Data Repositories: The Answer that Actually Came with a Question

Abstract

Data repositories: the answer that actually came with a question. Funders, journal publishers, and disciplinary societies recognize the benefits of long-term access to valuable data that could validate results, increase scholarly democracy, or possibly lead to future discoveries. With this in mind, a majority of research now being done in academia is subject to data sharing requirements that the underlying data be publicly accessible, citable, and persevered. As many subject-based data repositories help make this happen, particularly for computing-intensive disciplines with shared infrastructure, such as high-energy physics or real-time climate monitoring, who will manage the "long-tail" of smaller or multi-disciplinary research data? Our institutional repositories (IR) could be the answer. With a few key policy decisions, and robust review and curation procedures, libraries are well-positioned to help researchers comply with mandates to share and archive their data. Whether you use Hydra, DSpace, Fedora, E-prints, or Digital Commons, this talk will outline important issues to consider as you build new capacity with existing IR infrastructure or a custom data repository, including staffing, curation procedures, and metadata and documentation requirements. Finally it will explore the results and faculty response to launching the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota in 2015, which is based on the Libraries’ existing IR service. Our data submission process, curation procedures, faculty usage, and lessons learned will be placed in context of our broader data management and curation program. Lisa Johnston is Research Data Management/Curation Lead and Co-Director of the University Digital Conservancy, University of Minnesota.