Best Practices for Biomedical Research Data Management Harvard Medical School, The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Module 8 Wiki Guide Learning Objectives and Outcomes: 1. Emphasize characteristics of long-term data curation and preservation that build on and extend active data management ● It is the purview of permanent archiving and preservation to take over stewardship and ensure that the data do not become technologically obsolete and no longer permanently accessible. ○ The selection of a repository to ensure that certain technical processes are performed routinely and reliably to maintain data integrity ○ Determining the costs and steps necessary to address preservation issues such as technological obsolescence inhibiting data access ○ Consistent, citable access to data and associated contextual records ○ Ensuring that protected data stays protected through repository-governed access control ● Data Management ○ Refers to the handling, manipulation, and retention of data generated within the context of the scientific process ○ Use of this term has become more common as funding agencies require researchers to develop and implement structured plans as part of grant-funded project activities ● Digital Stewardship ○ Contributions to the longevity and usefulness of digital content by its caretakers that may occur within, but often outside of, a formal digital preservation program ○ Encompasses all activities related to the care and management of digital objects over time, and addresses all phases of the digital object lifecycle 2. Distinguish between preservation and curation ● Digital Curation ○ The combination of data curation and digital preservation ○ There tends to be a relatively strong orientation toward authenticity, trustworthiness, and long-term preservation ○ Maintaining and adding value to a trusted body of digital information for future and current use. ○ Active management and appraisal over entire life cycle ○ Builds upon underlying concepts of digital preservation Best Practices for Biomedical Research Data Management Harvard Medical School, The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine ○ emphasizes opportunities for adding value through annotation and continuing resource management ○ Preservation is a curation activity - both are concerned with managing digital resources with no significant (or only controlled) changes over time ● Data Curation ○ ‘Technology, Organization, Resources’ are the three “legs” of data curation. ○ The value added activities and features that stewards of digital content engage in to - make digital content meaningful or useful ○ Tends to be used in settings where coordinated efforts are made to care for data that have been generated from scholarly activities ○ Active and on-going management of data through its life cycle of interest and usefulness to scholarship, science, and education ○ Enables discovery, ensures quality, adds value, and provide for re-use over time [UIUC] ○ Predates the digital community ○ Value-added steps by curators to enhance utility ○ Intersection of research and curation ● Digital Preservation ○ Makes long-term access possible. ○ All of the activities an organization or individual engages in to ensure the long-term readability and usefulness of specified digital content ○ Combines policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change 3. Explore the data curation role and its importance throughout the research data life cycle ● Digital Content Lifecycle: ○ Identify: what digital content do we have? ○ Select: what portion will be preserved? ○ Store: are there issues for long term storage? ○ Protect: what steps are needed to protect digital content? ○ Manage: are there provisions for long-term management? ○ Provide: are there considerations for long-term access? Best Practices for Biomedical Research Data Management Harvard Medical School, The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine ● Lifecycle Management: ○ Connect the dots now and into the future ○ Link actions across units, workflows, content ○ Document ‘as is’ and define ‘to be’ workflows ○ Handshakes between stages, over time ○ Document conformance with good practice (standards and community norms) ○ Align practice for all content types ○ Develop and maintain skills ● Most data, and associated records, fall between short-term and long-term, and this is where the more difficult decisions will occur. Decisions are often driven by practical and pragmatic reasons, e.g. if at the end of your PhD you have to keep the data and records yourself you might choose to destroy a lot of material at the end of your PhD. ○ Data collection instrument: you might not need the instrument for the PhD study onceit has been completed. However, you might want to keep it to help in the design of instruments for future projects. ● Preprint submissions are not peer reviewed. The arXiv repository has inspired many other discipline specific archives, including bioRxiv, the preprint repository for the biological sciences hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and ChemRxiv for chemistry, powered by figshare. 4. Review good practices for data curation and preservation ● A submission package has to be transformed into an appropriate format for long term preservation and access. ● Five stages of organizational response to digital preservation: ○ Acknowledge: Understanding that digital preservation is a local concern ○ Act: Initiating digital preservation projects ○ Consolidate: Segueing from projects to programs ○ Institutionalize: Incorporating the larger environment ○ Externalize: Embracing inter-institutional collaboration and dependency ● TDR: Trusted Digital Repositories ● OAIS: Open Archival Information System Reference Model, ISO 14721 Best Practices for Biomedical Research Data Management Harvard Medical School, The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine ○ OAIS Reference Model is an ISO standard that formally expresses the roles, functions, and content of an archive ● PAIMAS: Producer Archive Interface Method Abstract Standard (PAIMAS), ISO 20652 ● PAIS (specification), ISO 20104 ● NISO Building Good Digital Collections ● PREMIS: Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies ● BRTF: Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Preservation and Access ● TRAC: Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification, 2007 and ISO 16363 Open Access Readings: ​ The Open Data Imperative: How the Cultural Heritage Community Can Address the Federal ​ Mandate, by Suzie Allard, Christopher Lee, Nancy Y. McGovern, and Alice Bishop. CLIR REport 171, July ​ 2016. https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub171/ ​ Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). 2009. “Principles and Good ​ Practice for Preserving Data.” International Household Survey Network, IHSN Working Paper No 003, ​ ​ December 2009. http://www.ihsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/IHSN-WP003.pdf ​ ​ University of Edinburgh for the Digital Curation Centre. International Journal of Digital Curation. ​ ​ ​ ISSN: 1746-8256 http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/index ​ Online Resources and Links: ​ Digital Preservation Management. Workshops and Tutorial http://dpworkshop.org ​ ​ ​ DigCurV. A Curriculum Framework for Digital Curation http://www.digcurv.gla.ac.uk ​ ​ ​ Digital Preservation. Digital Preservation Outreach & Education ​ http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/education Digital Preservation Coalition. Digital Preservation Handbook. 2nd Edition, 2015. ​ ​ http://dpconline.org/handbook .