Digital Curation Week 13 Curation What is research

Digital Curation Week 13 박성재

Curation? ? ?

What is research data? � An extremely broad category of material: � “. . . any information that can be stored in digital form, including text, numbers, images, video or movies, audio, software, algorithms, equations, animations, models, simulations, etc. ” (National Science Board, Long-lived digital data collections, 2005) � In practice, it can mean almost anything

Why curate research data? � Part of the normal research process: � The need for others to validate and replicate research � In some disciplines, supporting data is routinely made available to reviewers and linked from journal papers � Principles of sharing and openness are firmly embedded in some disciplines

Why curate research data? � Extrinsic � High and intrinsic value; investment in research � Data can be very expensive to capture and analyse � Data is impossible to recreate once lost � Observational data (by definition) is irreplaceable � Current generations of instruments can gather more data than can be analysed

Why curate research data? � The potential for creating 'new' knowledge from existing data: � Re-use, re-analysis, data mining � Annotation, e. g. in molecular biology astronomy � Combining datasets in innovative ways, e. g. mapping biodiversity data onto ecological GIS � “Science 2. 0”

Why curate research data? � It is increasingly a requirement of some research funding bodies � Some have quite mature data retention policies (not necessarily for permanent retention) � Increasing expectation of access to data from publicly-funded research � OECD Principles and guidelines for access to research data from public funding (2007)

Why curate research data? � Institutional � Universities asset management: and other research organisations invest very large sums of money into research activities � Research data is a key output of this activity � It is, therefore, an institutional asset that needs stewardship

Why curate research data? � Promoting the institution, research group or individual: � Re-use helps promote visibility and 'impact' � Institutions become acknowledged 'centres of competence'

What does Digital Curation mean? � "The activity of managing and promoting the use of data from its point of creation, to ensure it is fit for contemporary purpose, and available for discovery and reuse" - Philip Lord, et al. (2004) � "Maintaining and adding value to a trusted body of information for current and future use" -- DCC presentation at CNI (2005)

Curation, not just preservation � Active management of data over life-cycle of scholarly and scientific interest � Reproducibility � Appreciation and reuse of differences between disciplines � Explored in separate DCC SCARP project � Big-science / small-science distinctions are becoming blurred � Importance of lifecycles � Conception, creation, use, re-use � Curation potentially involves a lifetime of endeavour

DCC Curation Lifecycle Model

읽을거리 � 김지현. (2012). 연구데이터 재사용과 공유에 관한 연구. 한국비블리아학회 발표논집, 27. 67 -76. � Philip Lord and Alison Macdonald, Data curation for e-Science in the UK: an audit to establish requirements for future curation and provision (2003) http: //www. jisc. ac. uk/ � National Science Board, Long-lived digital data collections: enabling research and education in the 21 st century (2005) http: //www. nsf. gov/pubs/2005/nsb 0540/ � DCC Digital Curation Manual (2005 - ) http: //www. dcc. ac. uk/resource/curation -manual/chapters/