Data in the research process: a funder's perspective – Mark Thorley, National Environment Research C

© NERC/M.Thorley, 2012


Mark Thorley,Natural Environment Research Council

[email protected]

Data in the Research ProcessA funder’s perspective


Research Councils UK

€4B


Overview

• Why do Research Councils value ‘data’?

• Data policies and their implementation.

• The future…...



What do we mean by ‘Data’?

• NERC defines environmental data as individual items or records (both digital and analogue)

usually obtained by measurement, observation or modelling of the natural world and the impact

of humans upon it. This includes data generated through complex systems, such as information

retrieval algorithms, data assimilation techniques and the application of models.

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy2011.asp


Why Value Data?

• Integral part of the research record.

Access to the underlying data helps to support the

robustness, integrity and transparency of the research

record.

• Reuse and repurposing – aka sharing.

Enabling others to do new things with the data –

and not just other researchers.


Open Data &transparency


Instruments to Achieve Aims

• Policy:

– If you take our money we expect you to do

‘stuff’ related to data.

• Funding:

– We will fund you to deliver ‘stuff’ related to data.

• Infrastructure:

– We will provide and/or support a datainfrastructure.


Data Policy

• Data generated through Research Council funded research should generally be

accessible for reuse and repurposing (aka data sharing) – though protections and constraints are in place.


http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/DataPolicy.aspx


Research Integrity

• Proposed RCUK Policy on Access to Research Outputs:

Research papers … must include … a statement

on how the underlying research materials - such

as data, samples or models - can be accessed.

http://www.openscholarship.org/jcms/c_7297/new-

stronger-uk-research-councils-

policy-on-open-access


http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/Publications/researchers/Pages/grc.aspx

Research

Conduct


Unacceptable conduct includes ….

Mismanagement or inadequate preservation of data and/or primary

materials, including failure to:

….

• make relevant primary data and research evidence accessible to others for reasonable periods after the

completion of the research: data should normally be preserved and accessible for ten years, but for projects of clinical or major social, environmental or heritage

importance, for 20 years or longer;• manage data according to the research funder’s data policy and all relevant

legislation;• wherever possible, deposit data permanently within a national collection.

Responsibility for proper management and preservation of data and Primary materials is shared between the researcher and the

research organisation.


EPSRC Policy Framework

on Research Data

This policy framework sets out EPSRC’s expectations concerning the

management and provision of access to EPSRC-funded research data.

EPSRC recognises that a range of institutional policies and practices can satisfy these expectations, and encourages research organisations to develop

specific approaches which, while aligned with EPSRC’s expectations,

are appropriate to their own structures and cultures.

The expectations arise from seven core principles which align with the

core RCUK principles on data sharing. Two of the principles are of particular

importance: firstly, that publicly funded research data should generally be made

as widely and freely available as possible in a timely and responsible

manner; and, secondly, that the research process should not be

damaged by the inappropriate release of such data.

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/standards/researchdata/Pages/default.aspx


NERC Data Policy

NERC has a policy on data in order to:

• Ensure the continuing availability of environmental data of long-term value for research, teaching, and for wider exploitation for the public

good, by individuals, government, business and other organisations.

• Support the integrity, transparency and openness of the research it supports.

• Help in the formal publication of data sets, as well as enabling the tracking of their usage to be tracked through citation and data licences.

• Meet relevant legislation and government guidance on the management and distribution of environmental information.


NERC - Key Principles

• The environmental data produced by the activities funded by NERC are considered a public good and they will be made openly available for others to use. NERC is committed to supporting long-term

environmental data management to enable continuing access to these data.

• NERC will supply the environmental data it holds for free, apart from

a few special cases as detailed in the policy.

• NERC requires that all environmental data of long-term value generated through NERC-funded activities must be submitted to

NERC for long-term management and dissemination.


Policy Differences

• Disciplinary:

– For example how ‘open’ data can be.

• Responsibility:

– The individual or the institution.

• Infrastructure:

– Centrally funded provision vs ‘grant’ funded.


Implementation - Funding

• Differentiate between within project and post project data management.

• Within project:

– Include appropriate resources within the grant application.

• Post project:

– Varies with research funder, depending on

infrastructure provided.


Implementation - Infrastructure

• EPSRC: Responsibility of the research organisation.– Research organisations will ensure adequate

resources are provided to support the curation of publicly-funded research data; these resources will be allocated from within their existing public funding

streams, whether received from Research Councils as direct or indirect support for specific projects or

from higher education Funding Councils as block grants.


http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/

Provision of long-termdata management

infrastructure via 7 NERCEnvironmental Data Centres.

NERC



Implementation – ‘Policy’

‘Policy as a Stick’approach.

Give me a policy

lever I can hitsomeone with!


NERC – PiP

• Outline & Full Data Management Plans.

• Data Management Plan:

– The ‘contract’ between the PI and the Data

Centre.

– Key data management activities – who / what / where / when.

– Identifies data sets of long-term value for

deposit with the data centre.

– Data Value Checklist.


And what of the future …..?

• CODATA – ‘Agenda for data’.

• Clarify role of repositories vs data centres.

• Data publication.

• Role of publishers / ‘Rich’ publications.



Data Publishing

• Helping to motivate researchers to ‘do’ data.

• What is data publishing?– Issue of a DOI to a data set held in a recognised

repository.

– Formal publication via a ‘Data Paper’.

• Publishing implies: Permanence, Fixity, Reusability, Quality and Accessibility.

• Publishing provides for citation, enabling recognition of effort.

• If published, must be out there for othersto use with minimum restriction.


RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy

• Publicly funded research data … should be made openly available with as few restrictions as possible in a timely and responsible manner that does not harm intellectual property.

• …Data with acknowledged long-term value should be preserved and remain accessible and usable for future research.

• … Published results should always include information on how to access the supporting data.

• RCUK recognises that there are legal, ethical and commercial constraints on release of research data. … the research process [must] not [be] damaged by inappropriate release of data.

• To ensure that research teams get appropriate recognition for the effort involved in collecting and analysing data, [researchers] may be entitled to a limited period of privileged use of the data they have collected to enable them to publish the results of their research.

• In order to recognise the intellectual contributions of researchers who generate, preserve and share key research datasets, all users of research data should acknowledge the sources of their data …

Technology

Data in the research process: a funder's perspective – Mark Thorley, National Environment Research C