Infographic: Understanding Metadata

If you've ever struggled with the concept of metadata this quick reference guide is your new go to! This graphic provides a simple and high-level overview of how you can use metadata to improve your research data.

http://www.ersa.edu.au/enewsjune2014/understanding-metadata
Download a copy of the Understanding Metadata infographic (JPG 355KB)

http://online.wsj.com/articles/ad-tech-entrepreneurs-build-cancer-database-1403134613

Google invests $130M in cancer data sharing startup.

1. Data Sharing Platform Allows Cancer Centers to Share Data
Most cancer centers base treatments on clinical trial research, but this research draws from data on only about four percent of patients, since most patients do not participate in clinical trials. Flatiron Health set out to get centers better access to data on the remaining 96 percent of patients. The New York-based company developed a cloud-based storage and analytics platform that enables centers to contribute their data to a central database in exchange for access to the other centers’ data. The database now contains about 550,000 cases, and organizers hope it will provide the sample sizes necessary for new research.

'Open for Business' providing a business case for Open Data

Recent report 'Open for Business' providing a business case for Open Data, commissioned by the Omidyar Network for the G20.

It is the first study to quantify and illustrate the potential of Open Data to help achieve the G20’s economic growth target

Written by Martin Tisné, Omidyar Network’s director, policy (UK) and Nicholas Gruen, economist and CEO of Lateral Economics.

http://www.omidyar.com/sites/default/files/file_archive/insights/ON%20Report_061114_FNL.pdf

The Niso has initiated a standardization process indicators such altmetrics on scientific production

The Niso has initiated a standardization process indicators such altmetrics on scientific productions. It offers a white paper (17 pages) open for comments until 18 July 2014

http://www.niso.org/apps/group_public/download.php/13295/niso_altmetrics_white_paper_draft_v4.pdf

Summary 

In the first phase of the NISO Alternative Assessment Metrics Project (July 2013 through 

June 2014), three in-person meetings were held and 30 in-person interviews conducted. 

The goal was to collect input from all relevant stakeholder groups, summarize the 

discussion in this white paper, and identify potential action items for further work in 

Phase II of the project. 

Because of the open format used in the meetings and interviews, we were able to collect a 

broad range of input that touched on many aspects of metrics and assessment, which also 

includes input not directly related to standards or best practices. Overall there were very 

lively discussions with much consensus as to the areas that need further work and very 

little controversial discussion. These observations are a good indication that an evolving 

community cares about this topic and that we can expect productive work going forward. 

Overall, a total of 25 action items in 9 categories were identified, listed below and again 

within each category.

Reduced Tuition for Online Digital Curation Program

 Out-of-state and international students can now enjoy a dramatically discounted tuition for courses in the University of Maine’s Digital Curation Certificate program, provided they begin coursework by fall 2014.

Courses offered in the Fall include  DIG 500 (Introduction to Digital Curation), which covers how digital artifacts are made, acquired into collections, and tracked, including legal and technical considerations and DIG 540 (Digital Collections and Exhibitions), which covers how to gather material in a database and put it on the Web.

Although the certificate is designed to be completed in two years, part-time students may cherry-pick individual courses or spread the 18 credits (6 courses) over a longer period. To make things easier for students currently working in collecting institutions, we have designed the final course as an internship that may take place in the student's own workplace.

You can find up-to-date information about the program, including a link to register for courses, at: http://digitalcuration.umaine.edu

A Platform for the World’s Crisis Data

http://www.datainnovation.org/2014/06/a-platform-for-the-worlds-crisis-data/


Last week, nonprofit mapping software company Ushahidi launched CrisisNET, a data platform for information related to humanitarian crises around the globe. The site, now in public beta, is an initiative to continuously collect, organize, and clean crisis information from various sources in order to make the data easily accessible through an application programming interface (API). The site draws data from sources including Ushahidi’s own data collection infrastructure in various countries as well as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the United Nations humanitarian information portal ReliefWeb.
read more: http://www.datainnovation.org/2014/06/a-platform-for-the-worlds-crisis-data/

Global-level data sets may be more highly cited than most journal articles.

Global-level data sets may be more highly cited than most journal articles. Posted: 15 May 2014 03:00 AM PDT Scientists can be reluctant to share data because of the need to publish journal articles and receive recognition. But what if the data sets were actually a better way of getting credit for your work? Chris Belter measured the impact of a few openly accessible data sets and compared to journal articles in his field. His results provide hard evidence that the […]

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/05/15/global-level-data-sets-highly-cited

Real laboratory data used in assignments.

Mourning Jean-Claude Bradley, PhD, Department of Chemistry

Jean-Claude was most well known for his “Open Notebook Science”(ONS), a term he coined to describe his novel approach to making all primary research (including both successful and failed experiments) open to the public in real time. ONS, he believed—and demonstrated—could significantly impact the future of science by reducing financial and computational restraints and by granting public access to the raw data that shapes scientific conclusions.
“…In the past, trusting people might have been a necessary evil [of research],” Bradley said. “Today, it is a choice. Optimally, trust should have no place in science.”
In June of 2013, Jean-Claude was invited to the White House for an “Open Science Poster Session,” at which he discussed ONS’ role in allowing he and his collaborators to confidently determine the melting points of over 27,000 substances, including many that were never before agreed upon. Currently, his research lab had been working to create anti-malarial compounds to aid in the synthesis of drugs to fight malaria. His lab’s work on this project was made available to the public on a wiki called UsefulChem, which Jean-Claude started in 2005.

Jean-Claude’s philosophy of free, accessible science translated to an open approach in the classroom as well. Content from his undergraduate chemistry courses was made freely available to the public, and real data from the laboratory was used in assignments to practice concepts learned in the classroom.