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tag: Data communities

Blog Post
August 10, 2022

How Can Data Librarians Support Data Communities? Part Two

An Interview with Amanda Rinehart

Data communities provide social and practical incentives for scientists to voluntarily share and reuse data with colleagues. In order for data communities to emerge and grow, they need support. Information professionals, such as data librarians and research computing specialists, can advise data communities on best practices for data sharing and help them create or improve the required infrastructure, such as online repositories and metadata schemas.
Past Event
August 31, 2022

Collaboration Between Researchers and Information Professionals to Promote Data Sharing

Long-term collaborations between research communities and information professionals are relatively rare: yet, the expertise data librarians and other information professionals bring to the table can accelerate FAIR data sharing efforts. Drawing on findings from our recent NSF-funded workshop on promoting data sharing in STEM fields, Ithaka S+R and the Data Curation Network will host "Collaboration Between Researchers and Information Professionals to Promote Data Sharing" on August 31, 2022, from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern. The webinar will bring together information…
Blog Post
August 9, 2022

Sustaining Scientific Data Sharing Communities

Findings from an Incubation Workshop

The sharing of research data is essential to open science, and major funders have made significant investments in building an infrastructure of domain and generalist data repositories to support data sharing. While barriers to data sharing remain a challenge, many communities of researchers actively and voluntarily share and reuse data to advance science in areas of mutual interest. Understanding the successes and challenges these “data communities” face is important to providing support for their evolving needs as they grow, and…
Research Report
August 9, 2022

Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science

Findings from an Incubation Workshop Series

Several recent studies have indicated that large numbers of researchers in many STEM fields now accept the value of openly sharing research data. Yet, the actual practice of sharing data—especially in forms that comply with FAIR principles—remains a challenge for many researchers to integrate into their workflows and prioritize among the demands on their time. In many disciplines and subfields, data sharing is still mostly an ideal, honored more in the breach than in practice.
Blog Post
June 30, 2022

How Can Data Librarians Support Data Communities?

An Interview with Jordan Wrigley

Data communities provide social and practical incentives for scientists to voluntarily share and reuse data with colleagues. In order for data communities to emerge and grow, they need support. Information professionals, such as data librarians and research computing specialists, can advise data communities on best practices for data sharing and help them create or improve the required infrastructure, such as online repositories and metadata schemas. However, research scientists and information professionals rarely have structured opportunities to meet together,…
Blog Post
December 15, 2021

Building Sustainable Data Sharing Communities

Announcing the Participants in an NSF-Funded Incubation Workshop

Across the country and around the world, communities of researchers are voluntarily sharing data across disciplinary and institutional borders. Understanding the motivations, practices, and challenges faced by members of these communities is important to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other funders seeking to promote and normalize data sharing and reuse. However, questions remain about how to best support data communities as they emerge and mature. Some of the most urgent issues involve documentation,…
Blog Post
August 5, 2021

Deadline Extended: Call for Proposals on Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science

Ithaka S+R is currently accepting applications from researchers interested in participating in Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science, an NSF-funded workshop developed in partnership with the Data Curation Network. Participants will receive funding to attend a two-day incubation workshop in 2022, as well as expert guidance from information professionals about how to create sustainable infrastructures to support voluntary data sharing across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Applications are due October 1, 2021. Please see the following CFP for full…
Blog Post
May 20, 2021

Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science

New NSF-Funded Collaboration between Ithaka S+R and the Data Curation Network

We are excited to announce that Ithaka S+R has been awarded grant funding from the National Science Foundation to support the development of infrastructures for data sharing within data communities in collaboration with the Data Curation Network.  “Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science,” will bring together scientists and information technology professionals for focused discussions about initiating and sustaining data communities.  A unique opportunity to leverage data communities…
Blog Post
April 20, 2021

Emergent Data Community Spotlight

An Interview About Energy Modeling with the Open Energy Modelling Initiative

Fostering data and code sharing among scholars is an important component to fostering a culture of open research—but how can this work be done most effectively? At Ithaka S+R we are exploring the crucial contextual elements that optimize research data sharing. We’ve found that data communities—formal or informal groups of scholars who share a certain type of data with each other regardless of disciplinary boundaries—provide important clues to understanding how research data sharing works. Identifying and supporting scholarly communities…
Past Event
February 17, 2021

Danielle Cooper at the Open Science Conference

On Wednesday, February 17, Danielle Cooper is presenting on “Data Communities: Data Sharing from the Ground Up,” at the Open Science Conference. For more information and to register, please visit the conference website.  Abstract This talk proposes a new mechanism for conceptualizing and supporting STEM research data sharing. Successful data sharing happens within data communities, formal or informal groups of scholars who share a certain type of…
Blog Post
June 1, 2020

Data Communities in the Health Sciences

A Webinar with the Long Island Library Resources Council

Data sharing in the health sciences has never seemed more urgent. The National Institutes of Health, the US’s major health science research funder, has been experimenting with ways to promote data sharing. Additionally, the race to combat COVID-19 has brought the urgency of making patient-level clinical data, as well as other types of health-related data, easily accessible to researchers while still maintaining individual privacy. Against this backdrop, Danielle Cooper and I had the…
Blog Post
April 14, 2020

Technologies at Hand

On Researcher Practices During a Pandemic

On March 25 I had the privilege of giving the introductory talk to NISO’s virtual conference on Research Behaviors and the Impact of Technology. The relationship between research behaviors and technology is a topic I have a birdseye view on through my work at Ithaka S+R, where I oversee a program examining scholars’ research practices discipline-by-discipline and we conduct a US-wide faculty survey triennially. The event was always already virtual and I found myself preparing amidst the…
Past Event
March 25, 2020

Researcher Behaviors and the Impact of Technology

Danielle Cooper Speaks at Virtual NISO Conference

On Wednesday, March 25, Danielle Cooper is presenting at NISO’s virtual conference on Researcher Behaviors and the Impact of Technology. Her talk, “Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication: Accessible, Ubiquitous Technologies & Their Affordances for Research,” is from 12:15-12:45. For more information on the conference, please see NISO’s website. About the presentation When we think of what technologies have the potential to drive research forward our minds often alight to exciting new developments that…
Blog Post
February 18, 2020

Progress in Biomedical Data Sharing

Headlines from the Recent NIH Workshop

The biomedical sciences have been a key focus area for efforts to promote research data sharing. Effective data management and sharing policies have the potential to improve research efficiency and accuracy, with real implications for human health. Last week, I attended a workshop hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on “Establishing a FAIR Biomedical Data Ecosystem: The Role of Generalist and Institutional Repositories to Enhance Data Discovery and Reuse.” NIH has been making significant…
Past Event
February 19, 2020

Data Communities: Empowering Researcher-Driven Data Sharing in the Sciences

Danielle Cooper at the International Data Curation Conference

On Wednesday, February 19, Danielle Cooper is presenting on “Data Communities: Empowering Researcher-Driven Data Sharing in the Sciences” at the International Data Curation Conference in Dublin, Ireland. For more information and to register, please see the conference website.
Past Event
December 9, 2019

Data Sharing from the Ground Up

Danielle Cooper and Rebecca Springer at CNI

On Monday, December 9, 2019, at 2:30 pm, Danielle Cooper and Rebecca Springer will present on “Data Sharing from the Ground Up: Building Data Communities” at the CNI Fall Meeting in Washington DC. For more information and to register for the conference, please see the CNI website. Abstract There is a growing consensus that research can progress more quickly, more innovatively, and more rigorously when scholars share data with each other. Policies and supports for data sharing…
Blog Post
September 19, 2019

Emergent Data Community Spotlight III

An Interview with Kitty Emery and Rob Guralnick on ZooArchNet

Successful data sharing crosses disciplinary silos. As Danielle Cooper and I argued in a recent issue brief, “data communities” — formal or informal groups of scholars who share a certain type of data with each other — emerge both within and across disciplinary boundaries. In order to understand how these data communities emerge — and to understand how they can best be supported — I’ve been seeking out leaders who are at the…
Blog Post
September 10, 2019

Emergent Data Community Spotlight II

An Interview with Felicity Tayler and Marjorie Mitchell on the SpokenWeb Project

For all today’s technological affordances, research data sharing remains a fundamentally social activity, dependent on building “data communities” from the ground up. Danielle Cooper and I argued as much in a recent issue brief, and since then, I’ve been seeking out pioneers who are at the forefront of efforts to grow emergent data communities in a variety of research areas. What does it take to get a successful data sharing movement off the…
Blog Post
July 22, 2019

Emergent Data Community Spotlight

An Interview with Dr. Vance Lemmon on Spinal Cord Injury Research

Encouraging scholars to share research data with one another promises to increase research efficiency, reproducibility, and innovation. In a recent issue brief, Danielle Cooper and I argued for a new conceptual framework for understanding and supporting research data sharing: data communities. Data communities are formal or informal groups of scholars who share a certain type of data with each other, regardless of disciplinary…
Blog Post
May 13, 2019

Looking at Data Communities

New Issue Brief on STEM Research Data Sharing

There is a growing perception that science can progress more quickly, more innovatively, and more rigorously when researchers share data with one another. Amid a growing array of organizations, initiatives, and policies working toward this vision, there is a pressing need to decide strategically on the best ways to move forward. Central to this decision is the issue of scale. Is data sharing best assessed and supported on an international or national scale? By discipline? On a university-by-university basis? Or…