DataShare awarded CoreTrustSeal trustworthy repository status

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Pauline Ward

CoreTrustSeal has recognised Edinburgh DataShare as a trustworthy repository.

What does this mean for our depositors? It means you can rest assured that we look after your data very carefully, in line with stringent internationally-recognised standards. We have significant resources in place to ensure your dataset remains available to the academic community and the general public at all times. We also have digital preservation expertise and well-planned processes in place, to protect your data from long-term threats. The integrity and reusability of your data are a priority for the Research Data Service.

Book to attend our practical “Archiving your Research Data” course

The certification involves an in-depth evaluation of the resilience of the repository, looking at procedures, infrastructure, staffing, discoverability, digital preservation, metadata standards and disaster recovery. This rigorous process took the team over a year to complete, and prompted a good deal of reflection on the robustness of our repository. We compiled responses to sixteen requirements, a task which I co-ordinated. The finished application contained over ten thousand words, and included important contributions from colleagues in the Digital Library team and from the university Digital Archivist Sara Thomson.

Our CoreTrustSeal application in full

The CTS is a prestigious accreditation, held by many national organisations such as the National Library of Scotland, the UK’s Centre for Environmental Data Analysis and UniProt. Ours is the first institutional research data repository in the UK to receive the CoreTrustSeal (the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre has the CTS but, in contrast to DataShare, is a disciplinary repository which archives data from the international research community).

DataShare is a trustworthy repository, where you as a researcher (staff or student) at the University of Edinburgh can archive your research data free of charge. Bring us your dataset – up to 100 GB(!) – and we will look after it well, to maximise its discoverability and its potential for reuse, both in the immediate term and long beyond the lifetime of your research project.

Edinburgh DataShare

All CTS certified repositories

The Research Data Support team has earned the right to display this CTS logo on the DataShare homepage

Pauline Ward
Research Data Support Assistant
Library & University Collections

Quicker, easier interface for DataVault

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Pauline Ward

We are delighted to report that Edinburgh DataVault now has a quicker and easier process for users. The team have been working hard to overhaul the form for creating a new ‘vault’ to improve the user experience. The changes allow us to gather all the information we need from the user directly through a DataVault web page. The users no longer need to first login to Pure and create a separate dataset record there. Instead, that bit will be automated for them.

I have explained the new process and walked users through the new form in a new and updated how-to video, now combining the getting started information with the demo of how to create a vault:

Get started and create your vault! (8 mins)

The new streamlined process for users is represented and compared to our open research data repository DataShare in this workflow diagram. DataVault is designed for restricted access, but can also handle far larger datasets than DataShare.

The diagram shows the steps users go through in DataShare and DataVault. Common steps are deposit and approval.

The DataVault process includes the gathering of funding information, and review and deletion none of which are present in the DataShare workflow since they would not be relevant to that open research data repository.

The arrow showing DataVault metadata going to the internet represents the copying of selected metadata fields into Pure, where they are accessible as dataset records in the university’s Edinburgh Research Explorer online portal.

Our new course “Archiving Your Research Data”, featuring Sara Thomson, Digital Archivist, provides an introduction to digital preservation for researchers, combined with practical support on how to put digital preservation into practice using the support and systems available here at University of Edinburgh such as the DataVault. For future dates and registration information please see our Workshops page.

A recording of an earlier workshop (before the new interface was released) is also available: Archiving Your Research Data Part 1: Long-term Preservation.

If you are a University of Edinburgh principal investigator, academic, or support professional interested in using the Edinburgh DataVault, please get in touch by emailing data-support@ed.ac.uk.

Pauline Ward
Research Data Support Assistant
Library and University Collections
University of Edinburgh

The big 3-0-0-0: DataShare reaches three thousand datasets

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Posted on August 11, 2021 by Pauline Ward

Confetti banner says "3,000th deposit!!!" 2021-08-02

Timestamp showing the accession of the deposit on the 2nd of August.

We’re thrilled Edinburgh DataShare has just ingested its 3,000th deposit:

Davey, Thomas; Draycott, Samuel; Pillai, Ajit; Gabl, Roman; Jordan, Laura-Beth. (2021). Wave buoy in current – experimental data, [dataset]. University of Edinburgh. School of Engineering. Institute for Energy Systems. FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility. https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/3105.

The depositor was Dr Tom Davey, Senior Experimental Officer in the School of Engineering, who said:

“It is a pleasure for us all in FloWave to see one of our datasets achieve this milestone for Edinburgh DataShare. This is also the tenth DataShare upload making use of experimental outputs from the FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility. Providing a reliable and accessible repository of our project outputs is not only important for our funders, but also promotes new research collaborations and builds lasting impact for our experimental programmes. This particular project will aid in the understanding measuring wave and currents at deployment sites for offshore renewable energy technologies, and adds to the existing FloWave portfolio of datasets in the field of wave energy, tidal energy, advanced measurement, and remote operated vehicles.”

You can explore more data generated at FloWave in the IES DataShare Collection:

Collection – The Institute for Energy Systems (IES) (ed.ac.uk)

Although the ‘wave buoy in current’ dataset is under temporary embargo, currently set to expire on the 5th of September, it is possible to request the data using DataShare’s request-a-copy feature in the meanwhile. Embargoes may be extended, or lifted early, usually reflecting publication dates.

You might also enjoy this hilarious and very popular video about FloWave:

Pauline Ward

Research Data Support Assistant

Library & University Collections

University of Edinburgh

DataVault – larger deposits and new review process notifications

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Pauline Ward

New deposit size limit: 10TB

Great news for DataVault users: you can now deposit up to a whopping ten terabytes in a single deposit in the Edinburgh DataVault! That’s five times greater than the previous deposit limit, saving you time that might have been wasted splitting your data artificially and making multiple deposits.

It’s still a good idea to divide up your data into deposits that correspond well to whatever subsets of the dataset you and your colleagues are likely to want to retrieve at any one time. That’s because you can only retrieve a single deposit in its entirety; you cannot select individual files in the deposit to retrieve. Smaller deposits are quicker to retrieve. And remember you’ll need enough space for the retrieved data to arrive in.

We’ve made some performance improvements thanks to our brilliant technical team, so depositing now goes significantly faster. Nonetheless, please bear in mind that any deposit of multiple terabytes will probably take several days to complete (depending on how many deposits are queueing and some characteristics of the fileset), because the DataVault needs time to encrypt the data and store it on the tape archives and into the cloud. Remember not to delete your original copy from your working area on DataStore until you receive our email confirming that the deposit has completed!

And you can archive as many deposits as you like into a vault, as long as you have the resources to pay the bill when we send you the eIT!

A reminder on how to structure your data:
https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/research-data-service/after/datavault/prepare-datavault/structure

Ensuring good stewardship of your data through the review process

Another great feature that’s now up and running is the review process notification system, and the accompanying dashboard which allows the curators to implement decisions about retaining or deleting data.

Vault owners should receive an email when the chosen review date is six months away, seeking your involvement in the review process. The email will provide you with the information you need about when the funder’s minimum retention period (if there is one) expires, and how to access the vault. Don’t worry if you think you might have moved on by then; the system is designed to allow the University to implement good stewardship of all the data vaults, even when the Principal Investigator (PI) is no longer contactable. Our curators use a review dashboard to see all vaults whose review dates are approaching, and who the Nominated Data Managers (NDMs) are. In the absence of the Owner, the system notifies the NDMs instead. We will consult with the NDMs or the School about the vault, to ensure all deposits that should be deleted are deleted in good time, and all deposits that should be kept longer are kept safe and sound and still accessible to all authorised users.

DataVault Review Process:
https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/research-data-service/after/datavault/review-process

The new max. deposit size of 10 TB is equivalent to over five million images of around 2 MB each – that’s one selfie for every person in Scotland. Image: A selfie on the cliffs at Bell Hill, St Abbs
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Walter Baxter – geograph.org.uk/p/5967905

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