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Data centres at heart of UK data sharing culture
Ahead of JISC’s conference on ‘Research Integrity: the importance of good data management’ next week, a new study by JISC and the Research Information Network has found that data centres have been instrumental in developing a culture of data sharing among researchers.
‘Data Centres: their use, value and impact’: conclusions and implications
1. Data centres are a success story for their users, and funders and policy-makers should continue to support and promote existing national data centres.
2. Data centres are important both for reference purposes, and for novel research. Both these uses should be maintained and encouraged.
3. Data centre staff manipulate, interpret and support use of data sets, and this is highly valued by researchers. The role of data centre staff should be supported, and perhaps investigated further to support advocacy for data centre services.
4. Data centres should continue to collect information about users and usage for planning and advocacy purposes.
5. Although deposit levels are promising, researchers need more encouragement to deposit data. National and international initiatives in this area should be monitored and factored into any consideration of how to improve deposit rates.
6. If data centres are to support the grand challenges of modern research, they need to do more to facilitate interdisciplinary working. Improving facilities for data discovery across data centres may help.
7. The national data centres are just one part of a broader landscape for data curation and storage. Further work needs to be done to investigate how they can work most effectively with local, national and international services.
As part of a wider body of work, this evidence will help to build a case for improving data sharing practice in the UK. Although deposit levels are promising, the study concluded that researchers need more encouragement and support to deposit data in these centres.
Making data available for reuse helps maximize the value of publicly funded research in the UK by providing researchers with essential references, avoiding duplication, and allowing repurposing of information for new enquiries.
The report concludes that research data centres perform an important role by making high quality and reliable research results available in a way which makes it quick, easy and cheap for researchers to access.
Simon Hodson, programme manager at JISC, said: "This is a significant report which underlines the important role that data centres play in support of modern research. The study demonstrates that data centres offer many benefits to researchers and their work, and provides some evidence of benefits to wider society and the economy. It is clear also that researchers believe that many of the benefits of research data centres emerge because they are large, centralised and offer a range of services beyond simply providing access to data. The conclusion is that funders and policy-makers should continue to support and promote existing national data centres as a necessary part of the 21st century research infrastructure."
The study found that usage of data centres is high: most support thousands of researchers and millions of downloads each year. Data from every centre supports a variety of research activities, ranging from original research analysis, through combination and integration with other data, to reference purposes.
Simon Hodson adds: "Research data centres provide an essential service and perform valuable outreach and training, which researchers appreciate. The JISC Managing Research Data Programme – which involves partnerships with a number of national data centres – is helping develop capacity in terms both of skills and technical systems for improved data management in UK universities as part of a coherent national data infrastructure."
The study aimed to demonstrate the importance, relevance and benefits of effective sharing and curation of research data for the UK research community. It looked at the long-term usage and impact of data curated by a cross-disciplinary selection of established data centres. These included the Archaeology Data Service, the British Atmospheric Data Centre and the Economic and Social Data Service, which is part funded by JISC.
JISC’s ‘Research Integrity Conference’ on 13 September will explore the issues that universities and other organizations face when they are maintaining their research integrity - especially as it relates to the management and sharing of research data.
Watch the event online Download a copy of the report