Research
Big Data
The Big Data group met during a breakout session hosted by Wendy Kozlowski.After jumping right into conversations about what data to keep, for how long, best practices for preservation and replicability, and curation processes, the big data interest group has decided to continue to convene. We will meet quarterly (next meeting September), and will revisit options for format and possible outputs. The interest group will be open to DCN members and interested curation community members, and logistics will be organized by Erin Clary and Wendy Kozlowski.
Education
An education interest gathering was held in the AHM breakout sessions. Recent discussions from the DCN Group CURATED for Graduate Students was highlighted. The breakout participants also shared data-themed education resources (e.g., data management, curation, format expertise) or training they have offered, and discussed interests or needs for the same. One take away was a mutual need for practice datasets or code to enhance training experiences. Anyone interested in continuing these discussions by forming an interest group may contact Hannah Hadley. Logistics will be discussed and worked out with interested persons. An education interest group would be open to all members of DCN and others in the curation community who express interest.
Additionally, members of the Education Committee are using remaining IMLS grant funds to publish training content to Github Pages. The generous IMLS funding allowed us to provide three free Specialized Data Curation Workshops and facilitate the creation of twenty-four Data Curation Primers. We were not able to provide an additional workshop due to the pandemic. However, publishing essential training content will assist in building expertise broadly. The training content will be conveniently adjacent to the Data Curation Primers and promote their usage. We understand that online training cannot replace the hands-on experience normally offered in our workshops, therefore we plan to further develop our curriculum content and resume in-person training opportunities in the future.
End User Satisfaction
At the AHM, the End User Satisfaction Survey SIG, represented by Hoa Luong and Sarah Wright, shared the early results of the short survey that was sent to all researchers who have deposited data with the participating repositories between Jan 1, 2019 - March 15, 2021. With a 40% response rate (227 responses), the feedback was overwhelmingly positive: 95% of respondents agreed that data curation adds value to the data sharing process, 98.2% would recommend their colleagues submit data to our repositories, and numerous text responses were positively glowing endorsements of both our services and repository curators, who were often specifically named in the praise. Next steps for the SIG include publishing de-identified survey results, sharing the survey instrument and possibly creating a question bank for other repositories to use to assess user satisfaction, and writing a paper to further share our findings. Contact Sarah Wright with any questions.
Human Subjects
Jen Darragh hosted a breakout session at the AHM. In the session they discussed what they’d worked on to date as well as possible future directions around geospatial data and human subjects confidentiality concerns (and other ethical concerns).
Institutional Outreach & Communications
During the DCN AHM meeting DCN members met informally to chat about various aspects of how we communicate and advocate for data sharing with specific stakeholders, such as the IRB, as well as shared other experiences. The next Institutional Outreach and Communications Interest Group meeting is still TBD and the group will discuss next steps including potential collaborations with the End User Satisfaction group.
Racial Justice
On behalf of the Racial Justice Working Group Mara Blake (JHU) and Lisa Johnston (Minnesota) presented a summary of the report from consultant Fay Cobb Payton. The group does not yet have a meeting schedule, but when we do, we will share out the time so others can join us to discuss our next steps in implementing the short-term recommendations.
Refining the Curation Protocol
At the All Hands Meeting Susan Braxton reported on the group’s work and their goals in refining the curation protocol. Therefinement of the model and checklist highlights the overlapping and interdependent nature of the CURATED steps, identifies format-agnostic essential tasks, and articulates ethics considerations for each part of the curation process.
Value of Curation
Renata Curty, Wendy Kozlowski, and Sophia Lafferty-Hess presented preliminary results from a survey project undertaken by the Value of Curation Interest Group to examine the level of curation performed by US-based repositories and the perceived value of curation activities. The group is currently working on drafting a publication to share the results of this study with the broader community.
