Category: News

Portage Update: Highlights from August – February

Welcome to the first in a series of new blog posts highlighting CARL Portage activities and achievements. This first post will cover our milestones since August 2019 (updates on our prior activities can be found in our Portage Progress Reports). We have made progress on national data stewardship initiatives as well as national, collaborative research data management platforms, tools, and services through partnerships, outreach, our Expert and Working Groups, expansion of our Secretariat, and international collaboration.  More >> Portage Update: Highlights from August – February

Updated: Dataverse North Metadata Best Practices Guide v 2.0

CARL Portage has released version 2 of the Dataverse North Metadata Best Practices Guide. This guide is intended for anyone who is depositing data in a Dataverse repository and needs to create metadata. It provides official definitions of metadata fields; adds clarifications and tips where needed; distinguishes between required, recommended, and optional fields; and illustrates the use of each field with an example. Earlier versions of the guide covered the fields in the Citation Metadata block. This version adds coverage for fields in the Geospatial Metadata and Social Sciences and Humanities Metadata blocks. Future editions will add guidance for Life Sciences Metadata and Astronomy & Astrophysics Metadata. The guide was produced by the Metadata Subgroup of the Dataverse North Working Group on behalf of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) with permission from Harvard for the use of definitions and the Texas Digital Library for basic design. 

Dataverse North Metadata Best Practices Guide v 2.0 (English) (Français)

Summary of Results: Institutional RDM Services Capacity Survey

February 14, 2020 – Summary of Results: Institutional RDM Services Capacity Survey

CARL Portage is pleased to share widely a summary of the findings from its recent survey of campus resource allocations for RDM on campus. The Portage Research Intelligence Expert Group (RIEG) has released an Executive Summary highlighting key findings from their survey evaluating the current efforts of Canadian research institutions in developing and allocating human, organizational, infrastructure, and fiscal resources for research data management (RDM) on their campuses. A data dictionary is included as an appendix and provides a breakdown of responses to all survey questions. RIEG is planning to release a series of brief Insights reports beginning this spring, which will provide additional in-depth analysis of the survey data in key areas of interest.

Executive Summary and Data Dictionary (English) (Français)

For more information, contact:

Shahira Khair, 
Chair, Research Intelligence Expert Group
University of Victoria
skhair@uvic.ca

Jeff Moon
Director, Portage Network
portagedir@carl-abrc.ca

About RIEG:

The Research Intelligence Expert Group gathers evidence to guide the development of best practices in Research Data Management in Canada, and informs stakeholder communities about existing and arising issues in related policies and practices.

About CARL and Portage: 

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) provides leadership on behalf of Canada’s research libraries, promotes effective and sustainable knowledge creation, dissemination, and preservation, and enhances its members’ capacity to advance research and higher education. CARL members include Canada’s 29 largest university libraries and two federal institutions. CARL has launched Portage, comprising a library-based network of expertise on Research Data Management (RDM) and national platforms for planning, preserving, and discovering research data.

Funding in support of the Portage Research Data Management (RDM) Network is administered through CANARIE.

New Project Officer!

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Portage Network is pleased to welcome Jennifer Abel as its new Project Officer. Jennifer’s work will focus on supporting Portage’s activities related to the management of sensitive data, data management planning, and continued engagement in understanding the needs of institutions and researchers. Jennifer has both a Master of Library and Information Studies and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of British Columbia. She worked in UBC’s Education Library and in the Research Commons, where she helped to develop a research data management workshop. Between her degrees, she was the founding coordinator of UBC’s Language Sciences Initiative. You may recognize her from her appearance on Jeopardy! in July 2019 (she came second). 

Funding in support of the evolution of the Portage Research Data Management (RDM) Network is administered through CANARIE.

DataCite Canada Consortium Membership Update

With final pricing for the DataCite Canada Consortium now established, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and CARL Portage are pleased to announce that service fees for 2020 can be fully covered by Portage’s RDM Directed Funding administered through CANARIE as one-time transition funding. Additionally, as previously indicated, the National Research Council (NRC) has committed to paying the 2020 member fee for the consortium. As a result, DataCite Canada Consortium members will have no fees for their participation in 2020. 

As part of DataCite’s new strategic direction for long-term sustainability, members of the Datacite Canada Consortium who were registered under the NRC will have new accounts created and their DOIs transferred. This transfer process is anticipated to take place during the week of February 24th-28th. Members have been notified and given further details pertaining to next steps.

In order to facilitate a smooth transition, CRKN is holding a webinar with DataCite to explain the transfer process and answer any questions.

• • Date: Friday, February 14, 2020
  • Time: 1:00pm EST
  • Zoom URL: https://zoom.us/j/866911256
  • Local number: +1-647-558-0588
  • Meeting ID: 866 911 256

• Portage and CRKN look forward to working with members of the DataCite Canada Consortium! 
• For more information, please contact datacite@crkn.ca

Publication of Public Consultation Summary – Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy

Publication of Public Consultation Summary

From June to September 2018, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (the agencies) held an online consultation on the draft Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy.

This report summarizes the consultation feedback and, where warranted, clarifies the framing, scope and aims of the policy.

The agencies are making final revisions to the policy based on this consultation and other feedback. With an anticipated release in Spring 2020, the new policy will include a phased-in implementation aligned with the state of readiness of the Canadian research community.

Extension: Connection Grants – Research Data Management Capacity Building Initiative

To help the Canadian social sciences and humanities research community better understand data management and incorporate data management considerations into research practices, SSHRC’s Research Data Management Capacity Building Initiative offers Connection Grants to support the research community’s development, adoption and dissemination of research data management standards, practices, tools and skills appropriate to their field.

SSHRC will fund at least 10 meritorious proposals per competition.

SSHRC is accepting applications for the Research Data Management Capacity Building Initiative at the following Connection Grants deadlines:

·        February 1, 2020
·        May 1, 2020
·        August 1, 2020

For more information about this initiative, or for advice on preparing your application, please contact:

Connection Grants
Tel.: 613-943-1007
Email: connection@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca