News & Articles

IDCC19 full programme announced

The 14th International Digital Curation Conference is going to Melbourne in February 2019 and we have an exciting programme packed with workshops, papers, posters and demos. The theme of the conference is Collaborations and Partnerships: addressing the big digital challenges together. This is a topic close to DCC’s heart and modus operandi, and is particularly fitting to the Australian context where links with the wider international research data community are key.
 
The conference theme has inspired a dynamic mix of papers and sessions. As usual we have strands on metadata, digital curation, skills, models and tools. This year also sees particularly strong clusters of papers on digital humanities, creative arts curation and disciplinary challenges. We’re also delighted to see that the theme and conference location have generated sessions on curating indigenous data and building diverse and inclusive communities. 
 
The conference will see two keynotes and a plenary discussion. Christine Kenneally, an independent journalist, will open the conference with a keynote on “Data, the creation of history and its impact on real lives.” She will present a case study of information security and information entropy in the history of childcare institutions in Australia and the United States, illuminating the critical role that data curators have to play, not just in the creation of history, but in its impact on individual lives.
 
Day two will start with a plenary discussion between Nancy McGovern and Clifford Lynch on digital practice and collaboration. This will build on a discussion between Nancy and Cliff following her closing keynote at IDCC18, which made an impassioned call for collaboration across communities and inclusivity. It is an opportunity to explore the issues, elaborating on key challenges we face in the digital age and proposing methods to overcome these.
 
The conference will close with a keynote from Dr Patricia Brennan, the Director of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), on “Jumping into the stream of data curation.” As the largest collection of biomedical research and data in the world, the NLM plays key roles in supporting data-driven discovery and promoting health data standards. Hearing about the NLM activities and strategy will provide inspiration on how we can all better locate, reuse, and enrich data resources. 
 
The conference will open on Monday 4th February with a day of workshops and will close with an unconference on Thursday 7th February. Workshop registration is open and includes opportunities to learn about supporting data management in academic institutions, digital preservation carpentry, software curation and peer-to-peer training. See the full programme and price details here. The unconference is a new angle to IDCC. We’re very conscious that the papers and discussions over coffee often lead to new ideas and collaborations, and there is not always enough time and space to explore these at the event. We introduced Birds of a Feather sessions a few years ago and these have been incredibly popular and productive.
 
The unconference is a way for us to give emerging ideas more dedicated time and space – a whole day in fact! As you’ll see, the programme is blank and will remain so until the event. We’ll invite people to contribute ideas and to pitch these at the outset. The agenda will be set on the day by people voting with their feet and deciding what they want to work on. For my own part, I’m interested to try and map across the different FAIR data activities internationally - how similar are the recommendations that are emerging and what disciplinary differences and needs are being uncovered through use cases. Anyone can attend the unconference, so if you’re local and are just interested in brainstorming and working on data issues with an international community for a day, please sign up. I’m really excited to see how we can take ideas that emerge from the conference though and generate them into some practical action while the enthusiasm and creativity is there. Strike while the iron is hot!
 
As always, IDCC will have a number of social events. There will be pre-conference drinks at the Woodward Conference Centre. Located on the 10th floor of the Melbourne Law School, the building offers stunning views to the west of the city. Continuing the trend of socialising with good views, the tapas-style conference dinner will take place at General Assembly with waterfront views, the city skyline and a band to entertain us. Delegates will also have access to the University of Melbourne private staff club which has many informal indoor and outdoor spaces for quiet work or social networking. International attendees are likely to want to enjoy some holiday time in the sunshine too and Melbourne has a lot to offer. There are some links and ideas shared by the University of Melbourne on the website to help in your planning.
 
So, what are you waiting for? Make the case to attend, register and get your flights and hotels booked before they fill up. This is one conference you don’t want to miss!


Call for Contributions open for iPRES2019

Be inclusive. Be creative. Be inspiring. And put your eyes on the horizon.

This is the full Call for Contributions for the 16th International Conference on Digital Preservation,  iPRES 2019. Deadline for all submissions is 18 March 2019. All submissions and presentations should be in English.

The theme for iPRES 2019 –  Eye on the Horizon – aims to broaden the voices and approaches participating in the conference. In keeping with the theme, we will embrace creative proposals that demonstrate how research and theory directly impact and influence practice at all levels. iPRES brings together a wide range of practitioners, researchers, educators, providers, students, and others to share lessons learned from engaging in digital preservation, including recent practice, research, developments, and innovations.

The iPRES 2019 Programme Committee seeks contributions that tell stories about building bridges between organizations in different domains and bridging knowledge gaps. These contributions enable individuals from all backgrounds and agencies of all sizes to participate in the global preservation conversation. Contributions serve the community and help implement solutions and overcome barriers to the effective curation of digital assets, works and collections. iPRES aims to be an inclusive global forum and seeks proposals from all sectors, specialisms, geographies and communities.  

More information

Instructions for each peer-reviewed submission type (papers, panels, posters, demonstrations, workshops, tutorials and hackathon sessions) are to be found in the Submission Instructions section.

For questions with regards to the conference organization, please contact: info@ipres2019.org

For questions with regards to the conference programme, please contact: programmecommittee@ipres2019.org

For questions with regards to submissions, please contact: submissions@ipres2019.org


Feedback Requested on a proposed 'Open Toolkit for Tracking Open Science Partnership Implementation and Impact'

CODATA would like to draw the communities attention to the following call for feedback on a proposed 'Open Toolkit for Tracking Open Science Partnership Implementation and Impact’.
 

Abstract

The article and associated documents present a toolkit for tracking the implementation and impact of open science (OS) partnerships. OS partnerships take on a variety of forms with different levels of openness, sharing and absence of intellectual property rights. As the article describes, OS partnerships hold the promise of lowering costs and increasing productivity of both research and innovation.

The article describes the need for and the collaborative process used to develop the toolkit while the associated documents contain the toolkit itself. We are now seeking comments and suggestions on both the article and toolkit from the larger community. We specifically seek comments from those studying, working with, or engaged in OS and OS-related projects. In particular, we welcome comments relating to the comprehensiveness of our measures and what may be missing. We also seek comments on whether the breadth of the toolkit is too ambitious to be effectively implemented and, if so, what measures should be eliminated. We further invite the community to identify any projects – OS or otherwise – that may be amenable to collecting and sharing data based on the toolkit indicators. The present toolkit will need to be translated into open source tools that, to the extent possible, collect the data automatically. Any assistance in developing these tools would be most appreciated. Comments will be accepted online on GoogleDocs until January 31st, 2019. After the comment period closes, our team will revise the article and toolkit, taking into account proposed edits. We then propose to submit the article and toolkit to the Gates Open Platform for publication.

While we include the toolkit in this release, please comment directly on the GoogleDocs below:
 


North American DDI conference Call for Proposals now open!

The Call for Proposals for the 7th Annual North American Data Documentation Initiative Conference (NADDI).  The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an international standard for describing the data produced by surveys and other observational methods in the social, behavioral, economic, and health sciences.
 
NADDI 2019 Theme
The conference theme is "Benefits of Describing Statistical Production and Variables," which emphasizes the benefits of using metadata to drive efficiencies in a research data lifecycle, as well as promotes subsequent re-use of end data products, especially those generated by federal and national statistical agencies.  The keynote speaker will be Anil Arora, Chief Statistician of Canada.
 
Aimed at individuals working in and around data and metadata, NADDI 2019 seeks submissions of presentations and posters that highlight the use of DDI and other metadata standards within research projects, official statistics, survey operations, academic libraries, and data archives.

Proposals can include:
  • Presentations
  • Panels
  • Posters
  • Workshops or Tutorials

Important Information
 
  • January 7: Deadline for conference proposals
  • January 18: Notification of acceptance
  • March 29: Early rate registration deadline
  • Conference Dates: April 24-26, 2019
  • Conference Location: Statistics Canada in Ottawa, Canada
 
How to Submit
Submissions may be made through the conference web site.  The proposal deadline is January 7, 2019.


New tool for evaluating your RDM offering launches

Institutions now have a new means at their disposal to aid them in assessing their research data management initiatives, the Evaluating RDM Tool.  

A collaborative creation, the tool was developed using the SPARC Europe How Open is Your Research service and the Digital Curation Centre’s RISE Framework.

“We wanted to create something that would go beyond providing initial RDM guidance,” said SPARC Europe Director, Vanessa Proudman. “This tool should help with the next phase, aiding institutions as they continue to improve and evolve their RDM programmes and practices.”

As for how it works, users are invited to answer a selection of questions. Based on their responses, three downloadable radar charts are generated providing insights into: the breadth or range of RDM services provided by the institution; the degree to which RDM services are being tailored to specific users; and lastly, whether or not the initiatives are “sector leading”.

Marta Teperek, Data Stewardship Coordinator at TU Delft, described the Evaluating RDM Tool as a “quick and easy means to help assess RDM readiness at your institution and to visualise gaps.”

The tool is free to use. Any question regarding its use may be directed to info@sparceurope.org.

Try out the Evaluate your RDM Offering Tool


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