ANALYSIS AND NEWS
RESEARCH DATA SPRING GREEN SHOOTS: FRESH THINKING THIS AUTUMN
Jisc’s Research Data Spring project has been making waves in the research community since it kicked off last November, writes Daniela Duca
R
esearch Data Spring is an initiative we’re running to create new and innovative partnerships between researchers, librarians, publishers and developers to work on new solutions to common research problems. Starting out in November last year, we’ve whittled 70 potential ideas submitted online down to the technical tools and solutions with the potential to make an impact in the research data management workflow – and now, 11 are in the throes of a second intensive period of development. Once this has been completed we will be looking to roll out solutions as shared services, so they can support research as a whole.
Since our last update in March, we’ve been impressed by the progress the teams have made, most of them achieved as much or sometimes more than they aimed for.
So what exactly are the teams working on? Let’s take a look at two projects in more depth:
The view from above: Data Management Administration Online The problem: Many research managers will be familiar with the problem this project is tackling: how do you find out which projects within your institution have adequate data management plans (DMPs) or how much storage space has been used for depositing the data without extensive checks? It’s often hard to see the wood for the trees in amongst all the sources, software platforms and data. The solution: Lancaster University is developing an administration system called DMA Online to help research managers visualise the datasets published within their institutional repository or current research information system – and drill down into storage requirements and costs, availability of a DMP and access compliance with the Research Councils UK (RCUK) research data policy. The benefits: The DMA Online dashboard intends to provide the information you’d need
to run a research office, automating processes as much as possible to save time and make things more accurate and efficient.
In the current phase of development, the project team is working with the Data Management Plans Online to get data into the dashboard via an Application Programming Interface. They are also hoping to enhance further the live dashboard at Lancaster, with information ingested from csv files and automatically fed in from EPrints and PURE. By December, the team aims to test this with three other institutions.
Clipper: smoother sailing in the choppy waters of video files The problem: Researchers increasingly need to store, archive and share video and audio files. It takes time to figure out whether you have the copyright permissions to clip, annotate and share the files, as these vary so much from source to source. Video and audio files can also take up lots of storage; researchers and research managers may often underestimate the amounts they will require before they start their project. The solution: The City of Glasgow College and The Open University, with help from ReachWill Ltd, are developing a tool called ‘Clipper’ which will make working with video files easier.
It will allow researchers to clip videos, and
Research data spring Timeline
to organise and share video clips, on the fly – editing, sharing and collaborating easily via a web-based system. If you’d like to see it in action for yourself, there’s a quick demo video up on YouTube that’s well worth a look. The benefits: The project team hope that being able to clip just the sections of video files needed and doing that online and even on live audio/video streams (if necessary) will save on storage space, make working on video collaboratively more easy, save time currently wasted swapping between software and file types, and ultimately serve as a good tool for long-term preservation.
The team have already spotted that people outside of academia and research might have use for this tool. To that end, they’ve already been engaging with all sorts of places including the National Library of Scotland, the BBC Archive, Manchester School of Art – it’s an impressive set of feedback to draw upon and it seems all kinds of institutions are already interested in finding out more about what this system could do for them.
Quick tips on more projects to watch With so many projects underway, there are plenty of sources of inspiration and work to keep an eye out for. Here’s a quick run-down to highlight some of the projects in Jisc’s Research Data Spring initiative that might pique your interest:
Artivity – this solution will automatically capture research data for artists. What they’re developing has the potential to provide incredibly detailed information about how art
Research data spring timeline New ideas
Develop ideas
Votes
Powered by Ideascale
Merge ideas New ideas Workshop I Pitch
Draft Business Plan
Build a team
Comments
Testing and
prototype phase III (6 months)
Workshop III
Testing and
prototype phase II (4 months)
Workshop II
Testing and
prototype phase I (3 months)
12 Research Information OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
@researchinfo
www.researchinformation.info
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52