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Research data

Research data includes data from scientific, technical, medical and social science research. The huge amounts of data that these disciplines generate makes it difficult to preserve everything. Strategies to preserve an optimal and meaningful amount of data include the development of collaborative ventures and infrastructures, cross-disciplinary compatible access and storage policies, and new information and communication technologies, such as grid technology, which offers decentralised storage and open standards and interfaces.

Articles | Books | Events | Organisations and Websites | Online tutorial | Policies, Strategies & Guidelines | Projects and Case Studies | Bibliographies | Glossaries | Journals & Newsletters | Discussion Lists | Surveys | Tools | Evaluations

Articles

APSR Sustainability Issues Discussion Paper
Bradley, Kevin (Date Created: 28 Jan 2005)
This comprehensive paper examines various aspects of digital sustainability. These include economic aspects, such as costing, funding and business models; technological aspects, such as repositories, formats, bit stream and persistence; and risk and risk management. Also included is a summary of specific issues and their associated tasks. The document also includes an extensive bibliography.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/documents/APSR_Sustainability_Issues_Paper.pdf
Archiving Archaeological Data -- Is There a Viable Business Model for a U.S. Repository?
Eiteljorg, Harrison (Date Created: 2005) (United States of America)
This article explores the problems of a lack of active digital repositories for archaeological data in the United States. The author proposes that a lack of funding and a viable business model for this type of archive is in part responsible for this situation.
http://csanet.org/newsletter/winter05/nlw0501.html
CSA Newsletter, vol. XVII, no. 3 (Winter 2005)
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Historical Archiving Scientific Data
Buneman, Peter; Khanna, Sanjeev; Tajima, Keishi; Tan, Wang-Chiew (Date Created: Jun 2002)
A paper presented at ACM SIGMOD 2002, describing the development of an archiving tool for XML data that allows retention of all previous states of the data as it changes over time. Meaningful change descriptions, retrieval of specific versions and history over time for any element in the archive are supported. The paper is available in a number of formats.
http://db.cis.upenn.edu/research/ki.html
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Some Challenges and Issues in Managing and Preserving Access to Long-Lived Collections of Scientific and Technical Data
Anderson, W. L. (Date Created: Dec 2004)
This report summarises the major archiving, preservation and access issues for scientific and technical data as identified by an ad hoc working group of the U.S. National Committee for CODATA. The author divides these issues into four categories: science-based issues, including interoperability and compatiblity of the various types of science data (e.g. observational, experimental and computer generated data); data management issues, including selection and appraisal; policy issues, such as access and copyright; and technical issues including the volume of data and the diversity of formats.
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/dsj/3/0/191/_pdf
Data Science Journal, ISSN 1683-1470, Vol. 3, December 2004, pp. 191-202.
The DARE Chronicle: Open Access to Research Results and Teaching Material in the Netherlands
Waaijers, Leo In: Ariadne (Date Created: Oct 2007) (Netherlands)
This article reflects on the four years and future of the DARE project which enables Dutch Higher Education and research institutions to provide easy and timely open access to research results and teaching materials.
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue53/waaijers/
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From Data Deluge to Data Curation
Giaretta, David; Lord, Philip; Lyon, Liz; Macdonald, Alison (Date Created: Sep 2004)
This article discusses the findings and strategic and policy level recommendations of the e-Science data curation report commissioned by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee). The article also discusses the role and activities of the Digital Curation Centre in meeting some of these recommendations.
http://www.allhands.org.uk/2004/proceedings/papers/150.pdf
Paper presented at the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, 31 August - 3 September, 2004
Data Preservation, the New Science and the Practitioner Librarian
Joint, Nicholas (Date Created: Apr 2007)
This paper discusses the challenge of preserving e-Science data as the output of scientific experimentation in contrast to the traditional scientific paper which librarians are more used to dealing with. It considers how the librarian/ information professional skillset could potentially contribute to curating this new form of scientific output (data-intensive research produced by virtual organisations).
10.1108/00242530710760337
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/00242530710760337
Also available in PDF and in Library Review ISSN: 0024-2535, 2007 Vol: 56 No.: 6 pp: 451 - 455
Dataset Preservation for the Long Term: Results of the DareLux Project
Dekker, Ronald; Dürr,Eugène ; Luxemburg, Wim; van der Meer, Kees In: International Journal of Digital Curation (Date Created: Jul 2008) (Netherlands)
This article reports on the DareLux (Data Archiving River Environment Luxemburg) Project which aimed to preserve unique and irreplaceable datasets. Hydrology data required for future climate modelling was used as an example to build an operational archive built with XML containers, OAI-PMH protocol and an architecture based on web services. Research is recommended on visualisation tools for search and retrieval.
http://www.ijdc.net/ijdc/article/view/61/62
New Developing the Skills to Support eResearch
Henty, Margaret In: Ariadne (Date Created: Apr 2008) (Australia)
This article reports on a study conducted in 2007 in Australia to "identify the range and types of skills required to undertake and support eResearch; to provide information on which to base proposals for future events, training and other means of skills development; and to provide information for institutions and government for consideration in relation to formal Higher Education and vocational training options".
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue55/henty/
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Digital Archiving and Long Term Preservation: An Early Experience with Grid and Digital Library Technologies
Chadduck, Robert; JaJa, Joseph; McCall, Fritz; Moore, Reagan; Smorul, Mike (Date Created: 2004)
This article describes two large scale data archiving projects which have a common infrastructure based on storage hierarchies. The projects are the Persistent Digital Archives project, which is a joint effort between the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), the University of Maryland (UMD), and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); and the second is the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) that currently offers over 13TB of earth science data to a very broad international user community, including researchers and government agencies interested in environmental and ecological studies.
http://www.archives.gov/era/papers/thic-04.html
Digital Curation for Science, Digital Libraries, and Individuals
Beagrie, Neil (Date Created: Sep 2006) (United Kingdom)
This paper explores inter-disciplinary research, trends, practices and new developments in the emerging field of digital curation.
http://www.ijdc.net/ijdc/article/view/6/5
The International Journal of Digital Curation Issue 1, Vol 1 Autumn 2006 pp 3-16
Digital Object Identifiers for Scientific Data
Paskin, Norman (Date Created: 28 Apr 2005)
This article describes the application of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) in maintaining links to scientific data. It explains the function and purpose of Digital Object Identifiers and presents two case studies of DOI use within large repositories of scientific data sets.
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/dsj/4/0/4_12/_article
Data Science Journal, ISSN 1683-1470, Vol. 4, April 2005, pp. 12-20.
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Earth Observation Archives in Digital Library and Grid Infrastructures
Fusco, Luigi (Date Created: Dec 2004)
Earth observation missions generate petabytes of data which need to be preserved for use in long-term analyses. This article describes how digital library and Grid technology can support long-term data preservation and access. Examples of initiatives that use these technologies are described, such as the European DILIGENT project.
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/dsj/3/0/222/_pdf
Data Science Journal, ISSN 1683-1470, Vol. 3, December 2004, pp 222-226.
Escience and Archiving for Space Science
Borne, K. D. ; Eastman, Timothy E. (Date Created: 01 Sep 2005)
This article explores space science data preservation, archiving, and access. It also looks at interoperability of datasets and OAIS architecture.
http://journals.eecs.qub.ac.uk/codata/journal/contents/4_05/4_05pdfs/D
S430.pdf
Data Science Journal, Vol. 4, 1 September, 2005, http://www.datasciencejournal.org/
Introduction to the Dataverse Network as an Infrastructure for Data Sharing
King, Gary (Date Created: Nov 2007) (United States of America)
This article provides an introduction to the Dataverse Network Project which enables data sharing via a standard citation format which enables persistent identification.
http://gking.harvard.edu/files/abs/dvn-abs.shtml
Also available in Sociological Methods and Research, Vol. 32, No. 2 (November, 2007): Pp. 173--199
Large Scale Data Sharing in the Life Sciences : Data Standards, Incentives, Barriers and Funding Models : the Joint Data Standards Study
Bioinformatics Research Centre, University of Glasgow; Digital Archiving Consultancy; National e-Science Centre (Date Created: Aug 2005)
This report examines the data sharing practices in the large-scale life-sciences and environmental data resources. The study is sponsored by MRC, BBSRC, NERC, Wellcome Trust, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Department of Trade and Industry. The report includes recommendations on standards, tools, life cycle management, legal issues, core models for data sharing and case studies.
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Utilities/Documentrecord/index.htm?d=MRC002552
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Historical Long Term Spatial Data Preservation and Archiving : What are the Issues?
Bleakly, Denise R. (Date Created: Jan 2002) (United States of America)
This report discusses the activities of several United States government agencies relating to data management and preservation of geospatial data. It includes a general overview of the various digital preservation strategies and describes how geospatial data is unique and what makes it more difficult to archive compared to other types of data.
http://www.prod.sandia.gov/cgi-bin/techlib/access-control.pl/2002/0201
07.pdf
SAND Report 2002-0107
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Long-Lived Digital Data Collections : Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century : Draft Report of the National Science Board
National Science Board (U.S.) (Date Created: 30 Mar 2005)
This is the final draft version of the report published by the National Science Board. The report discusses the findings and recommendations of the Board on Long-Lived Digital Data Collections. The report will be of interest to those involved with the curation of scientific and other large data collections.
http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents/2005/LLDDC_report.pdf
NSB-05-40
Long-term Preservation of Raw Scientific Data : Study into the Status of Existing Research and Raw Scientific Data : Prerequisites and Suitability for Preservation and Accessibility in Germany
Hilf, Eberhard R.; Severiens, Thomas (Date Created: Apr 2006) (Germany)
This is a 2 page English summary of a document originally published in German. It is part of a series of 7 digital preservation papers commissioned by nestor. The document briefly discusses how research data is handled for long term preservation in Germany.
http://www.langzeitarchivierung.de/downloads/mat/06_summary.pdf
nestor studies; 6
Historical Online Scientific Data Curation, Publication and Archiving
Gray, Jim; Stoughton, Christopher; Szalay, Alexander S.; Thakar, Ani R.; vandenBerg, Jan (Date Created: Jul 2002)
This article describes the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) strategies for data publication, data access, curation, and preservation. The article describes what needs to be preserved, how it is to be preserved and who will preserve it. Also discussed is the interconnected concepts of the 'data pyramid" and 'data inflation'.
http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0208012
Technical Report MSR-TR-2002-74
Past, present and future: XML, archaeology and digital preservation
Kilbride, William (Date Created: 2005)
This article discusses the use of XML as a preservation ready format for use by archaeologists when they create archaeological data sets. The author discusses and gives examples of current and potential uses of XML in the preservation of archaeological data.
http://csanet.org/newsletter/winter05/nlw0502.html
CSA Newsletter, Vol. XVII, no. 3 (Winter 2005)
Preservation and Management Strategies for Exceptionally Large Data Formats: 'Big Data'. EH Project No. 3984. Final 1.03.
Austin, Tony; Mitcham, Jenny (Date Created: 28 Sep 2007) (United Kingdom)
This is the final report of a project looking at the preservation and management strategies for large data sets such as those produced in archaeological research including LIDAR, 3D Laser Scanning, Maritime Survey and Digital Video produced during archaeological surveys.Suitability for long term preservation of such data formats is considered.
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/bigdata/final_report/bigdata_final_repor
t_1.3.pdf
Preservation of Earth System Model Data
Lautenschlager, Michael (Date Created: 30 Jun 2008)
This briefing paper examines how the World Data Center for Climate approaches the preservation of Earth system model data and improvement to long term archive reliability through introduction of a new system.
http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/publications/briefs/preservati
on-of-earth-system-model-data.pdf
Digital Preservation Europe Briefing Paper
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Preserving the Outputs of Research
Cathro, Warwick (Date Created: Nov 2004)
This paper was presented at the Archiving Web Resources conference in Canberra, Australia, November 9-11 2004. The paper discusses the issues and challenges of preserving both the primary outputs, such as datasets, and secondary outputs, such as journal articles, of research. The paper also focuses on the various responses to these issues by institutional repositories and national level programs. The author also argues for more collaboration between stakeholders as well as a role for national libraries in developing an infrastructure for the preservation of these outputs.
http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2004/cathro1.html
Scientific Data and Information : Report of the CSPR Assessment Panel
Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (CSPR) (Date Created: Dec 2004)
The ICSU (International Council for Science) is a non-government organisation representing over 100 international scientific bodies. This report by the CSPR (Committee on Scientific Planning and Review) assesses the strategic issues in scientific data and information and reviews the ICSU's current activities. This report is wide-ranging, covering all aspects of the data and information lifecycle including the need for long-term management and preservation.
ISBN: 0930357604
http://www.icsu.org/Gestion/img/ICSU_DOC_DOWNLOAD/551_DD_FILE_PAA_Data
_and_Information.pdf
Selection, Appraisal and Retention of Digital Scientific Data : Final Report
ERPANET (Date Created: 10 Feb 2004)
The seminar, held from 15th-17th of December 2003 at the Biblioteca Nacional in Lisbon, brought together more than sixty-five researchers, data managers, information specialists, archivists, and librarians from thirteen countries to discuss the issues regarding the long-term preservation of the scientific record. One of the major aims for this seminar was to provide an international forum to exchange information about data archiving policies and practices across different scientific, institutional, and national contexts. The seminar also highlighted some conceptual hurdles to overcome before effective collaboration between the diverse communities can take place.
http://www.erpanet.org/events/2003/lisbon/LisbonReportFinal.pdf
Final report of the ERPANET CODATA Workshop held at Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, December 15-17, 2003
Semi-Automated Preservation and Archival of Scientific Data Using Semantic Grid Services
Choudhury, Sharmin; Hunter, Jane (Date Created: May 2005)
This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid in 2005. It presents arguments for the use of PANIC as a solution to long term preservation of large scale collections of scientific data. PANIC is based on preservation metadata, software and format registries and semantic Grid services.
http://metadata.net/panic/Papers/SIGAW2005_paper.pdf
Paper presented at the Semantic Infrastructure for Grid Computing Applications Workshop at the International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid, CCGrid 2005. Cardiff, UK. May 2005
To Stand the Test of Time : Long-term Stewardship of Digital Data Sets in Science and Engineering. A Report to the National Science Foundation from the ARL Workshop on New Collaborative Relationships : The Role of Academic Libraries in the Digital Data Universe.
Association of Research Libraries (ARL) (Date Created: 26 Sep 2006) (United States of America)
This report (158) from workshop held 26-27 September 2006 makes recommendations to the National Science Foundation for developing an infrastructure to support long term curation of digital data sets in science and engineering.
http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/digdatarpt.pdf
Strategies for Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Southern Africa: Focus on Health and Environmental Information for Sustainable Development : CODATA Task Group on Preservation of and Access to S&T Data in Developing Countries
CODATA (Date Created: 2006) (South Africa)
This website includes links to the final Report, Executive Summary, and presentations from the September 2005 CODATA Workshop on Strategies for Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Southern Africa: Focus on Health and Environmental Information for Sustainable Development. The South African workshop focused on issues related to the preservation of and access to scientific information resources in developing countries. It includes sections on policy and legal issues, institutional and economic issues, management and technical issues and covers specific types of data including scientific, technical and medical data and earth and environmental data.
http://stardata.nrf.ac.za/html/workshopCodataPublications.html
Report of workshop held 5-7 September 2005 at the CSIR Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa
Sustainability Issues for Australian Research Data : the Report of the Australian E-research Sustainability Research Project
Buchhorn, Marcus; McNamara, Paul (Date Created: Oct 2006) (Australia)
This is a report on a survey that examined sustainability issues for data-intensive research projects.The issues included the lack of support for long term data management, the lack of a workable national data management system and problems associated with a decentralised data management infrastructure. The report proposes that a data stewardship sytem that interlinks policy and infrastructure would address many of these issues. This report also provides an overview of future scenarios and actions.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/publications/aeres_report.pdf
Toward Distributed Infrastructures for Digital Preservation : The roles of Collaboration and Trust
Day, Michael In: International Journal of Digital Curation (Date Created: Jul 2009)
This article considers the role of collaboration in scientific data curation, digital preservation initiatives and development of institutional repositories. It also considers the concepts of trust and control as discussed in the literature and their application to work on trustworthy repositories.
http://www.ijdc.net/ijdc/article/view/60/61

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Books

The European Repository Landscape : Inventory Study Into Present Type and Level of OAI Compliant Digital Repository Activities in the EU
van Eijndhoven, Kwame; van der Graf, Maurits (Date Created: 16 Jan 2008) (Netherlands)
This study for the DRIVER project investigates the current state of European Union digital repositories for research output. It provides a complete inventory of digital repositories in the 27 countries of the European Union as at 2007.
ISBN: 9789053564103
http://dare.uva.nl/document/93725
Also available in print from Amsterdam University Press
Investigative Study of Standards for Digital Repositories and Related Services
Andre, Francis; Foulonneau, Muriel (Date Created: 16 Jan 2008) (Netherlands)
This 112 page report for the DRIVER project consortium (Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research) reviews the current standards, protocols and applications in European institutional repositories and the requirements for future enhanced access to digital resources.
ISBN: 9789053564127
http://dare.uva.nl/document/93727
Also available in print from AmsterdamUniversity Press

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Events

19th International CODATA Conference : the Information Society New Horizons for Science
07 - 10 Nov 2004 , Berlin (Germany)
Abstracts for all presentations and links to some papers available from the website.
http://www.codata.org/04conf/
1st African Digital Management and Curation Conference and Workshop
12 - 13 Feb 2008 , CSIR Convention Centre, Pretoria (South Africa)
This conference looked at international trends and perspectives on digital management and curation in various sciences and for e-research. Presentations are available from the website.
http://stardata.nrf.ac.za/nadicc/index.html
3rd International Digital Curation Conference : Curating our Digital Scientific Heritage: a Global Collaborative Challenge
11 - 13 Dec 2007 , Renaissance Washington DC Hotel (United States of America)
This conference focused on emerging strategy, policy implementation, leading-edge research and practitioner experience, and comprised a mix of peer-reviewed papers, invited presentations and international keynote speakers. Presentations including national perspectives and case studies available from the programme link.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/dcc-2007/
African Digital Scholarship & Curation 2009
12 - 14 May 2009 , CSIR Conference Centre, Pretoria, South Africa (South Africa)
"Identification of opportunities, strategies and practical examples for new forms of research and scholarship and for the management of the digital content of these activities by academics, researchers, scientists, information professionals and IT experts"
http://www.ais.up.ac.za/digitalscholarship.htm
Creating the Information Commons for e-Science: Toward Institutional Policies and Guidelines for Action : an International Workshop
01 - 02 Sep 2005 , UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, (France)
This workshop aimed to promote development of institutional policies and guidelines for action in support of the “information commons” for e-science. Abstracts and presentations are available from the website.
http://www.codataweb.org/UNESCOmtg/
ECURE Archives
ECURE. Arizona State University. (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This website presents speakers' presentations given at ECURE (Preservation and Access for Electronic College and University Records) conferences 1999 to 2005.
http://www.asu.edu/ecure/archives.html
European Infrastructure for Repositories of Scientific Information
08 - 09 Jun 2006 , Brussels
Information SocietyTechnologies
(Belgium)
The objective of the workshop was to discuss the development of Digital Repositories from the perspective of e-Infrastructure. Presentations are available from the website.
http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/rn/ri-cnd/wshop-080606.htm
Permanent Access to the Records of Science
01 Nov 2004 , Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), The Hague,
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB)
(Netherlands)
This conference organised by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek considers the requirement for developing a European infrastructure to enable ongoing access to scientific data and records . Links available to presentations.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060107063927/http://www.kb.nl/coop/euconf
erence/
PresDB'07 : International Workshop on Database Preservation
23 Mar 2007 , National E-Science Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom)
This workshop organised by the National e-Science Centre brought together a multidisciplinary group to consider the archival issues surrounding databases, including the characteristics and life cycle of databases and preservation strategies.Presentations available from the program link.
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/hmueller/presdb07/
PV 2005 : Ensuring Long-term Preservation and Adding Value to Scientific and Technical data
21 - 23 Nov 2005 , Royal Society, Edinburgh, (United Kingdom) Has papers: Advancing Geospatial Data Curation
Papers are available from the conference website.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/pv-2005/
Sustainable Data from Digital Fieldwork : From Creation to Archive and Back
04 - 06 Dec 2006 , PARADISEC, Transient Building F12, University of Sydney, New South Wales (Australia)
Many academic disciplines depend on analysis of primary data captured during fieldwork. Increasingly, researchers today are using digital methods for the whole life cycle of their primary data, from capture to organisation, submission to a repository or archive, and later access and dissemination in publications, teaching resources and conference presentations. This conference and workshop will showcase a number of projects that have been developing innovative and sustainable ways of managing such data. Presentations available from Papers
http://conferences.arts.usyd.edu.au/index.php?cf=11
New Workshop on Digital Archive Preservation and Sustainability
22 Sep 2008 , Baltimore, Maryland (United States of America)
This workshop to be held in conjunction with the IEEE Symposium on Massive Storage Systems, will include a panel led by the Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library highlighting challenges for long-term preservation and panels on scientific data collection management and technologies, tools and standards for long-term preservation of data.
http://www.storageconference.org/daps/index.html

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Organisations and Websites

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Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR)
Scholarly Technology Services, Australian National University (Regularly Updated) (Australia)
This project, funded by the Australian Dept. of Education, Science and Training, has five partners - the Australian National University, National Library of Australia, University of Queensland, University of Sydney and the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing. The aim of the project is to act as a centre of excellence for the management of scholarly assets in digital format. The project consists of four interlinked programs - digital continuity and sustainability, International linkages program, National Services Program and Practices and Testbed.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/index.html
CODATA/ICSTI Prototype Portal on Permanent Access to Scientific Data and Information
CODATA; ICSTI (International Council on Scientific and Technical Information) (Regularly Updated)
This website is a portal to resources on managing and preserving geospatial data and related electronic records. It contains links to a Guide to Managing Geospatial Electronic Records; a Data Model for Managing and Preserving Geospatial Electronic Records; categorized references to related resources; project presentations; and materials from, Extending the Boundaries: A workshop on Managing and Preserving Geospatial Electronic Records.
http://stills.nap.edu/shelves/codata/index.html
DANS : Data Archiving and Networked Services
DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services) (Regularly Updated) (Netherlands)
DANS is a Dutch national organisation which is responsible for the long term storing and access to data in the humanities and social sciences. Established in 2005, DANS is a joint initiative of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
http://www.dans.knaw.nl/en/
Data Exchange Tools (DExT)
UK Data Archive. University of Essex. (Date Created: Dec 2006) (United Kingdom)
This one year project led by the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex aimed to "develop, refine and test models for data exchange for both survey data and qualitiative research data based on XML/RDF schema and will develop tools for data import and export." Data formats included are SPSS, STATA, XML, Atlas-ti, MaxQDA and Nvivo.
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/dext/
ECURE Archives
ECURE. Arizona State University. (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This website presents speakers' presentations given at ECURE (Preservation and Access for Electronic College and University Records) conferences 1999 to 2005.
http://www.asu.edu/ecure/archives.html
MRC Data Sharing and Preservation Initiative
Medical Research Council (Regularly Updated) (United Kingdom)
The Medical Research Councill (MRC) in the UK is a taxpayer funded organisation that provides grants for medical research programs and infrastructure. As part of the MRC's Data Sharing and Digital Preservation initiative several documents and guidelines have been produced. These include a policy statement on data sharing and preservation, a report on practical guidance on data preservation, promotion and development of data sharing tools, development of a set of principles in using personal information in medical research and commissioning a report of access to collections of data for health research.
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/PolicyGuidance/EthicsAndGovernance/DataSharing/in
dex.htm
Task Group on Preservation of and Access to Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries
International Council for Science, Committee on Data for Science and Technology (Regularly Updated)
Established in 2002, and originally called the Task Group on Preservation and Archiving of Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries the objectives of the Task Group include the "promotion and understanding of the particular conditions in developing countries with regard to long-term preservation, archiving, and access to scientific and technical (S&T) data; the advancement of improved archiving procedures, technologies, standards, and policies; the provision of an interdisciplinary forum and mechanisms for exchanging information about S&T data archiving requirements and activities, with particular focus on the concerns of developing countries; and the dissemination of the results of these efforts." The Task Group regularly convenes conferences and workshops. Task Group name changed in May 2005 to Preservation of and Access to Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries., further information available from the website.
http://www.tgdc-codata.org.cn/
Historical Virtual Data Center (VDC)
Harvard-MIT Data Center (Last Updated: 2006) (United States of America)
The Virtual Data Center (VDC) was developed by the Harvard-MIT Data Center and the Harvard University Library. The VDC is an open-source digital library system for the management, dissemination, exchange and citation of quantitive data. It is continuously being updated and maintained through Sourceforge - http://sourceforge.net/projects/thedata. Features include data format conversion, persistent naming and metadata harvesting. This project ran from 1999 to 2006 and was succeeded by the Dataverse Network Project.
http://thedata.org/vdc/

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Policies, Strategies & Guidelines

Council Conclusions on Scientific Information in the Digital Age: Access, Dissemination and Preservation. 2832nd Competitiveness (Internal Market, Industry and Research) Council Meeting Brussels, 22 and 23 November 2007.
Council of the European Union (Date Created: 23 Nov 2007)
This press release from the Council of the European Union acknowledges cross border and cross sector collaboration in the creation, dissemination and preservation of digital scientific data and knowledge. The Council invites member states to reinforce national strategies and structures to enhance coordination, maximise access and ensure the long term preservation of scientific information. It includes time frames for the adoption of recommendations.
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/intm/
97236.pdf
Data Sharing and Preservation
MRC (Medical Research Council) (Date Created: 2003) (United Kingdom)
This article discusses the background to the MRC (Medical Research Council) draft policy on sharing and preservation of research data. There are also links to the implementation plan and the draft policy. The initiative aims to establish a set of collaborative science-led activities to produce generic data sharing, standards, tools and best practice for the population research community.
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/PolicyGuidance/EthicsAndGovernance/DataSharing/in
dex.htm
Digital Research Data Curation: Overview of Issues, Current Activities and Opportunities for the Cornell University Library: A Report of the CUL Data Working Group
CUL Data Working Group (Date Created: May 2008) (United States of America)
This report of the Data Working Group offers recommendations for how the Cornell University Library might engage in data curation activities. It scans the internal and external environment (including national and international developments), considers data curation issues and provides recommendations for future directions.
http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/10903/1/DaWG_WP_fin
al.pdf
Guidance on Data Management
Economic and Social Data Service (Date Created: Aug 2006) (United Kingdom)
Although written as a guide for RELU Rural Economic Land Use programme, the advice can be generally applied for data management by researchers in most disciplines. It includes sections on data management strategies, digital preservation, data quality, security, project lifecycle and a checklist for data management.
http://www.esds.ac.uk/news/publications/reluaug2006.pdf
Keeping Research Data Safe
Beagrie, Neil; Chruszcz, Julia; Lavoie, Brian (Date Created: 12 May 2008) (United Kingdom)
This JISC study investigated the medium to long term costs to higher education institutions of the preservation of research data and developed guidance on these issues. The study has developed a costing methodology and will assist in strategy development for higher education institutions.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/keepingresearchdatasaf
e.aspx
Executive summary and pdf of report available from website.
MRC Data Sharing and Preservation Initiative
Medical Research Council (Regularly Updated) (United Kingdom)
The Medical Research Councill (MRC) in the UK is a taxpayer funded organisation that provides grants for medical research programs and infrastructure. As part of the MRC's Data Sharing and Digital Preservation initiative several documents and guidelines have been produced. These include a policy statement on data sharing and preservation, a report on practical guidance on data preservation, promotion and development of data sharing tools, development of a set of principles in using personal information in medical research and commissioning a report of access to collections of data for health research.
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/PolicyGuidance/EthicsAndGovernance/DataSharing/in
dex.htm
Preservation Handbook : Geophysics
Westcott, Keith (Date Created: 17 Mar 2005)
This publication is part of a series of preservation handbooks published by the AHDS (Arts and Humanities Data Service). This handbook discusses the significant characteristics of geophysics data files, common formats and best practice. The goal of the handbook is to instruct AHDS staff on how best to preserve digital objects, in accordance with "a migration based preservation approach, incorporating migration to standard formats during ingest." Although this document is written for AHDS staff, the information is useful to the broader digital preservation community.
http://ahds.ac.uk/preservation/geophysics-preservation-handbook.pdf
Version 1.1. Also available in RTF - http://ahds.ac.uk/preservation/geophysics-preservation-handbook.rtf
Preservation Handbook : Statistical Data
Arts and Humanities Data Service (Date Created: 15 Jul 2005)
This publication is part of a series of preservation handbooks published by the AHDS (Arts and Humanities Data Service). This handbook discusses the significant characteristics of statistical data, common formats and best practice. The goal of the handbook is to instruct AHDS staff on how best to preserve digital objects, in accordance with "a migration based preservation approach, incorporating migration to standard formats during ingest." Although this document is written for AHDS staff, the information is useful to the broader digital preservation community.
http://ahds.ac.uk/preservation/statistics-preservation-handbook.pdf
Version 3. Also available in RTF - http://ahds.ac.uk/preservation/statistics-preservation-handbook.rtf
Scientific Data and Information : Report of the CSPR Assessment Panel
Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (CSPR) (Date Created: Dec 2004)
The ICSU (International Council for Science) is a non-government organisation representing over 100 international scientific bodies. This report by the CSPR (Committee on Scientific Planning and Review) assesses the strategic issues in scientific data and information and reviews the ICSU's current activities. This report is wide-ranging, covering all aspects of the data and information lifecycle including the need for long-term management and preservation.
ISBN: 0930357604
http://www.icsu.org/Gestion/img/ICSU_DOC_DOWNLOAD/551_DD_FILE_PAA_Data
_and_Information.pdf
Stewardship of Digital Research Data - Principles and Guidelines: Responsibilities of Research Institutions and funders, data managers, learned societies and publishers
Research Information Network (Date Created: Jan 2008) (United Kingdom)
This document produced by the Research Information Network provides a framework of key principles and guidelines for the stewardship of digital research data and is based on the premise that ideas and knowledge including data derived from publicly funded research should be made available. The framework is structured around five broad principles: 1. Roles and responsibilities; 2. Standards and quality assurance; 3. Access, usage and credit; 4. Benefits and cost-effectiveness, and; 5. Preservation and sustainability.
http://www.rin.ac.uk/data-principles
Full document and summary available for dowload in PDF.
New UK Data Archive Preservation Policy Ver. 3.0
Woollard, Matthew (Date Created: 26 Mar 2008) (United Kingdom)
This document outlines the principles underpinning the UK Data Archives activities. The Archive is the primary repository for social science research data in the UK. The document outlines the purpose & objectives, the legal & regulatory framework, roles & responsibilities, the model & its functions, preservation planning & strategy, IT Architecture, Security, Cooperation and funding.
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/publications/UKDAPreservationPolicy
0308.pdf

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Projects and Case Studies

Audiovisual Research Collections and Their Preservation
Schüller, Dietrich (Date Created: Mar 2008)
This 38 p. report focuses on collections of recordings made during academic field work, interviews and documentaries now held by archives, academic departments and individual researchers. It discusses the requirements for ongoing access and re-use and the potential for digitisation for creating distributed content-based archives.
http://www.tape-online.net/docs/audiovisual_research_collections.pdf
Safekept
Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR)
Scholarly Technology Services, Australian National University (Regularly Updated) (Australia)
This project, funded by the Australian Dept. of Education, Science and Training, has five partners - the Australian National University, National Library of Australia, University of Queensland, University of Sydney and the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing. The aim of the project is to act as a centre of excellence for the management of scholarly assets in digital format. The project consists of four interlinked programs - digital continuity and sustainability, International linkages program, National Services Program and Practices and Testbed.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/index.html
CASPAR : Cultural, Artistic and Scientific Knowledge Preservation for Access and Retrieval
CASPAR Consortium (Date Created: Apr 2006)
This project commenced in April 2006 and is due to be completed in October 2009. It is coordinated by the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, UK and is partly funded by the European Union. It is a large scale project which will develop a methodology for digital preservation activities across a disparate range of data types coming from the sciences, arts and culture.
http://www.casparpreserves.eu/
Data Exchange Tools (DExT)
UK Data Archive. University of Essex. (Date Created: Dec 2006) (United Kingdom)
This one year project led by the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex aimed to "develop, refine and test models for data exchange for both survey data and qualitiative research data based on XML/RDF schema and will develop tools for data import and export." Data formats included are SPSS, STATA, XML, Atlas-ti, MaxQDA and Nvivo.
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/dext/
Dataverse Network Project
King, Gary (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This project builds on the Virtual Data Center Project but uses new software developed in 2006. It allows publishers and individuals to set up dataverses with special citation mechanisms that act as a persistent identification system.
http://thedata.org/
Driver : Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research
CORDIS (Community Research & Development Information Service) (Regularly Updated)
The Driver project is a joint collaboration between ten international partners with the intention to create a knowledge base of European research.The project, funded under the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme, began in June 2006 and will continue for 18 months. The aim of Driver is to build a test-bed for the development of infrastructure for the delivery of data content resources such as scientific output, including scientific/technical reports, working papers, pre-prints, articles and original research data.
http://www.driver-repository.eu/
Incentives for Data Producers to Create Archive Ready Data Sets
School of Information, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) (Date Created: 2005)
This research project is sponsored by the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) and the National Science Foundation. The purpose of this project is to investigate the obstacles and incentives for producers to prepare data for deposit that is archive-ready. Focus will be on collaboration between producers and archives, including identification of a process for archives to adjust their deposit requirements to better suit producer needs. The website has information on research aims, current state of knowledge and practice, standards and guidelines.
http://www.si.umich.edu/incentives/
Preservation and Management Strategies for Exceptionally Large Data Formats : Big Data
Arts and Humanities Data Service (Date Created: Nov 2005) (United Kingdom)
This Arts and Humanities Data Servicce (AHDS) project, commenced in March 2005 and ran for 18 months, investigated preservation (storage methods), reuse (usability) and dissemination (delivery mechanism) strategies for large data files generated by archaeologists and other researchers. The website has descriptions of case studies generating large amounts of data; links to a survey designed to find information on the uses and users of big data; project deliverables and formats.
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/bigdata/index.html
Towards an Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories : a National Policy Infrastructure Development Proposal
Australian National University (Date Created: 23 Oct 2003) (Australia)
This proposal forms the basis of the establishment of the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR). The proposal discusses the objectives of the APSR including adopting digital continuity, repositories and access platforms as an underlying theme, which will then be applied to the areas of eScience and eHumanities. The core programs of digital continuity and sustainability are also examined. The key objectives of the International Linkages program and the National Services program are discussed in detail. The proposal concludes with a discussion of the expected outcomes, benefits and a time line of the implementation plan of a National Repository Centre.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/documents/APSR.pdf

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Surveys

Audiovisual Research Collections and Their Preservation
Schüller, Dietrich (Date Created: Mar 2008)
This 38 p. report focuses on collections of recordings made during academic field work, interviews and documentaries now held by archives, academic departments and individual researchers. It discusses the requirements for ongoing access and re-use and the potential for digitisation for creating distributed content-based archives.
http://www.tape-online.net/docs/audiovisual_research_collections.pdf
New Investigating Data Management Practices in Australian Universities
Bradbury, Stephanie; Henty, Margaret; Porter, Simon; Weaver, Belinda (Date Created: Jul 2008) (Australia)
This survey was undertaken in 2007 and completed in 2008 in recognition that repositories need to include research data. It was an activity of the APSR ORCA Support Network, and was completed with the support of APSR and the ANDS Establishment Project, The University of Queensland, The University of Melbourne and the Queensland University of Technology. The survey included questions on the types of digital data being created (spreadsheets, documents, experimental data, images, fieldwork data, etc), the size of the data collection, software used for data analysis, data storage and backup, application of a data management plan, roles and responsibilities around data management, copyright frameworks, usage of high capacity computing, and more.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/orca/investigating_data_management.pdf
Further informtation available from http://www.apsr.edu.au/orca/data_management_survey.htm
Survey of Canadian and International Data Management Initiiatives
Argaez, Diego; Shearer, Kathleen (Date Created: 28 Apr 2008) (Canada)
This working paper provides an overview of the types of data management activities being undertaken in Canada and internationally. It documents options for libraries and is a preliminary study for a more detailed investigation.
http://www.carl-abrc.ca/about/working_groups/Reports/data_mgt_wg_worki
ng_paper-e.pdf
Sustainability Issues for Australian Research Data : the Report of the Australian E-research Sustainability Research Project
Buchhorn, Marcus; McNamara, Paul (Date Created: Oct 2006) (Australia)
This is a report on a survey that examined sustainability issues for data-intensive research projects.The issues included the lack of support for long term data management, the lack of a workable national data management system and problems associated with a decentralised data management infrastructure. The report proposes that a data stewardship sytem that interlinks policy and infrastructure would address many of these issues. This report also provides an overview of future scenarios and actions.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/publications/aeres_report.pdf

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Tools

New Digital Curation Lifecycle Model
Digital Curation Centre (Date Created: 02 May 2008) (United Kingdom)
This model provides a "graphical, high level overview of the stages required for successful curation and preservation of data from initial conceptualisation through the iterative curation cycle. The model can be used to plan activities within a specific research project, organisation, or consortium to ensure all necessary stages are undertaken, each in the correct sequence." More information in the associated FAQ sheet.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/docs/publications/DCCLifecycle.pdf
Historical Virtual Data Center (VDC)
Harvard-MIT Data Center (Last Updated: 2006) (United States of America)
The Virtual Data Center (VDC) was developed by the Harvard-MIT Data Center and the Harvard University Library. The VDC is an open-source digital library system for the management, dissemination, exchange and citation of quantitive data. It is continuously being updated and maintained through Sourceforge - http://sourceforge.net/projects/thedata. Features include data format conversion, persistent naming and metadata harvesting. This project ran from 1999 to 2006 and was succeeded by the Dataverse Network Project.
http://thedata.org/vdc/

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Related Topics: E-prints | Electronic Theses and Dissertations | Electronic journals | Electronic publishing | Grey literature

Broader Topic: Networked digital material

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