phases (Aug. 2012 – May 2015)
Services already in place:
o Data management planning
o Active working file space = DataStore
o Data publication repository =
DataShare
Services in development:
o Long term data archive = DataVault
o Data Asset Register (DAR)
Interoperation for some or all of the
components to minimise entry of duplicate
information & reduce burden on researcher
or administrator
RDM support: Awareness raising, training &
consultancy
http://edin.ac/1u3sKqy
Before research During research After research

ResearchData ManagementPlanning
Performed at the conceptual stage before research data are
created (what, where, who, how)
Customised instance of DCC’s DMPonline toolkit for University of
Edinburgh use:
• Funders DMP templates
• Local (non-funder) DMP template
• Institutional guidance (storage, services, support)
• Piloting customised guidance (for funders and schools) end of Jan. 2015
Tailored DMP assistance for researchers submitting research
proposals (F-2-F)

DataStore
 NAS facility to store data that are actively used in current research activities
 Provision: 1.6PB storage initially (currently 2.3PB?)
 0.5 TB (500GB) per researchers, PGR upwards
 Up to 0.25TB of each allocation can be used for “shared” group storage
 Cost of extra storage: £200 per TB per year incl. back-up and DR copies
 Infrastructure in place. Allocation of space devolved to IT departments of respective
Schools overseen by Heads of IT from each College.
DataShare
 Edinburgh DataShare is the University’s OA multi-disciplinary data repository hosted by
the Data Library : http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk
 Assists researchers who want to share their data, get credit for data publication, and
preserve their data for the long-term (DOI, licence, citation)
 It can help researchers comply with funder requirements to preserve and share your data
and complies with Edinburgh’s RDM Policy

Data Vault
 Safe, private, store of data that is only accessible by the data creator or their
representative
 Secure storage: File security; Storage security; Encryption; Online v offline (tape);
Extensibility
 Current focus on front-end application requirements (authorisation, retention &
deletion, file structure, file transfer, integration)
Data Asset Register(DAR)
 A catalogue of data assets produced by University of Edinburgh researchers
 Will give researchers a single place to record the existence of the data assets they
produce for discovery, access, and re-use as appropriate.
 Use of PURE as the University’s DAR - For launch in Mar. 2015

RDM Support
Making the most of local support!
• RDM team will work with the Research Administrators in each
School.
• Academic Support Librarians (who represent each of the 22
Schools).
• IT staff in each School.
• ERI staff. They will be receiving RDM training.
• Bespoke RDM email address or queries can be sent to the
Helpline who will direct them as appropriate.

AwarenessRaising
• Introductory sessions on RDM
services and support for research
active and research admin staff in
Schools / Institutes / Research Centres
• Contact Cuna Ekmekcioglu at
cuna.ekmekcioglu@ed.ac.uk for a
session for your School/Research
Centre
• RDM website:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-
management
• RDM blog: http://datablog.is.ed.ac.uk
• RDM wiki:
https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/RD
M/Research+Data+Management+Wiki

Training:MANTRA
 MANTRA is an internationally
recognized self-paced online
training course developed here for
PGR’s and early career researchers
in data management issues.
 Anyone doing a research project
will benefit from at least some
part of the training – discrete units
 Data handling exercises with open
datasets in 4 analytical packages:
R, SPSS, NVivo, ArcGIS
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra

Training:Tailored Courses
 A range of training programmes on
research data management (RDM)
in the form of workshops, power
sessions, seminars and drop in
sessions to help researchers with
research data management issues
 http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-
departments/information-services/research-
support/data-management/rdm-training
 Creating a data management plan
for your grant application
 Handling data using SPSS
 Managing your research data: why it
is important and what should you
do? NEW
 Publishing and sharing sensitive data
(pilot) NEW
http://edin.ac/1kRMPv3


RDM Programme:
Funded internally (c. £1.2 Million)
75% - infrastructure / storage
25% - staffing (recurrent for 3 years)
MANTRA and DataShare – originally Jisc project funding
2014 DCC RDM Survey* - 90% of institutions used internal
funding for new appointments in RDM, for training for
infrastructure
* Digital Curation Centre's 2014 RDM Strategy to Action Survey:
https://zenodo.org/collection/user-dcc-rdm-2014
RDM Programme resourcing & staffing

From RDM Programme (fixed term):
Data Library: 1.5 FTE equivalent ( + 2.5 FTE equivalent core funding)
IT Infrastructure: 2 FTE equivalent
Research & Library Services: 2 FTE equivalent
Following RDM training the job description of all Academic Support
Librarians have been restructured to incorporate DMP Support as part of
their role.
2014 DCC RDM Survey:
Overall provision for RDM is currently
4.4 FTE on average (across library, IT, research office)
4.7 FTE being the average in Russell Group institutions and
2.6FTE in other target group institutions.
RDM staffing is expected to double to 9.5 FTE in Russell Group institutions in next
year, split roughly equally across 3 groups

Currentand future activity
DataSync - to allow cross-platform sharing of data on DataStore
• Secure drop-box type functionality
• uses open source ‘ownCloud’ technology
• desktop and mobile machines synchronize files with the ownCloud server
• File updates are pushed between all devices connected to a user's account.
DataStore De-allocation policy detailing responsibilities and
storage costs for ‘orphaned data’ - pending approval by Steering
Committee

Service interoperations:
DSpace GITHUB plugin* - allows software to be archived from GitHub (or
similar) source code repository into DataShare, which can then be assigned a DOI to
facilitate citation - using the SWORD deposit protocol
Refresh of ECDF Computing Cluster (‘Eddie’) complete with ‘Data Centric
Computing’ business model – integrate Eddie storage & HPC, parallel and cloud
computing layers with DataStore i.e. data transferred from DataStore for analysis on
Eddie and then data ported back to DataStore (DataVault)
DataShare & DataStore (& Data Vault) with RSpace Electronic Lab Notebooks via
SWORD

THANK YOU!
Acknowledgements:
Dr. Cuna Ekmekcioglu (Research & Learning Services)
Sarah Jones (Digital Curation Centre)
Stuart Lewis (Research & Learning Services)
Kerry Miller (Research & Learning Services)
Robin Rice (EDINA & Data Library)
Dr. Orlando Richards (IT Infrastructure)
Dr. John Scally (Library and Collections)
Tony Weir (IT Infrastructure)

Find out more…
Contact…
Stuart Macdonald
RDM Services Coordinator
University of Edinburgh
stuart.macdonald@ed.ac.uk
ed.ac.uk/

Institutional support for Research Data
Management at UEL
Stephen Grace

» Adopted university policy March 2012, in direct response to EPSRC
policy announcement
› But not widely known and followed by staff
» You’ll see it was inspired by Edinburgh’s if you read it
» Some firm commitments and not just aspirational
» Available at dx.doi.org/10.15123/PUB.3539
Policy
09/03/2015 Jisc Digital Festival, 9-10 March 2015, ICC Birmingham 20

» What governance?!
» Library-led initiative but building closer links with ReDS (research
office) and IT colleagues
» Jisc-fundedTraD training project 2012-13 laid groundwork – even
before it ended, ReDS was referring staff for DMP drafting help
and training courses were incorporated into Graduate School’s
Researcher Development Programme and School of Psychology
profdoc programmes
Governance

» Created an internal document Jan 2015, just in case EPSRC comes
a-knocking, but exercise helped short-term planning
» Addressed each of the eight EPSRC expectations with current and
planned activity
» Hope response is adequate if not exemplary
Roadmap

» Offer to help draft DMPs
› We will write the first draft
› Review an author draft
› Iterative process/meeting
» Popular workshop for staff and PGR students
» UEL-specific Staff and PGR templates on DMPonline
› One research group mandating student DMPs
» ReDS very pleased we offer this support for grant applications
Data Management Planning

Not much to report here…
» IT will respond to specific requests for extra storage, password
control, external access
» Encouraging researchers to include RDM costs in funding
applications
Active Data

» Individual advice and guidance – we are building our own
knowledge in this as we research answers to questions
» Four workshops in Researcher Development Programme
› Managing your research data
› Writing a Data Management Plan
› Sharing and Archiving your data
› Depositing data in data.uel
» More comprehensive website in development
RDM Support

» No formal communications on RDM policy
» Attend UEL’s annual research conference
» Contact research-active staff
» Referrals for DMPs from ReDS
» Follow-up from workshops
» Some bespoke training in research centres/groups
Awareness/Training

» Some of my time – on average 0.5 FTE
» 1 FTE Research Data Management Officer from Oct 2013
(a permanent post)
» Development of data repository (c.£15k)
› Ongoing support a part of library running costs
» Will make use of Arkivum server/service for some research data
› Bought for another reason, but potential solution for both ‘DataStore’
and ‘DataVault’ data types
Resourcing and Staff

» Linking data and publications between repositories
» Improving working arrangements with ReDS to contact PIs
» Develop and publish the RDM support website pages
» Promotion of data repository to staff, linking data sharing to wider
Open Access work
» Investigate potential for PhD data
» More bespoke training/support – this may be tied to wider
research priorities or funding
Current and future activity

From ‘How to Develop RDM Services - a guide for HEIs’ (DCC, 2013)
dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/how-develop-rdm-services
Summary

Edinburgh East London
Comparison of RDM services Edinburgh vs UEL
» Policy -> Services
» Data repository
» Research intensive HEI
» Significant top level support
» Comprehensive offer
including active data phase
» Policy -> Services
» Data repository
» Growing research importance
» Bottom-up service
» Emphasis on support, training
and data sharing/archiving

Find out more…
Contact…
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND
Stephen Grace
Research services librarian, UEL
s.grace@uel.ac.uk
@StephenGraceful

DMPOnline
Create data management plans easily

» A web-based tool to help researchers write Data Management and
Sharing Plans
» Includes requirements and guidance from funders, universities and
other groups
» Developed by the Digital Curation Centre
What is DMPOnline?

Registration
» Sign up with your
email address,
organisation and
password
» Select ‘other
organisation’ if yours
is not listed

Sign In
» Use your email and
password to login
» Or if you’re at a UK
university, you can
use your standard uni
login

‘My Plans’ Homepage
» Summary of the
DMPs that you have
created, or others
have shared with you
» Note the varying
permissions

Creating a plan
» Select funder (if any)
» Select organisation
for additional
questions and
guidance
» Select other sources
of guidance

Plan Details: Summary
» Summary of the
sections and questions
in your DMP

Overview of sections in a DMP
Enables multiple
phases
» Summary page
with dropdown
buttons to
expand and
answer each
section

Answering questions
» Notes who has
answered the
question and when
» Progress bar updates
how many questions
remain

Sharing plans
» Allow
colleagues
to read-only,
read-write,
or become
co-owners

Co-writing DMP’s
» Sections are locked for
editing when they’re
being worked on by
colleagues

Exporting DMP’s
» Can export as plain
text, PDF, html...

More features coming soon
» More export formats and
options
» API and SWORD deposit
» DMP status indicators
» Admin interface for
customisations
» Institutional branding
» Actions triggered by responses
to questions
» Answer history
» Comment feature for
collaboration

Try it out!
dmponline.dcc.ac.uk

» Slides courtesy of Sarah Jones (Digital Curation Centre)
ThankYou!

Find out more…
Contact…
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND
John Kaye
Digital futures, Jisc
john.kaye@jisc.ac.uk
@johnpkaye

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