Apply the RDA recommendations to Portuguese research groups
RDA-pt, the Portuguese node of the RDA, started in February 2019 supported by RDA-4, the European plugin to RDA. The vision of RDA-pt is that researchers, institutions and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) define data management practices, choose technologies and use the infrastructure network to access, preserve and share data. The mission of RDA-pt is to build a community of interest in open data, disseminating it, proposing technical solutions and following cases in several disciplines.
RDA-pt, together with the other European nodes in the context of RDA-4 are concerned with the adoption of RDA recommendations and the dissemination of adoption stories. Contribution to this line, my M.Sc. dissertation entitled «Apply the RDA recommendations to Portuguese research groups» will be delivered in June 2020, with preliminary results expected by mid-April.. The work focuses on analyzing the recommendations provided by the RDA working groups and interest groups, identifying research units to apply these recommendations, in order to encourage the sharing of research data, and best practices in research data management by researchers from all domains. Research units that adopt the RDA recommendations are faced with the opportunity to make their research results more visible, concern themselves with the integrity of research and, above all, ensure that their data are accessible and shareable.
The main objective of this dissertation is to contribute to open science, encouraging researchers to make their data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to carry out a detailed analysis of all the work done by the RDA, namely, its recommendations and outputs, and the success stories of the RDA. Afterwards, it was necessary to identify cases of application of the RDA recommendations, identifying research units from different areas. Finally, it is intended to apply the recommendations to the research units.
To carry out this work, a qualitative methodology was adopted, adopting the interview as the method of data collection. This means that, in all the research units selected for the application of the recommendations, it was necessary to conduct interviews with the responsible researchers so that it was possible to understand the data management practices they currently adopt and the requirements necessary to adopt the recommendation selected for each case.
After the interviews and the selection of the recommendations to be applied in each Portuguese research group, it is intended to monitor and evaluate the adoption of the recommendation, and finally to assist the research units in submitting stories of adoption of the RDA recommendations.
Click on the poster image to enlarge
Contribution to the adoption of RDA recommendations in the scope of RDA-4 and the workplan of the Portuguese node.
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Author: Sarah Jones
Date: 02 Apr, 2020
Looks like a great mix of use cases. Where are you seeing most engagement or achieving best traction with researchers? And what do you think may be behind the response (e.g. easier concepts to explain, more obvious benefit to users...)
Author: Jéssica Alexand...
Date: 03 Apr, 2020
Hi Sara,
First of all, thanks for your questions.
One of the key drivers for the engagement of researchers, and other stakeholders, is the opportunity to raise their awareness. Researchers have been receptive to the idea of knowing more about RDM. That said, the Metadata Standards Directory is a useful service to communicate with researchers and make them familiar with metadata and RDM. On the other hand, the 23 Things, also becomes quite accessible when talking to librarians, who will certainly be able to reach more researchers and disseminate the recommendations. It is also interesting to understand how the different recommendations relate to each other in order to provide further RDM insights to the researchers.
Please let me know if you want to know more.
All the best.
Author: Ryan O'Connor
Date: 06 Apr, 2020
Hi Jessica,
That's a really interesting project, hopefully it will result in some useful RDA Adoption Stories. In terms of the research units you interviewed for the application of the recommendations, did you know in advance which recommendations would suit each group best, or did that only become apparent once you had interviewed them?
Author: Jéssica Alexand...
Date: 08 Apr, 2020
Hi Ryan
Thank you so much for your comment.
When I analised the RDA recommendations, I immediately listed some of the research units because I already knew the work developed by them. However, it was necessary to meet with each research unit to present the recommendations to them.
The interviews helped me to see if it really made sense to relate the recommendations to each case, to realise that parameters were already meeting each recommendation, and also to understand how the implementation of the recommendations could be useful for each research units.
Please let me know if you want to know more.
All the best.