The New EUI Data Repository: a solution for archiving and sharing research data
The new EUI ResData repository was launched at the Library’s open access roundtable in October 2017 and already hosts twelve substantial EUI research datasets. ResData provides EUI scholars with a sustainable solution for archiving research datasets, and supports the European Union’s mandate that – where possible – research data outputs be openly shared. Open data – a key pillar of open science – refers to the trend among scholars, government agencies and international organisations to share datasets, codebooks and software via the internet.
ResData is the EUI’s second institutional repository – complementing Cadmus, the EUI research repository for publications – and is the third pillar of the EUI Library’s research data strategy: (i) Data Portal (ii) Data Services and (iii) ResData repository.
The Library provides specialist assistance with the preparation of datasets for reposit. The first step is to complete the online data submission form describing the dataset. Library staff will use this information to generate metadata for EUI ResData. Metadata are data about data – presented in a systematic scheme to make data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable – conforming to the 2014 FAIR data principles.
Datasets from all EUI departments and research centres are accepted for reposit in the new ResData repository. There are two broad categories: (i) data outputs from large collaborative projects (eg. H-2020) and (ii) data outputs from individual research projects (eg. thesis-supporting data). Datasets in the new repository are diverse, ranging from electoral system indicators; data on voting and candidacy rights; time-series data on aggregate consumption expenditures and equity returns; and a wide variety of European democracy indicators.
EUI members are encouraged to keep a detailed and updated record of data capture, data use and data elaboration throughout the research project cycle. The Library can assist with data management plans (DMPs). At the end of a research project, accurate metadata can be used as a ‘checklist’ to determine whether, when, how, where and under what terms, research data outputs can be openly shared. Data can also be reposited under embargo and, in some cases, it is possible to create a limited public version of a larger restricted dataset.
In order to render data re-useable, scholars are advised to provide codebooks and other ancillary files used in the generation of their datasets. Staff will add these to the ResData repository.
The 2018 edition of the EUI Library Research Data Guide was published on the 1st of March. There are ten sections: 1. Data discovery and the EUI Library Data Portal; 2. Data protection, database copyright and ethical use; 3. Data management plans (DMPs); 4. Managing data during the research project cycle; 5. The EUI ResData repository: preserving and sharing data; 6. Research Data in EU Horizon 2020; 7. Open Data; 8. Qualitative data in the humanities and social sciences; 9. Infrastructure, software and support and; 10. International research data guidelines.
Research data management (RDM) and open data are part of the general movement known as ‘open science.’ The 5th annual Berlin Open Science Conference – convened by the Leibniz Research Alliance and the German National Library of Economics (ZBW) – took place on the 13th and 14th of March 2018. There were 220 participants from 35 countries.
‘Open science’ refers to a culture of sharing and openness – made possible by digital innovation, open access to publications, open research data, open source software, open educational resources, and citizen science. While ‘open access’ refers to the publications’ part of the research lifecycle; ‘open science’ refers to the complete research lifecycle. (The terms ‘Science 2.0’, ‘eScience’ and ‘Open Digital Science’ are used interchangeably with ‘open science.’)
At the March Berlin conference, the European Commission announced the adoption of an Implementation Roadmap for the European Open Science Cloud. The EOSC will create “a fit-for-purpose, pan-European federation of research data infrastructures, with a view to moving from the current fragmentation, to a situation where data is easy to store, find, share and re-use.”
European Commission staff outlined the next steps in the EC open science strategy: 25th of April 2018: revised EC recommendations on access to, and preservation of, scientific information; 28th/29th of May: EU Competitiveness Council discussion of the European Open Science Cloud roadmap; 11th of June: an EOSC ‘coalition of doers’ summit, and; mid-November: launch of the EOSC governance structure and publication of a new FAIR Data Action Plan to make research data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable. A short video of the 2018 Berlin Open Science Conference is now live.
• For assistance preparing data for reposit in ResData, please write to [email protected]
• To submit a dataset to ResData, please complete this online submission form
• EUI ResData repository
• Library Research Data Services
• Library Research Data Guide 6.0
