Jisc Research Data Discovery Service ProjectChristopher Brown

April 2016

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Initial Phase» Phase 1 (Oct 2013 – Mar 2014) – Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and the

UK Data Archive (UKDA) piloted an approach to a registry service aggregating metadata for research data held within UK universities and national, discipline specific data centres› Technical evaluation of Australian National Data Service (ANDS)› Engaged with stakeholders – HEIs and Data Centres› Metadata mapping and cross-walks to RIF-CS› Survey and workshop to understand user needs and approaches› Main recommendations to

– Further evaluate ANDS– Evaluate alternatives, such as CKAN– Metadata schema agreement– Continue engagement with stakeholders

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UKRDDS – from pilot to projectPhase 2 (Mar 2015 – Sept 2016) Building on the pilot work to lay the firm foundations for a UK Research Data Discovery service that enables the discovery of UK research data and meets Jisc’s customer requirements. Includes a test service, service operation plan and business case for its delivery into the future.

› Project page – http://jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/uk-research-data-discovery › Project blog – http://rdds.jiscinvolve.org/wp/ › #jiscRDDS

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Project Team – Who?» Catherine Grout – Project Director (Jisc)» Christopher Brown – Project Manager (Jisc)» Mark Winterbottom – Technical Developer (Jisc)» Dom Fripp – Metadata Developer (Jisc)» Ade Stevenson - Technical Innovations Coordinator (Jisc Manchester)» Veerle van den Eynden – Data Centre Engagement (UKDS)» Diana Sisu – HEI Engagement (DCC)

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Participating pilots – user engagement

HEIs» University of Hull» University of St Andrews» University of Glasgow» Oxford Brookes University» University of Edinburgh» University of Oxford» University of Southampton» University of Leeds» University of Lincoln

Data Centres» Archaeology Data Centre» Cambridge Crystallographic Data

Centre » ISIS/ICAT - STFC» UK Data Service» Visual Arts Data Centre» NERC

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Governance Structure – user input» User group

› Provide feedback on the project progress and deliverables, ask questions and share experience

» Technical and metadata advisory group› Looking at the service from a technical standpoint and advising on the

development of the metadata schema» User group – researchers

› As the overall aim of the project is production of a service to provide improved discoverability of research data for reuse in research, it is critical that we provide a mechanism for researchers to interact with and feedback on the development of the service

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Benefits – Why?» Increased visibility and transparency of research data helps:

› Promotion of HEI/Data Centre’s research› Re-use and sharing of data› Validation of research

» Discovery is an important layer in research data infrastructure» Reducing the barrier to participation in research by making the data

discoverable» Satisfying RCUK mandates and policies for open access to publicly-

funded research – providing a sector wide solution (will be part of Research Data Management Shared Service)

» Potential increase in cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional research» Supporting research across the research lifecycle (as part of Research @

Risk)

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Who’s it for? Gather user stories

http://rdds.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2015/05/08/initial-workshop/

» MoSCoW prioritisationProject / research manager»Reporting to funders»Find research outputs of my

institution

Researcher»Discover datasets»Discover related objects /

resources»Find data across disciplines by

location»Find exemplar data to inspire my

research»Targeted search for topical data»Visual search for data»Find linked open data»Understand metadata quality»Understand data quality»Show research impact

Machine»Harvestable registry»Show relationships between

resources

Data repository»Show repository impact»Metadata rights respected»Show licence and rights of data»Index to external services »Force refresh of registry content

System manager»No duplicate records»Harvest datasets »Update platform software

Funder»Return on investment

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Metadata – a core schema

Research data discovery service

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Project to Service» Engage with participants through workshops and online meetings» Gather user stories for a Discovery Service» Choice of CKAN software following evaluation (CKAN and ANDS)» Statement of Requirements - prioritised and refined through

advisory groups

» Alpha site - http://ckan.data.alpha.jisc.ac.uk/ » System testing and gathering feedback» Develop business case for service

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Current Issues» Quality and completeness of metadata exposed by different HEIs

and Data Centres» Diversity in mandatory and optional metadata fields» Open access, licences and copyright» Access to external data source may require a log in» Updates of harvested metadata to handle deletions/changes» Usability of the discovery service» Ensure functionality matches requirements

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Current Focus» Alpha -> Beta (http://ckan.data.alpha.jisc.ac.uk/)

› Agile, rapid development of functionality against requirements and system testing

» Metadata (http://bit.ly/1QZVMCo) › Finalising the core metadata schema with participants / advisory

groups / research community » Scope of datasets (http://bit.ly/1Yy4MSy)

› Ensuring there is agreement on what datasets are harvested

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Timeline 2015Milestones 2015

April-June July September-October

November December

- Project plan- Grant letters- Initial Workshop- Advisory Groups- User Stories

- Metadata format defined- Prototype RDDS development- Call for proposal (Inst’al Implem)

- Test harvesting- RDDS initial testing- RDDS prototyping

- Requirements gathered- Use stories -> Use Cases (refined/prioritised)

- High level evaluation- CKAN selected as platform- Reqs defined from use cases

- Metadata standard format of service defined- Service proto- Call for HEIs to pilot inst’al impl.

- Test metadata defined and harvested- Iterative development- Initial testing

- User Stories refined-Advisory Groups setup (Tech & Metadata, User, Researcher)

- Technical Evaluation Report- CKAN installation- Requirements defined

- Data Centre Reqs Report- HEI Reqs Report- Use Cases

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Timeline 2016Milestones 2016

January February-March April-May June-August September

- RDDS prototyping- RDDS testing- Metadata format / standards

- Metadata Tech Report- Metadata Records/Stores- Institutional Implementation Reports

- Business Case- Working service software implementation

- Data Centre / HEI Pilots Implementation Reports

- Service Operational Spec- Localised implementation and report

- Iterative development- Testing- Metadata format defined, supported formats agreed, export format.

- Metadata records harvested from pilots- Pilots have metadata stores for harvesting- HEI/Sector/Use cases reports (Inst. Imp)

- Options and costs for running a sustainable service- Implementation as a service ready for deployment

- Implementation reports from Data Centres and HEIs

- Spec on running as a service- Localised institutional implementation / deployment

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Find out more…

Christopher BrownSenior Co-design Manager, Jiscchristopher.brown@jisc.ac.uk @chriscb

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