Championing Institutional Data Sharing Efforts

Abstract

Data repositories are an essential component of the emerging infrastructure that is needed for sharing, stewarding and preserving research data at scale. However, the landscape of data repositories is uneven, fractured, and evolving. In the absence of widespread domain repositories, many academic libraries have stepped in to fill this gap through developing institutional data repositories (data IRs) to meet the needs of researchers located at their host institution. However, much like domain repositories, data IRs are evolving at an uneven rate in isolation from one another. With the federal government’s recent release of community guiding documents such as the Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (DC-DR) and the Nelson Memo, the time is right for data IRs and data service providers to explore areas where they could collaborate more closely to develop consensus around best practices for providing data services and how we might better connect our individual infrastructures. The Data Curation Network (DCN) recently received funding from the NIH in support of developing community-centered approaches in advancing institutional data services and data IRs, to be developed at the Summit for Academic Institutional Readiness in Data Sharing (STAIRS). At STAIRS, attendees will assess the current state of institutionally based data services and data IRs, discuss areas of service and infrastructure that would benefit from cross-institutional approaches, and explore ways in which we could strengthen collective alignment with the DC-DR, the Nelson memo and other emerging initiatives. In this pre-recorded video, we will describe the work done by the DCN in exploring the need for greater alignment across institutions and share information about the upcoming STAIRS workshop, including how to apply to attend.