Category: #DMPonline knowledge exchange

DMPonline at Karolinska Institutet by Cecilia Bjorkdahl & Johan Lundeqvist

by magdalena.drafiova • April 27, 2020 • Comments Off

At Karolinska Institutet work on improving research documentation and data management took a big step forward ten years ago with the implementation of an electronic logbook system and increased support to our researchers. Last year DMPonline became the most recent addition to our electronic research support for documentation and data management. This was in part triggered by changes in funding requirements when one of our biggest national funders, the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) decided that starting in 2019 all their awarded projects required a data management plan before the start of the project. They also made it clear that the responsibility for this does not lie with the principal investigator, but with the university.

This enabled us to start working more strategically and focused on data management planning. In DMPonline we provide a DMP template that covers the requirements from the Swedish Research Council, with some adaptation to more local requirements and guidelines like our electronic logbook system and storage solutions. It is not mandatory to use DMPonline for our researchers, but it is the system we recommend – and the vast majority have chosen to use our template in DMPonline for their DMPs.

The PI is required to send the DMP to us at the Research Data Office for review and approval before project start. The internal review of the DMPs is an iterative process done together with our researchers until we have an agreed upon final version of the DMP. This process is partly manual since the researcher download the DMPs from DMPonline for the review – in the future we want to investigate the possibility of doing also at least part of the review within DMPonline.

Already being able to use the template function in DMPonline has greatly facilitated our review since the majority of the DMPs we have looked at follow the same pattern – makes for an easy and quick review. We are keen to look at improving our template and guidance texts for this year’s coming projects.

We will also during this spring evaluate our usage of DMPonline and the DMP review process, both internally within our Research Data Office – where the review is managed – and ask our researchers for their input on both the process and the support provided. This will then form the basis for our continued work with DMPs.

The whole process, from the first meeting to launch, was completed and deployed in less than three months. This includes information to the grantees by e-mail, two workshops with researchers, development of the template and guidelines in DMPonline. A simple process for the review was established as well. With great help from the DMPonline staff, we even had our own branding done (https://dmp.ki.se), day before launch date.

We would like to say thank you to Cecilia Bjorkdahl & Johan Lundeqvist for sharing this blog post with us. If you would like to get involved in our knowledge exchange and share a story from your institution please do get in touch with us.

DMPonline at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam

by magdalena.drafiova • March 12, 2020 • Comments Off

The VU University Library, in close collaboration with faculty data stewards, supports researchers with tools, services and advice during all stages of the research life cycle. In 2019, a Research Data Support programme was set up at the VU to bring i…

Lindsey Myers shares how University of York uses DMPonline

by magdalena.drafiova • November 19, 2019 • Comments Off

Knowledge exchange

DMPonline case study – University of York by Lindsey Myers

Like many other libraries, internal and external drivers challenged the University of York Library to identify new ways to support its research community. As a result, the Research Support Team emerged from a reorganisation of the Academic Liaison Librarian Team in 2014. Along with open access, responsibility for research data management (RDM) services and support sits with the Library’s Research Support Team.

In our eyes the team is relatively small, consisting of two Research Support Librarians and a Research Support Manager (apologies to solo professionals grappling with all aspects of research support). Of course others are involved and we couldn’t provide a service without the valuable input of our Research Data and Outputs Specialists. This post, a job share, manages process and procedures for the validation of datasets records in Pure and supports our researchers to deposit their research data with the Research Data York service.

With limited resource it is important to seize opportunities when they arise. The team quickly realised the value of DMPonline and we incorporated it into our service provision at an early stage. DMPonline is a tool that we actively promote to our research staff and research students in one-to-one appointments, at the training we deliver and online (e.g. within our RDM online tutorial). We customised the tool, adding our own guidance to it, some time ago. The process of gathering and agreeing on the text for the guidance was a great starting point for communication with colleagues from other services (e.g. IT Services, Archives, Legal) about data management. We then went on to create a simplified data management plan (DMP) template for postgraduate research projects and unfunded research.

In 2018 we cautiously launched a DMP feedback service. I say cautiously as there was concern that I, as the only person reviewing plans, might be inundated. This has not been evidenced, although I’m sure with more robust promotion of the service our fears could be realised. Providing feedback on draft plans has proven to be a useful entry point for conversations with researchers about their research, research data, the services needed to support good RDM practice, and in identifying the skills that researchers have or don’t have for data management. Encouraging researchers to share their DMPs within the institution, as examples to help other researchers write their plans, has proven to be more difficult but I continue with my endeavours.

DMPs are strongly encouraged but not mandated by York’s RDM Policy. Lack of a mandate has guided me to be more cautious in contacting researchers out of the blue as they create new plans in the DMPonline tool. However, our researchers have discovered and are clicking on the ‘Request expert feedback’ button and I’ve noticed more enquiry traffic coming my way as it also promotes the Team as a point of RDM support.

The Digital Curation Centre’s work to develop machine-actionable DMPs is an area of particular interest. The creation of a DMP is seen by some as a one-off administrative burden. I’d like to change this perception and move to a position where DMPs are seen as an integral part of research practice at York. DMPs could provide valuable information to researchers, funders, administrators and to the Research Support Team, to help us successfully manage the long-term storage and access to valuable research data.

We would like to say thank you to Lindsey Myers for sharing this blog post with us. If you would like to get involved in our knowledge exchange and share a story from your institution please do get in touch with us.