Connecting with the community....

Why would people want to share data?

http://sciencemeetsbusiness.com.au/connecting-with-the-community/

See also Remote Australia Atlases

How better training can help fix the research reproducibility crisis

Inside Higher Ed - Giving researchers the data skills they need to share, review, and validate each other’s work 
by Erin Becker 
24-07-17

In a recent survey of 704 principal investigators for National Science Foundation biology grants, the majority said their most important unmet data needs were not software or infrastructure, but training in data integration and data management.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/rethinking-research/how-better-training-can-help-fix-research-reproducibility-crisis

Wellcome Trust's new policy on data, software and materials management and sharing

Moving from DMPs to outputs management plans

How the new policy is different

"This new policy supersedes our previous policy on data management and sharing, and recognises the need for a more holistic view of outputs management.  

We recognise that in addition to data outputs, many of our funded researchers generate original software and research materials, such as antibodies, cell lines or reagents. These are of significant value to other researchers and are crucial to anyone seeking to validate or replicate the research.

The key change is that if you’re applying for funding you will now be asked to provide a broader outputs management plan that sets out how you will manage and share significant data, software or materials to ensure the greatest benefit to health and research." 

Policy -
https://wellcome.ac.uk/funding/managing-grant/policy-data-software-materials-management-and-sharing

Explainer -
https://wellcome.ac.uk/news/our-new-policy-sharing-research-data-what-it-means-you

Are reproducibility and open science starting to matter in tenure and promotion review?

https://cos.io/blog/are-reproducibility-and-open-science-starting-matter-tenure-and-promotion-review/

"Advocates for improving open science and reproducibility accurately worry that the movement will fail if standards for hiring, tenure, and promotion do not change.  If the likelihood of tenure and promotion is dependent exclusively on publication volume, prestige and success obtaining grants, incentives for openness will have--at best--an indirect effect on researcher’s behavior through journals and funders.  Successful nudging of the culture of incentives requires that institutions likewise reward scholars for conducting open, rigorous, reproducible research."

"Should Journals Be Responsible for Reproducibility?"

"One of the top journals in political science makes data-sharing and replication part of the publication process."

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/rethinking-research/should-journals-be-responsible-reproducibility

Data Governance Australia draft Code of Practice

Data Governance Australia is developing a code of practice as part of an on-going effort to set leading industry standards, promote a culture of best practice, and to drive innovation by increasing consumer confidence in the data practices of organisations. The DGA Code of Practice is a principles-based self-regulatory regime that sets leading industry standards and benchmarks for responsible and ethical data-practices through 9 core principles. The draft Code of Practice is now available for comment by all interested.

How long does it take and what does it cost to prepare clinical trial data ready for sharing?

A new paper published today in Trials looks at how to prepare anonymised patient level data from a clinical trial to make available to other external researchers. By working through the process to anonymise data from two publicly funded clinical trials, we have estimated the time it takes to do this and how much this would cost.

Link: http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-medicine/2017/07/17/how-long-does-it-take-and-what-does-it-cost-to-prepare-clinical-trial-data-ready-for-sharing/

Full paper DOI 10.1186/s13063-017-2067-4

"Government agencies must consider ethics of data use, and not just their own"

"A surprising example of how government data can be put to “appalling” use came up at yesterday’s Data+Privacy Conference, where ethical frameworks that go beyond basic legal compliance were a major topic of discussion."...

http://www.themandarin.com.au/81209-government-agencies-must-consider-ethics-of-data-use-and-not-just-their-own/

Trust is an issue for researchers

According to the findings of Research data infrastructures in the UK, academics often “do not trust other researchers’ data”, and the sector seems unsure as to who has overall responsibility for ensuring basic data quality. The report goes on to say that for both “creators and users of research data”, it is “frequently unclear…what has been or will be done, and by whom” to ensure data quality.

from 
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academics-often-dont-trust-other-researchers-data 

Open Geospatial Consortium announces Geoscience Australia as its newest Principal Member

http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases/2611

Wednesday, 5 July 2017 UTC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) is pleased to announce that Geoscience Australia has raised its membership level from Technical to Principal Level. Geoscience Australia has been an active member of OGC since 1999.

“Geoscience Australia has been a long-time and active member of the OGC, supporting our Technical committee and over 25 of its working groups since 1999,” said Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of the OGC. “I am pleased to announce that GA has elevated its membership to the Principal Level to further extend its support to begin influencing OGC’s market direction, and to ensure that the Consortium’s policies and procedures remain agile and relevant to an ever-changing location technology marketplace."

Geoscience Australia has been a major contributor to developing and promoting international OGC standards for essential datasets, including the Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS) standard and the Geoscience Markup Language (GeoSciML) standard. Geoscience Australia is currently participating in OGC’s Hierarchical Data Format 5 (HDF5) data model standardisation working group and its application in domains such as point clouds and global grids.

http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases/2611