MANTRA @ Melbourne

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The aim of the Melbourne_MANTRA project was to review, adapt and pilot an online training program in research data management (RDM) for graduate researchers at the University of Melbourne. Based on the UK-developed and acclaimed MANTRA program, the project reviewed current UK content and assessed its suitability for the Australian and Melbourne research context. The project team adapted the original MANTRA modules and incorporated new content as required, in order to develop the refreshed Melbourne_MANTRA local version. Local expert reviewers ensured the localised content met institutional and funder requirements. Graduate researchers were recruited to complete the training program and contribute to the detailed evaluation of the content and associated resources.

The project delivered eight revised training modules, which were evaluated as part of the pilot via eight online surveys (one for each module) plus a final, summative evaluation survey. Overall, the Melbourne_MANTRA pilot training program was well received by participants. The content of the training modules generally gathered high scores, with low scores markedly sparse across all eight modules. The participants recognised that the content of the training program should be tailored to the institutional context, as opposed to providing general information and theory around the training topics. In its current form, the content of the modules only partly satisfies the requirements of our evaluators, who made valuable recommendations for further improving the training program.

In 2016, the University of Melbourne will revisit MANTRA with a view to implement evaluation feedback into the program; update the modules with new content, audiovisual materials and exercises; augment targeted delivery via the University’s LMS; and work towards incorporating Melbourne_MANTRA in induction and/or reference materials for new and current postgraduates and early career researchers.

The current version is available at: http://library.unimelb.edu.au/digitalscholarship/training_and_outreach/mantra2

Dr Leo Konstantelos
Manager, Digital Scholarship
Research | Research & Collections
Academic Services
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia

Highlights from the RDM Programme Progress Report: August – October 2015

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The RDM Roadmap 2.0 has been completed, approved, and published online and work has started on achieving the deliverables. A copy of the Roadmap is publicly available on the RDM webpages and can be downloaded from http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files//uoe-rdm-roadmap_-_v2_0.pdf.

The RDM Services brochure has now been published in both paper and electronic form and is proving very popular with researchers. The electronic version can be downloaded from http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/rdm_service_a5_booklet_0.pdf

Work on DataVault is progressing well and an interim DataVault service is now nearly complete. The Software Sustainability Institute has worked with the DataVault team to road test the interim solution, as a result some optimisations to the process were identified and are being coded up. DataVault user events have been held in both Manchester and Edinburgh, both events were well attended and the general impression of the current DataVault functionality was positive. Further, round three, funding is being sought from Jisc in December to continue this joint development effort.

Jisc has provided funding for up to nine PhD students to be employed one day per week for four months within their school. Their role will be to help researchers within their school record their research data as Datasets in the PURE system, and to direct any RDM or DMP queries to the RDM team for further support. The Dataset records in PURE will provide the Edinburgh University contribution to the national Research Data Discovery Service, this will increase the discoverability of Edinburgh data and ensure that more researchers are meeting the requirements of their research funders to make their data discoverable and reusable. Applications for the first set of three PhD student interns have been received and are currently being shortlisted, the successful applicants should be able to begin work before the end of 2015.

In October some minor questions were received about the DataShare application for Data Seal of Approval (DSA), these were responded to and DataShare has now been approved for the DSA. This is a major achievement for the entire DataShare team who have worked hard to make DataShare a Trusted Digital Repository.

Over the three month period a total of 173 staff and PGR’s have attended a RDM course or workshop, an additional 20-25 staff have attended research committee meetings or small group presentations where RDM has been on the agenda. Both regular and on demand RDM sessions (courses, workshops, & presentations) will continue to be offered and we are currently in the process of scheduling 30 courses, workshops for January to June 2016 as well as a number of presentations.

The “Data Management and Sharing” Coursera MOOC is well under way with a December launch anticipated. Sarah Jones, DCC, is our video instructor, using scripts adapted from MANTRA.

National and International Engagement Activities

10th August meeting in London with other Alan Turing Institute members to discuss RDM requirements to be provided by member institutions.

17th of August a one day RDM event was organised for Danish visitors from the University of Copenhagen to present UoE RDM services, outreach activities and ELNs.

31st August Dealing with Data conference.

7th/8th September meeting with Gottingen University to talk about digital scholarship, including RDM.

7th October DataVault engagement event at Manchester University.

29 October, Educause conference, Indianapolis. Robin Rice was on a panel with Jan Cheetham & Brianna Marshall, University of Wisconsin and Rory Macneil, RSpace: “Drivers and responses toward research data management maturity: transatlantic perspectives.

Kerry Miller

RDM Service Co-Ordinator

Edinburgh DataShare receives ‘Data Seal of Approval’

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Earlier this week DataShare received the Data Seal of Approval – a peer review certification for trusted digital repository (TDR) status. The award is reviewed every two-years.

Edinburgh DataShare self-assessment statements for each of the 16 metrics (which express roles and responsibilities of data producer, data repository and data consumer) can be viewed on the DSA website at: https://assessment.datasealofapproval.org/assessment_175/seal/pdf/ (note: liberal use of white space). We aim to publish the actual seal on the home page of DataShare as part of the upcoming major release (2.0).

For more information about DSA see our web page, http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/data-library/data-repository/trustworthiness

Note: a paper will be published in the forthcoming IASSIST Quarterly showcasing institutional implementations of DSA. This follows on from a successful panel session at the IASSIST Conference at Univ. Minneapolis in June (see: http://iassist2015.pop.umn.edu/program/block6#a4)

DSA are also currently in discussion with ICSU World Data System to produce a harmonised discipline-agnostic self-assessment TDR certification scheme. This should be in place some time in 2016.

Stuart Macdonald
Associate Data Librarian

Jisc Data Vault update

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Posted on behalf of Claire Knowles

Research data are being generated at an ever-increasing rate. This brings challenges in how to store, analyse, and care for the data. Part of this problem is the long term stewardship of researchers’ private data and associated files that need a safe and secure home for the medium to long term.

PrintThe Data Vault project, funded by the Jisc #DataSpring programme seeks to define and develop a Data Vault software platform that will allow data creators to describe and store their data safely in one of the growing number of options for archival storage. This may include cloud solutions, shared storage systems, or local infrastructure.

Future users of the Data Vault are invited to Edinburgh on 5th November, to help shape the development work through discussions on: use cases, example data, retention policies, and metadata with the project team.

Book your place at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/data-vault-community-event-edinburgh-tickets-18900011443

The aims of the second phase of the project are to deliver a first complete version of the platform by the end of November, including:

  • Authentication and authorisation
  • Integration with more storage options
  • Management / monitoring interface
  • Example interface to CRIS (PURE)
  • Development of retention and review policy
  • Scalability testing

Working towards these goals the project team have had monthly face-to-face meetings, with regular Skype calls in between. The development work is progressing steadily, as you can see via the Github repository: https://github.com/DataVault, where there have now been over 300 commits. Progress is also tracked on the open Project Plan where anyone can add comments.

So remember, remember the 5th November and book your ticket.

Claire Knowles, Library & University Collections, on behalf of the JISC Data Vault Project Team