- Home
- About
- What do I need to do now?
- University of Oxford Policy
- Funder requirements
- Frequently asked questions
- Glossary
- Working with data
- Preservation
- Sharing
- Tools, services, & training
- Blog
- Contact
(posted on behalf of Amanda Flynn, Bodleian Libaries)
The Bodleian has recently launched a new service for the University, the Oxford Research Archive for Data (ORA-Data). An integrated digital repository and catalogue for research data, ORA-Data offers a service to archive and enable the discovery, citation and sharing of data produced by researchers at Oxford. ORA-Data is aimed especially at researchers who wish:
• to deposit data that underpins publications
• to deposit data that their funding body requires be preserved and made accessible
• to add a record to the University’s catalogue of data about a dataset stored elsewhere
Any type of digital research data, from across all academic disciplines, may be deposited in ORA-Data, and we accept any file format. ORA-Data sits within the original Oxford Research Archive (ORA) for publications, so that data can be linked easily to – and browsed alongside – related publications. A permanent descriptive record is created for all data deposited in ORA-Data and a persistent unique identifier generated (a DOI, or Digital Object Identifier), which allows your dataset to be clearly attributed and cited. Data and records will be discoverable through Google and other search engines, maximising the visibility and impact of your research. You can also choose to set an embargo period for your files if you wish.
Research data management is an increasingly important concern for the University. The UK Research Councils view publicly funded research data as a public good, produced in the public interest, and now require such data to be made openly available at the close of projects with as few restrictions as possible. The EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), for example, has a set of expectations about research data management which come into effect today, 1 May 2015: https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/standards/researchdata/. We’re pleased to announce that depositing in ORA-Data will allow researchers and the University to comply with these expectations.
Until July 2015, ORA-Data is running as a free pilot, though there are plans for it to become a chargeable service in the future (with a draft charging model currently under negotiation). During the pilot period, we’re very keen to encourage researchers to try out ORA-Data, and very much welcome any feedback from users to help us improve the service. We’re pleased to say that we’ve already been able to act on some suggestions we’ve received; for example, we’re now able to offer instant DOIs for data so that you don’t have to wait for us to process your deposit before being able to cite the dataset in an article submitted for publication.
ORA-Data can be accessed via the main ORA website: http://ora.ox.ac.uk; just select ‘Contribute’ followed by the ‘Data’ link. A full guide to using ORA-Data, packed with help and support, is also available: http://ox.libguides.com/ora-data. To get in touch with the ORA-Data team please contact us at: ora@bodleian.ox.ac.uk – we would love to hear from you if you’d like to find out more about what we can offer or how we can help with your data.
Amanda Flynn, Bodleian Libraries
As the May 2015 deadline for new EPSRC guidelines on data preservation and sharing approaches, work has continued on providing advice and guidance. A batch of new questions and answers about what this policy means for day to day research has been added to the Research Data Oxford website. This has made extensive use of the feedback and comments recieved from a wide range of EPSRC funded researchers.
The new ‘Recently Asked Questions’ have been added here; http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/epsrc-data-requirements-and-what-you-need-to-do/
This should also be read in conjunction with funder specifc guidelines here; http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/funder-requirements/
The Online Research Database Service (ORDS) allows Oxford researchers and their collaborators to create, edit, search, and share databases online.
A new demo video for the ORDS is now available, giving an overview of what the ORDS does and how it can help make researchers’ lives easier. To watch the video on YouTube, click the image below.
For more information – or to try the ORDS out for yourself – visit the ORDS website, or see this blog post on Ten reasons to use the ORDS.
New information has been added to our guidelines for EPSRC funded researchers. This is in anticipation of new funder expectations being introduced 1st May 2015. A series of ‘Recently Asked Questions’ have been added here; http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/epsrc-data-requirements-and-what-you-need-to-do/
This is in addition to funder specifc guidelines here; http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/funder-requirements/
It’s not always easy for everyone who would like to attend a talk to be physically present, especially in a geographically dispersed university such as Oxford. To help speakers at the ‘Things to do with Data’ series of Wednesday lunchtime talks reach a wider audience, we have therefore decided to stream their presentations (slides and audio) live to members of the University.
You will now find links from the Things to do with Data webpage to a URL where you can view the talks live as they take place. You won’t be able to ask the speaker questions via this medium, but it’s the next best thing to being in the room.
Furthermore, we will continue to make the presentations accessible online after the talks. You can already watch the recording of this term’s first talk – Martin Wynne speaking about the CLARIN Project – via the website.
Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the final workshop of the RECODE project in sunny Athens. The RECODE Project (Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe) is an EU-funded project that has been working towards a number of policy recommendations for various parties with a role in enabling the re-use of research data. Although their detailed report is unlikely to be published until February 2015, they have published a summary booklet which succinctly covers the main recommendations. The recommendations are high-level and largely uncontroversial, although not necessarily straightforward to implement – most will occupy the sector for years to come and involve elements of culture change. Whilst hardly a revelation, the need to provide incentives for researchers to share their data openly was referred to frequently during the workshop.
I had been invited to the workshop to describe the work going on at Oxford as an example of good practice at the institutional level, although anyone following my presentation would quickly have realized that much of our ‘good practice’ remains at the theoretical rather than the practical level, despite recent progress. I was struck by how many of the invited speakers were from the UK, which perhaps emphasizes the advances the UK HE sector has made over the last five years or so – particularly in response to the demands of the research funders and facilitated by the Digital Curation Centre and JISC MRD Programme.
Of the six recommendations for research institutions, Oxford is in the process of implementing four. We already have a policy, although it does not specifically refer to ‘Open Access’ to data – our researchers are still adapting to Open Access to publications and could do without the further confusion at this point in time. Nor are we (yet) attempting to ‘include open access to high quality research data as a formal criterion for career progression’. This is clearly a potentially fraught area, and it would seem sensible to get helpful data-sharing infrastructure in place first that researchers wish to use willingly, before considering any far-reaching changes to academic career structures.
The presentations from the workshop should be available shortly from http://recodeproject.eu/events/recode-workshops/.
A happy new year to you all from Oxford’s Research Data Management support team!
To celebrate the start of 2015, we’ve finally made the recordings of last term’s ‘Things to do with Data’ talks available online. You can find them at http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/acit-rs-team/advice/rdmcourses/datatalks2014michaelmas/. Talks include…
Unfortunately we failed to capture the audio track for the last presentation, but the slides are very informative in their own right.
Information about this term’s Things to do with Data talks is online at https://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/acit-rs-team/advice/rdmcourses/datatalks/.
It’s been a busy few months for the team behind the Online Research Database Service (ORDS).
The ORDS is a free, centrally supported service which allows researchers to create, edit, search and share relational databases. Since the official launch in August, we’ve been beavering away to support and enhance the service.
This week, the release of version 1.0.6 of the software brought a number of improvements: first and foremost, there has been a major overhaul of the way the database schema designer works, resolving difficulties with saving changes that some users have experienced recently. Eagle eyed users will spot that the advanced query page is also looking rather different, with the aim of making it easier to use. Details of all the additions and bug fixes can be found on the ORDS blog.
There has also been a flurry of activity on non-technical fronts – for example, the first ORDS training course happened earlier this term. This will be repeated at regular intervals: further details can be found in the IT Learning Programme’s course listing. To ensure a finger is kept on the pulse of the user community, an ORDS User Group is also in the process of being established.
The ORDS is open to all research staff and postgraduate research students at the University of Oxford, plus their collaborators. For more details, or to register to use the service, visit the ORDS website.
If you are planning on putting together a bid for research funding over the coming months, you may wish to consider attending the Data Curation Centre’s half-day Data Management Planning workshop on the 29th January. Full announcement below…
DCC workshop: Introduction to Data Management Planning and DMPonline – 29 January 2015, Central London
Funding bodies increasingly require evidence of appropriate provisions for data management and curation in new grant funding applications. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is delighted to announce we will host a half-day workshop to provide an introduction to data management planning and DMPonline, the DCC’s web-based tool to help researchers write DMPs. We’ve recently released a new version of DMPonline which offers a lot of flexibility in terms of how institutions can customise it. You can create your own template(s), provide example/suggested answers and add tailored guidance to help researchers respond to requirements. We will demonstrate DMPonline, profile the options available for customising the tool and undertake a practical exercise on data management planning.
By the end of this workshop participants will:
This is a half-day workshop running from 1pm – 4pm.
Cost: £65, including lunch
Location: The Wesley, 81-103 Euston Street, London, NW1 2EZ
To register, please go to http://www.epay.ed.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=80&catid=96&prodid=1758
Places are limited so be sure to book early. More information can be found on our website.
Kind regards,
Joy Davidson,
Associate Director,
Digital Curation Centre (DCC)
