This is a new blog for an internal investigative project, based at EDINA and Data Library, a division of Information Services at the University of Edinburgh (April-August 2011). We plan to be working with other colleagues in the Library, EDINA Linked Data Focus project, and elsewhere in the University as we tackle a number of research questions. In a sense, this project takes over where LAIRD (Linking Articles into Research Data) left off last year. We will also be looking to the Digital Curation Centre, JISC Managing Research Data projects, and the Open Knowledge Foundation all of whom are doing work in related areas of activity, as well as international initiatives.

Aims and Objectives:

1. To support the proposed University Research Data Management Policy, in particular principle 6, “Any data which is retained elsewhere, for example in an international data service or domain repository should be registered with the University.” This policy in itself aims to support the 2009 UK Research Integrity Office’s Code of Practice for Research which has been adopted by the University.
2. To pursue transparency and openness in making information available about publicly funded research, in line with government policies and statements of intent such as the 2011 RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy.
3. To build a demonstrator ‘data asset registry’ (DAR) that is technically robust and scalable, based on open linked data protocols, using records exported from Edinburgh DataShare in the first instance.
4. To explore the linkages and resources that would be required to sustain a service-level data asset registry within the University through liaison with various university stakeholders and support units, for example, with ERI and the new research publications system to be built on a Current Research Information System software platform.
5. To discover ways to reduce the burden of recording/reporting by researchers through identifying workflows that could harvest existing sources of information.
6. To research the state of the art in the field and the implications of important national and international developments, such as the DataCite initiative and the ORCID names registry.

RADAR and Related Initiatives

Below is a Mindmap of SOME of the related initiatives we want to learn from.

More soon

We will try to use this blog to record questions and progress, so check back again. We would love to have your comments as well.