INFO 580 - Academic Research Data

useful articles

2009-07-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001368.html

http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001209.html

More references

2009-07-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

I am rewriting the survey questions to bring the emphasis back on what librarians are doing in terms of data curation, to test the level of involvement in some of the larger projects being initiated within New Zealand, as well as what the prohibiting factors are, some of the more valuable references will be added to my website lists.

eSurvey pro for the online survey tool

2009-06-30T01:15:00.000-07:00

I have made the decision to go with eSurveypro at this stage after some investigation of the others, i.e. survey monkey being one of them...I have not been posting on here much, but might start to store more references here from now on

more references

2008-10-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VC8-4KV8TM5-1&_user=100241&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=100241&md5=5ed5d70d5c6fdec327fd6792bfff0f4c

Weak information work in scientific discovery

Carole L. PalmerCorresponding Author Contact Information, a, E-mail The Corresponding Author, Melissa H. Cragin1, a, E-mail The Corresponding Author and Timothy P. Hogan2, a, E-mail The Corresponding Author

Information Processing & Management
Volume 43, Issue 3, May 2007, Pages 808-820

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MiamiImageURL&_imagekey=B6TYF-3SNV1G7-F-2&_cdi=5617&_user=100241&_check=y&_orig=search&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F1997&view=c&wchp=dGLzVzz-zSkWz&md5=8b70f006049ff5f88a07c85f181a70e7&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

The computer revolution in science:
steps towards the realization of
computer-supported discovery environments
Hidde de Jong a**, Arie Rip b,l
B Knowledge-Based Systems Group, Department of Computer Science, University of Twente, PO. Box 217,
7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands
h School of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Universify of Twente, PO. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede,
Netherlands
Received December 1995; revised September 1996

cyberinfrastructure for e-science

2008-10-22T15:37:00.001-07:00

Science 6 May 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5723, pp. 817 - 821
DOI: 10.1126/science.1110410

Prev | Table of Contents | Next
Viewpoint
Cyberinfrastructure for e-Science
Tony Hey and Anne E. Trefethen

how and what to code

2008-10-22T14:09:00.001-07:00

http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_QDA/how_what_to_code.php coding qualitative information based on themes? processes? in this case

Data analysis techniques

2008-10-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

qualitativeresearch.ratcliffs.net/15methods.pdf

onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_QDA/what_is_qda.php

symptomresearch.nih.gov/chapter_7/sec4_5/cmss45pg1.htm

gsociology.icaap.org/methods/qual.htm

www.gao.gov/special.pubs/pe10111.pdf

interviewing techniques

2008-10-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/GPP/Students/ch11a.html

Data is an asset

2008-10-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

key references discussing the value of data

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/pub_escience.aspx JISC 2004

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/briefing-papers/curating-geospatial-data/ DCC 2006

DCC curating geospatial data, short-term benefits and long term value

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/e.j.lyon/150.pdf

A powerpoint presentation by OCLC
www.oclc.org/news/events/presentations/2006/PALMER_DataCurationALAMid06.ppt - 2006

Social research theory

2008-10-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/positvsm.php

another site which gives much more insight to theoretical frameworks, great explanations of positivism and post-positivism in relatively general terms.

Grounded theory qualitative research

2008-10-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.sbl.tkk.fi/teaching/courses/T-128.7900/2007/groundedtheory.ppt

a powerpoint slide presentation of grounded theory in qualitative research

Glaser and Strauss, strategies for qualitative research

http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/craft_articles/glaser_strauss.html

"Chapter Three: Theoretical Sampling
Building grounded theory requires an interative process of data collection, coding, analysis, and planning what to study next. The researcher needs to by theoretically sensitive as they are collecting and coding data to sense where the data is taking them and what to do next. Coming into a research program with an existing theoretical framework will merely blind them to the richness of the incoming data.

As this iterative process continues, the researcher may explore the same group more deeply or in different ways, or may seek out new groups. Comparison groups should be selected based on their theoretical relevance to further the development of emerging categories. It's best to pick the groups as you go along than choose them all beforehand -- let the data be your guide. In theory generation non-comparability of groups is irrelevant, but it can have an effect on the level of substantive theory developed and it's thus important to pick the right group for the next part of the comparative research."

I can see a study of data curation practice of New Zealand researchers being the type of study which easily leads to further research and raising deeper issues and questions concerning this. I have found by looking at the most recent studies conducted, that they indeed, raise numerous issues which can then invite further investigation of these other areas...By using a grounded theory approach, theories would be developed through interviews and observations of current data curation practice. However, another possibility is taking a more ethnographical approach in terms of studying researchers as a community. This may be particularly effective if tackling this subject in terms of one specific, or a few related disciplines. My intention for my particular study was to look at a broader cross-section of researchers and their different disciplines at this stage

VUWs Sam Searle writes about the KAREN network

2008-10-20T02:25:00.000-07:00

researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10063/264/article.pdf?sequence=2

KAREN: Opportunities and Challenges for New
Zealand Libraries
Sam Searle
E-Research Development Coordinator
Victoria University of Wellington
sam.searle@vuw.ac.nz

eResearch at Otago

2008-10-20T02:22:00.001-07:00

a powerpoint presentation given by Barbara Taylor and Judith Clark of the University of otago library

eresearch.wiki.otago.ac.nz/images/7/77/ERO07-Taylor&Clark.pps

much of this points toward data curation and the role libraries can play

eResearch and the KAREN network

2008-10-20T02:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.karen.net.nz/assets/Uploads/Documents/eResearchAustralasiaNeilJ.pdf

eResearch and Advanced Networking Meetings
Trip report from Neil James
24 July, 2007
eResearch Australasia Conference
26-28 June

this was a discussion about the several tools available for eResearchers, web 2.0 applications, but more notably, technology such as access grids and how they will enable greater communication and collaboration. Also a very interesting segment of this paper was Philip Bourne of the University of California discussing implications these technologies will have on publication and whether the publication of data will go hand-in-hand with the publication of a particular paper or article. Other speakers at this conference remarked on the potential and advantages to allowing the publication of data, provided it was clearly attributed and cited.

Biodiversity report for the university of otago Library

2008-10-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

the first part of Gillian Elliot's report can be found here: http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/pdf/2008_OBDMP_questionnaire.pdf it will be one of 4 reports outlining her findings of the interviews she has conducted with researchers "with an interest in biodiversity" from the following departments: Biochemistry; Chemistry; Clothing and Textiles; Design Studies; Geography; Geology;
HEDC9; History; Information Science; Law; Management; Maori Studies; Maths;
Philosophy; Political Studies; Surveying and Tourism (page 7). One notable part of the summary findings was the fact that researchers are working very closely upon their own data, and applying their own metadata, the result of this is likely to be considerable variations in how they apply metadata, emphasis upon which elements are used is likely to differ. Whether researchers would be interested in a more standardised approach to applying metadata is outside the scope of this report. Another aspect of note is whether researchers have a data management plan in place or not, few respondents did, others cited time constraints, although many expressed interest, also others were unclear about this. (pg.33)

Another aspect I found interesting was low amount of respondents who deposit data into a repository. One way of extending this in a report would be to investigate the reasons why they do not. Gillian Elliot's report suggests there are wider concerns than merely copywright, and ownership issues.

Methodology focus

2008-09-22T02:32:00.000-07:00

While I have made a small start on the second assignment, I need to decide what specific area I should focus on. I'm not sure whether to take a very broad look at what researchers (academic, governmental, commercial?) are doing, or narrow it down to specific types of researchers and subjects. I will be meeting with the biodiversity co-ordinator at my work to discuss how that project has been going, but from what I understand, their focus has been largely life sciences (and some physical sciences?) but I will have to find out more.

The literature review turned up a lot of information about what social science researchers are also doing as well as the fact they are seeking to utilise institutional repositories to organise and store data they find as well. This might (and only maybe) more relevant in a LIS setting. I think you could probably go a bit mad with this though...

One month on...

2008-09-22T01:54:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd better check in, one month since the previous post is a bit much. We've had midterm break and have had a few lectures since the holidays, mainly concerning research methods, topics after the break have involved covering quantitative and qualitative research methods in detail up until this point in time. I was somewhat dissapointed at my mark for the first assignment (although it was a decent pass at least!), though the feedback was very useful and I think my main area for improvement is my referencing and possibly the structure of the assignment.

ecollaboration literature review report

2008-08-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

eCollaboration in Learning, Teaching and Research
Literature Review Report
Irina Elgort (Lead researcher)
Tony Wilson (Research assistant)

http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-4/n1381-ecollaboration-in-learning-teaching-and-research---literature-review.pdf

This link is to a report reviewing literature pertaining to e-collaboration discussing trends, virtual research environments (VREs), training needs and how this will impact upon the way scientific research is conducted

Ingrid Masons article

2008-08-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

"Virtual Preservation: How Has Digital Culture Influenced Our Ideas about Permanence?
Cbanging Practice in a National Legal Deposit Library" INGRID MASON. Several important issues raised as to the nature of information preservation in the context of a legal library.

Some examples of scientific cyberinfrastructure

2008-08-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

World protein data bank http://www.wwpdb.org/ This has been established to enable researchers to utilise data on protein which has been gathered over the years, replicating much of this information is expensive and can take considerable time to do in some cases...

http://www.geongrid.org/ The Geosciences Network is another example of a portal where numerous institutions have collaborated to establish access to data...

http://www.ppdg.net/ Particle physics data grid, physicists and computer scientists collaborating to share data...

http://www.us-vo.org/ US National Virtual Observatory enables researchers to utilise stored experimental data

Sloan digital sky survey http://www.sdss.org/ As stated on the website, a most ambitious project conducted to survey the sky, this website records what has been covered as well as news related to the survey...

http://www.nbirn.net/ Biomedical informatics research network is another case of cyberinfatructure being established to store and enable access to considerable amounts of experiements and data

Although all of the above websites deal with data collected across physical and life science disciplines, some articles within the literature point toward these kinds of approaches being suitable for social sciences and humanities.

Draft hypothesis

2008-08-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

Name your Topic of Interest

My topic of interest will be what New Zealand researchers current data curation practice is what what their needs for the future are likely to be, with emphasis on how libraries will facilitate this process

State your Indirect Question

Draft question formulation: Given the considerable amount of data now being created in the course of research, what are New Zealand researchers current data curation practices, and what services are they likely to require in the future. What are some likely services libraries will be able to employ to further enable access to data?

State how Your Answer will help the reader understand something more important

This project will help us understand where New Zealand fits within current initiatives for cyberstructure in terms of what researchers are doing, as well as the main issues they will be confronted by as well as how libraries will be able to assist this process.

State the Significance

The key component will be an exploration of this topic from a New Zealand perspective, having investigated what has been written about overseas as well as looking at some case studies. Exploration of this will be significant as it ties in to strategic direction and government policy pertaining to digital information and storage. New Zealand digital strategy and initiatives such as the KAREN network will be main driving factors for this in the near to distant future.

Identify and state your Sub-problems/Sub-questions and/or Hypotheses

Other sub-problems will be New Zealand's isolation, storage of data, the costs and responsibility of doing so, what researchers feelings are as to the ownership and distribution of data, one hypothesis I have in mind is my hunch that researchers will want the data to be as freely available as possible, however this may be proven wrong depending on some of the information being found...

Some central themes identified

2008-08-21T03:43:00.001-07:00

Main themes emerging from the readings include, biodiversity, sustainability, curation, cultural/historical value, economic efficiency, growth, storage, technology/formats, methods of organising and distributing the data, policy, ownership, permissions...

DISC-UK project

2008-08-18T01:46:00.000-07:00

DISC-UK project within the JISC website provides details of a collaboration between four UK universities as to the management of data relating to social sciences. Edinburgh, Oxford, London school of economics and Southampton, will combine efforts to promote data resources, and the importance of supporting data, as well as sharing information. It will be an exciting case study for those interested in the area of social sciences to follow in seeing what will emerge from this for related disciplines.

Bringing information together in the blog

2008-08-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been spent doing quite a lot more background reading into digital preservation in general, particularly what is being done overseas. Much of the literature between projects initiated by the Digital Curation Centre and JISCPOWR deal with interwoven issues. Numerous blogs and articles also bring these resources together for the information of the reader. I have found excellent articles raising most of the key issues as to why data preservation will be so vital in the years to come. Economic (limited resources of various organisations, why not share data, rather than going to the expense of replicating it?), importance and relevance of Cultural issues, historical value of data across all disciplines, economic value in itself, biodiversity, interoperability, sustainability. Some of the challenges identified include, where this data will be stored, speculation that vast quantities of data are continually lost, more data created than there is physical and electronic storage space, Intellectual property, the roles of each individual organisation (or individual) to take responsibility for preservation of data, formatting the data, long-term accessibility, the organisation and classification of the data, amongs many other issues.

Checking in

2008-08-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

Felt I should diarise the fact that I've found more literature over the past few days, notably the exploration of landcare research's website. One of the articles I found details numerous examples of how scientists have managed their data, as well as information about specific projects they have been working on. I am beginning to formulate the theme and structure that my literature review will take. I am discovering quite a few New Zealand initiatives for how the manage data and the sorts of databases which are being created to do this. Landcare research provide access to considerable amounts of information through the databases, accessible through the website.

Diary

2008-08-11T03:11:00.000-07:00

Just checking in and have been rereading the text and set readings for the course, I've been really ill for a few weeks now, but have been going through quite a lot of the background of what people are writing about biodiversity and data curation overseas. I have found valuable powerpoint presentations, which I will put links up to on this blog. The DCC website is a wealth of knowledge and resources, in particular the many blogs they have set up, the legal blog makes for interesting reading in the way the law is interpreted in the UK concerning the use of data. This is something I will have to find out more about in a New Zealand context.

Galileo's repository

2008-07-31T02:43:00.001-07:00

Just had a mad conversation with a friend about this project. What if Galileo had actually "owned" his discovery that the earth orbited the sun and not the other way round, along with the vast amount of scientific data he accumulated during his lifetime. Or if, throughout history, scientists had been able to draw upon and use each others data? In Galileo's case, the poor guy spent the last years of his life under house arrest. What would the implications be if someone else came up with something considered "hare-brained" or even wicked or evil in this day and age? Would anyone WANT to own that data? and if it did become valuable in the future, how would this data be protected. This is just a bit of a brainstorm and a rant I do'n't want to lose this train of thought... :)

Creative commons

2008-07-31T02:26:00.000-07:00

Creative commons website offers a great deal of information about sharing and utilising resources legally. The organisation itself has help initiate other projects, notably the links to academic and scientific creative commons websites. These contain more discussion, white papers, etc about how data could be shared and how collaborative projects could be conducted within that setting. This is reflective of how the overall recognition of the potential to share and utilise resources is growing rapidly overseas. This is in line with New Zealand's own digital strategy, however at this stage, I appear to be finding a great deal more information about what is taking place overseas rather than in New Zealand at this stage.

INFO528 module 4 (already!)

2008-07-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

The module four presentation was mostly concerned with issues of ethics and theory in the research project. It is a module which is likely to be particularly pertinent to the field in which I will be researching. I believe one of the main issues of data curation and sharing itself will be regarding anonymity, security, use of resources, permissions, in how the data is likely to be shared.

An article discussing the emergence of data curation

2008-07-30T02:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/e.j.lyon/150.pdf

This is a pdf from the University of Bath in the UK discussing the fact that huge amounts of data are now being generated due to new technologies and there will be a growing need for this data to be managed. The article talks about the data curation cycle, the level 1 diagram is contained within it. Also the establishment of the data curation centre in the UK, future expectations for it to become a leading organisation of expertise concerning this topic.

"from data deluge to data curation" Philip Lord, Alison Macdonald, Liz Lyon, David Giaretta

notes from the field

2008-07-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

a response to the possibility of using an open source wiki to manage raw data

http://groups.google.co.nz/group/openaccessnews/browse_thread/thread/d52c6fc8affdf2ab/26983647c20cb639?lnk=st&q=data+curation#26983647c20cb639

Data curation centre lifecycle

2008-07-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

Link to the DCC Lifecycle pdf,
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/docs/publications/DCCLifecycle.pdf

a detailed diagram analysing the many aspects of data life cycles

INFO 528 has commenced...

2008-07-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

We have had 3 lectures so far, most have been concerned with the ideas of research methods, particularly going over the processes of commencing a literature review. Assignment one is due on the 23rd of August. I have started reading through what I've been able to find so far, which has mainly been on data curation methods. I will have to read through more of the literature upon data curation methods, but feel I should try to concentrate the bulk of my reading upon current data curation practice and methods researchers overseas use. I have emailed the biodiversity co-ordinator at work and hope to discuss some of their findings as well.

Report of a workshop on research and development priorities to support research data curation.

2008-06-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by the Andrew J Mellon Foundation and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
Held in Washington DC, 14 December 2007
Report by Neil Jacobs (JISC)

http://infteam.jiscinvolve.org/files/2008/05/datacurationwshop20071214.pdf

Introduction and Notes

2008-06-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning of my INFO 580 project for completion of my MLIS.

I am very interested in exploring the possibility of New Zealand researchers data curation practices.

ROUGH NOTES:
Although there are many repositories established within academic institutions, I am intrigued by the amount of data researchers must have to manage as well as the possibilities which might exist, not only for data curation, but how researchers might share or collaborate on these.

"New Zealand researchers' data curation practices

Institutional repositories have become popular in the tertiary sector as a way of making academic research more widely available, and also preserving it for the future. There is growing interest in making research data available in a similar fashion, but we currently know little about how New Zealand researchers manage their data, and what data curation services may be needed." - SUPERVISOR

Questions:

Do researchers want to make academic research data more widely available? how do they want to preserve data? Issues involved?
How will this be done? Methods of data curation?
What would be the implications for collaboration?
Use of academic research data by students? Implications?