News Archives - Portage Network

Updated: Dataverse North Metadata Best Practices Guide V 1.1

Version 1.1 of this guide provides overall guidance on the Dataverse 4.x citation metadata section. In particular, the guide:

Provides definitions and offers tips to clarify where needed.

Distinguishes between required, recommended and optional fields. Required fields are designated by the Dataverse system out-of-the-box. Recommended fields are considered best practice to improve data discovery and reuse. Optional fields are good to have.

The sample dataset can also be found on the Dataverse platform at: <https://doi.org/10.5072/FK2/TOXB6Q>

Repository Options in Canada: A Portage Guide

The Portage Network is pleased to announce the release of its new publication, Repository Options in Canada: A Portage Guide. We’d like to thank Scholars Portal for their assistance with its production.

Canada has a rich data repository landscape operating at national, regional, and local/institutional levels. This guide provides detailed information to help researchers and data professionals determine the most appropriate option for their data, with a particular focus on Canada’s two developing national repository platforms: the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR) and Dataverse.

Save the Date – Canadian Data Curation Forum, 16-18 October, 2019

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ Portage Network, in collaboration with McMaster University Library, is pleased to announce that the SSHRC-funded Canadian Data Curation Forum will be held at McMaster University in Hamilton from October 16 to 18, 2019.

The goal of the Forum is to establish a national Community of Practice that will catalyze the development/adoption of data curation¹standards, practices, tools, and skills within and across disciplines and institutions. It will bring together library data specialists, research data managers, and discipline and functional experts from a range of institutions and organizations. The Forum will integrate a variety of keynote talks, discussions, and workshops with the objectives of: a) facilitating communication and collaboration around data curation practices and standards, and b) developing skill and training resources.

The event’s Organizing Committee will be working over the coming months to assemble the program and prepare a call for expressions of interest. During the intervening period, please contact Lee Wilson (lee.wilson@ace-net.ca) or Jay Brodeur (brodeujj@mcmaster.ca) if you seek further information.

¹Data curation is the active management of research data throughout a project to produce datasets that are FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

Portage Progress Report for the Period of January – March 2019

May 7, 2019 – The Portage progress report for the first quarter of 2019 is now available. It summarizes Portage activities and accomplishments and provides an update on Portage operations and communications undertaken in this period.

Read the progress report in English or in French.

Portage Awarded Connection Grant: Canadian Data Curation Forum

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ Portage Network, in collaboration with McMaster University Library, is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a Social Science and Humanities Research Connection Grant to develop and deliver a Canadian Data Curation Forum that will promote and advance the practice of data curation in Canada.

Data curation is the active management of research data throughout a project to produce datasets that are FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. The goal of the forum is to establish a national Community of Practice that will catalyze the development/adoption of data management standards, practices, tools, and skills within and across disciplines and institutions. Accordingly, the Forum will focus on two elements: (1) the facilitation of communication and collaboration around data curation practices and standards and (2) skill and training resource development.

The Canadian Data Curation Forum will be held at McMaster University in Hamilton. It will bring together library data specialists, research data managers, and discipline and functional experts from a range of institutions and organizations.

Call for Participation: The FRDR User Experience and Training Working Group

March 20, 2019 – The FRDR User Experience and Training Working Group is seeking new members for its 2nd year mandate. The Working Group focuses on the user-experience side of the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR) service by providing feedback on, and suggestions for, the improvement of the front-end design, user-facing documentation, training materials, and informational and promotional materials for FRDR.

Members are expected to serve for 12 months, beginning in April 2019. If you would like to join this working group or recommend a colleague please contact Lee Wilson, Service Manager, Portage Network (portageservices@carl-abrc.ca), with a brief expression of interest. Submission deadline is April 5, 2019. Please see the draft Terms of Reference for a full description of the group’s responsibilities.

Call for Participation: The FAST & the FRDR Working Group

March 20, 2019 – Portage’s Data Discovery Expert Group is convening a new working group to improve the FRDR Discovery Service, which helps to de-silo Canadian research data by providing a single search portal for more than 100,000 metadata records indexed from over 40 Canadian governmental, institutional, and domain-specific data repositories. The goal of this project will be to map subject keywords to the Online Computer Library Center’s (OCLC) Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) using the open source OpenRefine software. This important work will increase the discoverability of Canadian research data by providing a controlled vocabulary for subject keywords.

Working Group members will be expected to serve for 12 months, starting in April 2019. If you would like to join this working group or recommend a colleague please contact Lee Wilson, Service Manager, Portage Network (portageservices@carl-abrc.ca), with a brief expression of interest. Submission deadline is April 5, 2019. More information may be found in the draft Terms of Reference.

Portage Progress Report for the period of October – December 2018

February 11, 2019 – The Portage progress report for the fourth quarter of 2018 is now available. It summarizes Portage activities and accomplishments corresponding to the goals outlined in the Portage Business Plan: 2017-2018 and provides an update on Portage operations and communications undertaken in this period.

Read the progress report in English or in French.

Portage Data Management Planning Expert Group Call for Participation in Working Group

January 25, 2019 – The Portage Data Management Planning Expert Group (DMPEG) is establishing a working group to develop a searchable, accessible, and multidisciplinary repository of example data management plans for the research community to consult while writing their own. Please see the Terms of Reference for DMPEG DMP Repository Working Group.

If you would like to join this working group or recommend a colleague for this group, please contact Carla Graebner (cgraebne@sfu.ca), Chair of DMPEG and Jeff Moon (portagedir@carl-abrc.ca), Portage Director, with a brief expression of interest. Submission deadline is February 8, 2019.

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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.

Portage Training Expert Group Call for Participation in Working Group

January 25, 2019 – The Portage Training Expert Group (TEG) is establishing a working group to develop a web-based basic training module for learning about data repositories. It is intended for audiences of the following communities of practice: researchers; librarians and data stewards; service and infrastructure providers; and policy makers and administrators. Please see the Terms of Reference for the TEG Data Repositories 101 Working Group.

If you would like to join this working group or recommend a colleague for this group, please contact Jane Fry (JaneFry@CUNET.CARLETON.CA), Chair of TEG, and Jeff Moon (portagedir@carl-abrc.ca), Portage Director, with a brief expression of interest. Submission deadline is February 8, 2019.