Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Story Of Data Won, Data Lost And Data Re-Found: The Realities Of Ecological Data Preservation, Alison Specht

DataONE Sociocultural and Usability & Assessment Working Groups

This paper discusses the process of retrieval and updating legacy data to allow on-line discovery and delivery. There are many pitfalls of institutional and non-institutional ecological data conservation over the long term. Interruptions to custodianship, old media, lost knowledge and the continuous evolution of species names makes resurrection of old data challenging. We caution against technological arrogance and emphasise the importance of international standards.

We use a case study of a compiled set of continent-wide vegetation survey data for which, although the analyses had been published, the raw data had not. In the original study, publications containing plot data collected …

Toward A New Understanding Of Virtual Research Collaborations: Complex Adaptive Systems Framework, Arsev U. Aydinoglu

DataONE Sociocultural and Usability & Assessment Working Groups

Virtual research collaborations (VRCs) have become an important method of conducting scientific activity; however, they are often regarded and treated as traditional scientific collaborations. Their success is measured by scholarly productivity and adherence to budget by funding agencies, participating scientists, and scholars. VRCs operate in complex environments interacting with other complex systems. A holistic (or organicist) approach is needed to make sense of this complexity. For that purpose, this study proposes using a new perspective, namely, the complex adaptive systems theory that can provide a better understanding of a VRC’s potential creativity, adaptability, resilience, and probable success. The key concepts …

How Information Science Professionals Add Value In A Scientific Research Center, Chris Eaker, Andrea Thomer, Erica Johns, Kayla Siddell

DataONE Sociocultural and Usability & Assessment Working Groups

In response to the increasing need for a data curation workforce, the Data Curation Education in Research Centers program is educating library and information science students in scientific data curation. During the summer of 2012, the authors worked alongside scientists and data managers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, to learn data curation within the context of a research center. Each student was matched with a “Science Mentor” and a “Data Mentor” based on prior work experience and the results of a placement questionnaire completed before the internship. Though NCAR has robust data services, we found …

Understanding The Data Management Needs And Data Sharing Challenges Of Environmental Scientists, Carol Tenopir, Suzie Allard, Miriam L.E. Steiner Davis

DataONE Sociocultural and Usability & Assessment Working Groups

Surveys of scientists for the NSF DataONE project and the USGS Southeast Information Node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), as well as follow-up interviews, show that environmental scientists are interested in sharing their data with certain conditions, such as citations or acknowledgment. Government scientists are more likely to be satisfied with the processes for data management than are academic scientists, but less likely to be satisfied with the process of describing data or tools for documentation. Both groups value trusted and complete sources. There are many ways that scientists can be assisted with data management throughout the data …