Data Stories - bringing data to life

For those who haven’t seen this yet, the DCC has been collaborating with the RDA Engagement Interest group to create the Your Data Stories blog to share examples of good and 'not-so-good' practice in research and scholarly data management, and demonstrate the benefits of data sharing and reuse. 

There are some wonderful stories there already - check them out at

http://datastories.jiscinvolve.org/wp/?utm_source=Pipeline+Newsletter&utm_campaign=cb527f71b2-Pipeline_April_201504&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a11772394f-cb527f71b2-323365553

Research Data Explored: Citations versus Altmetrics

The study explores the citedness of research data, its distribution over time and how it is related to the availability of a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) in Thomson Reuters' DCI (Data Citation Index). We investigate if cited research data "impact" the (social) web, reflected by altmetrics scores, and if there is any relationship between the number of citations and the sum of altmetrics scores from various social media-platforms. Three tools are used to collect and compare altmetrics scores, i.e. PlumX, ImpactStory, and Altmetric.com. In terms of coverage, PlumX is the most helpful altmetrics tool. While research data remain mostly uncited (about 85%), there has been a growing trend in citing data sets published since 2007. Surprisingly, the percentage of the number of cited research data with a DOI in DCI has decreased in the last years. Only nine repositories account for research data with DOIs and two or more citations. The number of cited research data with altmetrics scores is even lower (4 to 9%) but shows a higher coverage of research data from the last decade. However, no correlation between the number of citations and the total number of altmetrics scores is observable. Certain data types (i.e. survey, aggregate data, and sequence data) are more often cited and receive higher altmetrics scores.

Download the full article at http://arxiv.org/abs/1501.03342  (submitted on 14 Jan 2015)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Releases Plan for Public Access to NOAA-Funded Research

In early April 2015, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the, “NOAA Plan for Increasing Public Access to Research Results” (PDF). The plan details the extensive, long-term investments that NOAA has made in the preservation of and access to digital data and how the plan will build upon the existing data and publication policies, infrastructure, and ongoing work of the NOAA Library. The plan notes that administrative and reporting requirements for researchers will be minimized.

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NOAA will continue and possibly enhance its ongoing data-management training and workforce development activities. NOAA will also look to external activities to supplement its efforts in this area.

Finally, NOAA is also working with other federal agencies in support of a “Research Data Commons,” a shared space for federally funded extramural research output.

Read more at: http://www.arl.org/news/community-updates/3576-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration-releases-plan-for-public-access-to-noaa-funded-research#.VSxSmKMiPcu

National Institute of Standards and Technology Releases Plan for Public Access to NIST-Funded Research

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released on April 3, 2015, a “Plan for Providing Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research” (PDF). The NIST plan calls for making peer-reviewed scholarly publications and associated data that result from NIST funding publicly accessible. The plan applies to both NIST employees and grantees.
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As of October 2015, there will be standard language regarding public access to data and publications in the terms and conditions for grants and contracts.
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NIST approaches access to digital data in three ways: through data management plans (DMPs), an Enterprise Data Inventory (EDI), and a Common Access Platform (CAP) that is the public access infrastructure.  Some of these efforts build on earlier work underway in response to the May 2013 Obama Administration memorandum on “Open Data Policy—Managing Information as an Asset.”

Data management plans in NIST grant proposals must contain (1) a summary of grant activities that lead to the generation of data, (2) data types that are generated by grant activities, (3) how data will be stored and preserved, and (4) how data will be reviewed and made publicly available. The DMP may also include an explanation of why data sharing and preservation are not included of the plan. “Reasonable costs” for data sharing and preservation may be included in the DMP as well. As of October 2014, DMPs are required for all NIST-funded research.

The Enterprise Data Inventory is a catalog of the data sets that result from NIST-funded research as well as metadata and information about how and where the data sets can be accessed. The Common Access Platform will be a production-level infrastructure that will include persistent identifiers and metadata for publicly available NIST data. The NIST plan notes that the CAP will be interoperable within NIST and possibly with other federal agencies.

Finally, the NIST plan includes a list of metrics that will be used to evaluate compliance with the NIST Public Access Policy. The plan also includes a series of timelines regarding development and implementation of the policy, infrastructure, processes, and outreach and education, all specified for both data and publications.

More at: http://www.arl.org/news/community-updates/3574-national-institute-of-standards-and-technology-releases-plan-for-public-access-to-nist-funded-research#.VSr99KMiPcu