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Group Session June 28, 2024

Effectively Utilizing Research Tools in Curation Processes

Plenary: RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting – San José, Costa Rica

Submitted by
Vaida Plankyte
Open collaborative note
Recording
Slide

Meeting objectives

* Expand on the Birds of a Feather session at P22 with presentations related to points of discussion that came about as a result of the session
* Define the problem space regarding points of friction when it comes to adoption, collaboration and maintenance of research tools for data curation
* Collaboratively define and select 1-2 topics that cause significant friction for the interest group to focus on going forwards

Meeting presenters

Xiaoli Chen, FAIR Workflow Project Lead (DataCite) (Invited)|Felix Shaw, Research Software Engineer and Data Scientist (Earlham Institute) (Invited)|Alessa Gambardella, Data Steward (Leiden University) (Invited)|Vaida Plankyte, Product Manager & Design Lead (RSpace)

Meeting agenda

Introduction to the IG (10 mins)
* Contextualisation of the topic within the greater RDM space, the gap the IG aims to fill, & symbiosis with other WGs and IGs on related topics
* Summary of BoF VP22 session: takeaways & what topics emerged for further discussion
* Our proposed role & focus, both short and long-term

4 Case studies (10 mins each – 40 mins total)
* Types of Data Curation in FAIR Workflows – Xiaoli Chen
* Data curator role in research tools: user research & design – Vaida Plankyte
* Domain-specific data curation: a big data broker for life science – Felix Shaw
* Institutional Data Curation at Leiden – Alessa Gambardella

We will have both RDM managers and research tool providers present their experiences with collaboration in supporting data curation workflows, specifically selected to expand on the topics encountered during the BoF discussion, eg. differentiating between tools for archiving long-term versus during the project, and which core human decision-making tasks can be enabled and enforced by research tools.

Discussion (40 mins)
* Q&A for presentations
* Attendee discussion on the topics presented, and feedback on which aspects create the most friction in successful RDM adoption
* Decision on which of these topics require formalisation and could be addressed by this interest group; decision on concrete work needed to address the proposed topics and facilitate the development of a framework or guidelines to ease points of friction by this interest group

Target audience

Institutional RDM managers, IT managers, research tool providers, infrastructure providers, research commons managers

Group Activities and Scope

We held a Birds of a Feather session at the VP22 titled “Research Tool Usage in Data Curation Workflows: Responsibilities & Collaboration”, which focused on highlighting the different definitions of “data curation” through presentations by RDM managers, as well as presentations by research tool providers. We wanted to explore how collaboration between research tool providers and institutions can be enhanced through a better understanding of the various data curation needs of an institution, which are not often made explicit when adopting and working with research tool providers.

After the productive conversations and positive feedback regarding the creation of an interest group on this topic, we are in the process of applying to create an interest group titled “Research Tools for Data Curation”, specifically focused on the intersections between institutions and research tools: communication, collaboration, onboarding, adoption, workflows and understanding of each other’s needs and abilities.

If our interest group proposal is approved, we believe it would be greatly beneficial to utilise the momentum of the BoF session and hold an initial IG breakout session at P23, to kickstart our work and gather feedback and participation interest from the RDA community.

Short Group Status

Our interest group is in the process of being established, and we are preparing a proposal to establish the group, which we plan to submit in July. We therefore do not yet have IG-specific outputs. As mentioned above, our initial meeting has been a Birds of a Feather session at the VP22 titled “Research Tool Usage in Data Curation Workflows: Responsibilities & Collaboration”.

Estimate of the required venue room capacity

Under 50 seats

Applicable Pathways

Data Infrastructures and Environments - Discipline Focused
Training, Stewardship, and Data Management Planning
Data Lifecycles - Versioning, Provenance, Citation, and Reward

Please indicate at least (3) three breakout slots that would suit your meeting.

Breakout 1. Tuesday, 12 November, 16:00-17:30 UTC
Breakout 4. Wednesday, 13 November, 16:00-17:30 UTC
Breakout 5. Wednesday, 13 November, 18:30-20:00 UTC
Breakout 6. Thursday, 14 November, 16:00-17:30 UTC
Breakout 7. Thursday, 14 November, 18:30-20:00 UTC