Data Deposit in a CKAN Repository: A Dublin Core-Based Simplified Workflow

Researchers are currently encouraged by their institutions and the funding agencies to deposit data resulting from projects. Activities related to research data management, namely organization, description, and deposit, are not obvious for researchers due to the lack of knowledge on metadata and the limited data publication experience. Institutions are looking for solutions to help researchers organize their data and make them ready for publication. We consider here the deposit process for a CKAN-powered data repository managed as part of the IT services of a large research institute. A simplified data deposit process is illustrated here by means of a set of examples where researchers describe their data and complete the publication in the repository. The process is organised around a Dublin Core-based dataset deposit form, filled by the researchers as preparation for data deposit. The contacts with researchers provided the opportunity to gather feedback about the Dublin Core metadata and the overall experience. Reflections on the ongoing process highlight a few difficulties in data description, but also show that researchers are motivated to get involved in data publication activities.

[1]  Cynthia Hudson-Vitale,et al.  The Current State of Meta-Repositories for Data , 2017 .

[2]  Cristina Ribeiro,et al.  Involving Data Creators in an Ontology-Based Design Process for Metadata Models , 2017 .

[3]  Jane Greenberg,et al.  Functional and Architectural Requirements for Metadata: Supporting Discovery and Management of Scientific Data , 2012, Dublin Core Conference.

[4]  Yulia Karimova,et al.  Vocabulários controlados na descrição de dados de investigação no Dendro , 2016 .

[5]  Donatella Castelli,et al.  Are Scientific Data Repositories Coping with Research Data Publishing? , 2016, Data Sci. J..

[6]  Cristina Ribeiro,et al.  A comparison of research data management platforms: architecture, flexible metadata and interoperability , 2017, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[7]  Elizabeth D. Dalton,et al.  Changes in Data Sharing and Data Reuse Practices and Perceptions among Scientists Worldwide , 2015, PloS one.

[8]  David L Duffy,et al.  Classifying dermoscopic patterns of naevi in a case-control study of melanoma , 2017, PloS one.

[9]  Joss Winn.  Open data and the academy: an evaluation of CKAN for research data management , 2013 .

[10]  Cristina Ribeiro,et al.  The Dendro research data management platform: Applying ontologies to long-term preservation in a collaborative environment , 2014, iPRES.

[11]  Ali Shiri,et al.  Metadata for Research Data: Current Practices and Trends , 2014, Dublin Core Conference.

[12]  Veerle Van den Eynden,et al.  Managing and sharing data: Best practice for researchers , 2011 .

[13]  Kai Li,et al.  How Portable Are the Metadata Standards for Scientific Data? A Proposal for a Metadata Infrastructure , 2013, Dublin Core Conference.

[14]  Lisa R Johnston,et al.  Approaches to Data Sharing: An Analysis of NSF Data Management Plans from a Large Research University , 2015 .

[15]  Pascal Heus,et al.  Data Documentation Initiative: Toward a Standard for the Social Sciences , 2008, Int. J. Digit. Curation.

[16]  Donatella Castelli,et al.  Dealing with metadata quality: The legacy of digital library efforts , 2013, Inf. Process. Manag..

[17]  Richard Gartner.  Metadata Becomes Digital , 2016 .

[18]  A. Swan,et al.  To share or not to share: Publication and quality assurance of research data outputs. A report commissioned by the Research Information Network , 2008 .

[19]  Cristina Ribeiro,et al.  Promoting Semantic Annotation of Research Data by Their Creators: A Use Case with B2NOTE at the End of the RDM Workflow , 2017, MTSR.

[20]  Dong Joon Lee,et al.  Practices of research data curation in institutional repositories: A qualitative view from repository staff , 2017, PloS one.

[21]  Theresa A. Pardo,et al.  Exploring the determinants of scientific data sharing: Understanding the motivation to publish research data , 2013, Gov. Inf. Q..