The DMPTool will be unavailable for a short period on Tuesday April 23 starting at 4pm PT (7pm ET) while we conduct some maintenance activities. This outage should only last 10 minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Image Source: LACMA Digital Collection
Have you been wondering whether someone else is thinking about data management, especially as it relates to the DMPTool? The answer is YES. Dan Phipps from UCLA is compiling an overview of data management resources that might provide useful background information. The full list can be found at the DMPTool site, but we’ve put together sampling of resources below. Thirsty for more? Plan to attend a webinar on this topic as part of our DMPTool Webinar Series. Mark your calendar for Tuesday, June 4 at 10 am PT. Details and pre-registration information available here.
Libguides are institution-based reference guides designed to be authored by librarians. There are a number of data management libguides, but we chose to emphasize ones that have different subject specializations. The data management guides hosted by Cal Poly, UCLA, and Georgia Tech each emphasize different aspects of data management, and show how the DMPTool can best be integrated into that lifecycle.
Data Repositories often provide great overviews on the importance of data management. Many of them also provide guides for their upload requirements that make for effective best practices guides throughout the research and data curation process. Databib is a comprehensive catalog of online research data repositories, and is a great way to get an overview of available receptacles. Repositories are often divided by subject, but the guides at The Dataverse Network, ICPSR, and The UK Data Archive provide an excellent general overview.
Visual metaphor for the intended use of these educational materials. Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Over time we’re going to be separating this section into resources on data management in general and those specifically about how to get the most out of the DMPTool. These are being included not only for educational purposes, also to provide a template for librarians in a position to do education and outreach within their own institution. Some of these presentations, such as the DataONE Education Modules are provided under a very generous Creative Commons license, allowing them to be remixed and reused. The University of Edinburgh MANTRA Training course is a more thorough explanation of these resources, designed for researchers intending to use digital data.
More resources, with descriptions, are hosted at our Data Management Resources page, and will be subject of a forthcoming webinar. If you feel like there’s another resource type that would be useful to information professionals, feel free to email us at uc3@ucop.edu.
Overview
While the coding has not yet begun, we have made significant progress over the past month in continuing to get pieces in place to strengthen the overall project and community effort. We continue to make frequent announcements on the blog and social media presences to share the status on various project fronts, so please consult those sources for more detail on issues outlined below.
Technical Team
Much of the past month’s technical effort has been spent on review and revision of specifications and hiring of staff. A revised specification document is now complete, along with basic use cases, and each will proceed in the next week forward into development of initial wireframes. In the area of staffing, one of two application developers began on 4/1 at CDL, and interviews continue to fill a second position. In addition, we now have a UI designer on-board at Purdue who will be working on the wireframe and UI aspects during this process. We are presently determining the best process for community review and feedback on technical specifications.
Communications/Outreach Team
The Sloan outreach coordinator position has been posted at UIUC and candidate review will begin 5/2. Both Researcher and Administrative User Advisory Boards are now fully composed, posted on the public website, and initial phone meetings are scheduled for May. Initial meetings will consist of a high-level project introduction and review of technical specifications and plans. The governance structure is now being implemented, and most of the originating institutions have signed the agreement already. We are just beginning the process of enrolling institutions currently setup with authentication to shift them to “Partner” status. We hope to get most of them onboard within a month.
Metrics
Nothing new to report. We have not yet fully settled on metrics for use in evaluating 1) project success or 2) impact of the new DMPTool. We have an extensive list produced at the kick-off meeting, but are still sorting and determining best choices. We plan to gather feedback from the advisory boards on this topic.
Overall Project
While we expect most of the work to be completed within 2013, final activities may carry into early 2014 given the delays experienced in receiving and processing awards at the main institutions, and the posting and hiring of several key positions. We remain generally on track to finish within 12 months, considering the startup delay from receiving and processing awards at the main institutions. We are now beginning to move more smoothly.
-Andrew Sallans, University of Virginia Library, DMPTool2 Project Manager
In support of the current grant project efforts, we are pleased to announce the establishment of two advisory boards. One board will focus on the interests and needs of researchers using the DMPTool, and the other will focus on administrative users (ie. librarians, IT personnel, sponsored research officers, funders, etc.). Our hope is that these two groups will provide necessary concrete and direct advice on how the DMPTool project team can better direct efforts to meet the needs of our various constituencies. We plan to seek feedback on application functionality, DMPTool content, community engagement, and overall value for their constituents. Boards will meet virtually on roughly a quarterly basis, scheduled around key milestones where feedback is most needed.
The board is intended to represent the interest of all researchers, scholars, and scientists who use the DMPTool for preparation of data management plans and discovery/access of support resources.
Administrative User Advisory Board:
The board is intended to represent the perspective of the administrative and institutional support user group (ie. librarians, IT managers, sponsored research officers, etc.) using the DMPTool to enhance the quality of data management plans from institutional researchers, gain insights into practices and behaviors, and to promote education and best practices in data management planning.
Thank you to these individuals for their contributions.
The team is pleased to announce that we have a new half-time role available to join the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation DMPTool2 project as a Communications Coordinator and Requirements Builder. This is a great opportunity to network extensively with the data management community and focus knowledge around what is REALLY important in providing support for data management planning. This position will report to Sarah Shreeves at UIUC, and remote work candidates will be considered. We are looking to fill this position quickly, so apply now and don’t delay!
The US Department of Energy has revised its stance on research digital data management. As of October 1 in 2013, all proposals submitted to the DoE Office of Science for research funding will require a Data Management Plan. Based on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research, the new standards will focus on data preservation and re-use.
The preliminary data management plan requirements are listed in a presentation available online. They include a mandatory written plan detailing data preservation access. These data resulting from the proposed research funded by the DoE will need to be digitally accessible at time of publication as an information supplement.
The US Department of Energy Office of Science plans to have a full policy statement published by mid-summer.
Following two years of collaboration and development of the DMPTool, it now seems the appropriate time to address the lingering questions of “who’s in charge of this thing?” and “what does it mean to be a Partner?”. The DMPTool team is pleased to now introduce a formal collaboration agreement and set of operating principles to guide the continued efforts, enable broader community engagement, and facilitate collaboration with the data management community. This seemed like a smart and necessary move as the service has seen users from over 650 institutions and continues to gain interest and diversity in application. Additionally, this structure will dovetail nicely with the advisory organizations and community-building activities made possible through our current Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and IMLS grants.
Here are the highlights:
While the Collaboration Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding is NOT a contract, it does serve as a set of common operating principles for the growth and operation of this service and community effort. Until DMPTool2 is released, we will house the governance process information on the DMPTool BitBucket wiki pages here: https://bitbucket.org/dmptool/main/wiki/Governance
We hope that this new structure provides the community with a clear path for decision-making, opportunities for integration with other software and systems, and quite simply, a better-defined entity to affiliate with in order to build community.
The DMPTool team looks forward to your involvement!
-Andrew Sallans & Patricia Cruse, Co-Conveners of the DMPTool Steering Group
Overview
The project team held an initial kick-off meeting on February 20/21 in Berkeley, CA, to realign all team members and other participants around the current status of the DMPTool and new objectives supported through the grant. Following the kick-off meeting, the team has begun weekly conference call meetings and developed specific project deadlines and goals. A complete meeting report was prepared.
Technical Team
The initial focus has been on posting of application developer positions, interviewing and hiring, and review of proposed technical specifications. One developer is scheduled to start work on 4/1, and additional interviews are finishing up for the second position. Technical specifications are being reviewed and updated and plans are underway for moving forward with use cases and wireframes.
Communications/Outreach Team
This team has focused thus far on filling the 50% roles for the Sloan and IMLS grants and recruiting and preparing advisory boards. The IMLS outreach coordinator has been hired and the Sloan outreach coordinator position is still being processed by UIUC. Both the Researcher and Administrative advisory boards are nearly full and initial meetings are presently being planned. Additionally, Facebook and Twitter presences have been established and are gaining followers.
The process of implementing the proposed governance structure has begun, and originating institutions are now signing the official Collaboration Agreement document. We will then begin enrolling institutions that have setup institutional authentication, and then we will shift into public enrollment of new “Partners”.
Metrics
We have not yet fully settled on metrics for use in evaluating 1) project success or 2) impact of the new DMPTool. We have an extensive list produced at the kick-off meeting, but are still sorting and determining best choices. We plan to gather feedback from the advisory boards on this topic as well.
Overall Project
We remain generally on track to finish within 12 months, considering the startup delay from receiving and processing awards at the main institutions. Once our key hires of application developers and community engagement/outreach coordinator are settled, we should proceed more smoothly. We continue to get inquiries into new collaboration and integration opportunities, and remain aware of new developments with funders (ie. February OSTP mandate). Recent opportunities include integration with Columbia’s IEDADATA DMPTool, VIVO, and eagle-i.
-Andrew Sallans, University of Virginia Library, DMPTool2 Project Manager
As part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation sponsored DMPTool2 project, the University of Virginia Library will host a summer MLIS intern for 10 weeks (specific period is negotiable), 40 hrs/wk, at $15/hr. Intern may be able to earn credit hours, subject to approvals by their school and the supervisor (see example at Indiana SLIS: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/courses/internship/index.php). The intern will work day-to-day with the grant project manager, Andrew Sallans, and will be responsible for providing support in all active and relevant task areas during the internship period. The internship is intended to provide a mid-project effort boost and to offer a MLIS student real-world experience in working on a complex project to develop software and services for research data management support. Candidates will be expected to be on-site at the University of Virginia Library in Charlottesville, VA, for the duration of this internship. Must apply by March 24, 2013 to Andrew Sallans (als9q@virginia.edu) at the University of Virginia Library, providing a CV and cover letter indicating why this project is of interest and how this experience will be of value to future career prospects.
As part of the project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, we’re hiring two software engineers for a one-year development project to enhance the DMPTool, to be based at the California Digital Library office in Oakland CA. A full job description is available at the UC Office of the President Job Search Site.
The DMPTool is a widely used service that supports researchers in creating data management plans as required by various governmental and private funding agencies. The development project will augment the existing tool with a number of new functions and features. Reporting to the DMPTool project manager, the incumbent will be responsible for refining functional requirements, UI designs, and technical specifications; implementation of those specifications; testing and documenting the resulting codebase; and deployment of the operational system in a production environment. UC3 employs an agile development methodology relying on iterative code prototyping, assessment, and refinement.
The DMPTool is a Ruby on Rails web application with a MySQL backend database and is integrated with LDAP- and Shibbolith-based authentication. It is deployed in a SLES/SUSE Linux VM environment. Candidates will have demonstrated experience and expertise in these and related web technologies, as well as in general software development methodologies and best practices.
The UC Curation Center at the California Digital Library (CDL), an administrative unit of the UC Office of the President (UCOP). UC3, one of the world’s premier digital curation programs, is a creative partnership between the CDL, the ten UC campuses, and the international curation community, providing innovative services and solutions to ensure the long-term usability of the University’s digital content.
More information is available at the UCOP Job Search Site. The closing date for this position announcement is Feb 14, 2013.
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