Data repositories play an essential role in enabling FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) custodianship of research data. This implies an inherent mandate of trustworthiness.

Trusted Digital Repositories …

• give researchers the assurance that their data will be cared for,
• provide funding bodies with the confidence that research data which they fund, will remain available for reuse,
• enable researchers to reliably assess the data they want to reuse.

NeDICC, in collaboration with SFSA hosts the “In repositories we trust …!” workshop on 5 December 2017 at the CSIR International Convention Centre (CSIR ICC) in Pretoria. The intention is to expand the South African data community’s experience in trusted repository certification.

The CoreTrustSeal standard for certification is hot off the press – giving us the opportunity to attempt to comply with the NRF requirement of giving researchers access to trusted repositories. The aim of the workshop is to understand the certification process and the requirements, as well as to prepare a draft submission for certification. This will assist those repositories that have reached maturity to apply for certification and those who are not yet able to do so to plan and progress towards compliance.

Upon registration you will be provided with workshop material. It is expected that participants would at least have attempted to complete the submission template by the 5 December and have sourced the evidential material, such as institutional policies related to the certification criteria. The workshop time will be used to address specific concerns and to also share possible responses in cases where these responses are not obvious. Please bring along your own laptops.

The workshop will be presented by Mr Wim Hugo (Chief Data and Information Officer at SAEON) and Niklas Zimmer (Manager: Digital Library Services, UCT).

The workshop is free of charge.

Please register online at https://goo.gl/forms/8ic4iFsuhOAOFu8A2 for the workshop. Registration will close by 24 November. The first 40 delegates to register will be accommodated. You will receive confirmation of attendance via email. If you have registered, but are unable to attend, please inform Lucia Lotter (hsrccuration@gmail.com) by 24 November. Keep in mind that you will be charged a cancellation fee in case of a no-show.

The workshop is a side event to the Science Forum South Africa (http://www.sfsa.co.za/ ) which takes place on
7-8 December. It will be worthwhile to attend.

In repositories we trust …!

5 December 2017

Programme

The CoreTrustSeal Board offers all interested data repositories a core-level certification based on the DSA–WDS Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements catalogue and procedures. CoreTrustSeal Data Repository certification replaces the DSA certification and the WDS certification of Regular Members.

The CoreTrustSeal is a community-based nonprofit organization promoting sustainable and trustworthy data infrastructures. It is governed by a Standards and Certification Board consisting of members drawn from the Assembly of Reviewers (by election) and the wider repositories stakeholders (appointed).

‘We are driven by our commitments to offer professional certification tools and services to data repositories and to support our voluntary qualified reviewers to conduct audits under optimal conditions’ said Mustapha Mokrane, Chair of the ad hoc CoreTrustSeal Standards and Certification Board. CoreTrustSeal is developing a sustainable business model and as an initial step, will start charging a modest fee to cover administrative costs as of January 2018.

The CoreTrustSeal certification is envisioned as the initial level in a global framework for repository certification that also includes the extended and formal levels. Ultimately, the CoreTrustSeal will endeavour to provide core-level certification for other research entities such as data services and software.

For more information check out the CoreTrustSeal website

The Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge has published the second blog post in a series of three about sustainable open resources. David Carr from the Wellcome Trust has authored this post and provides the view of a research funder on the challenges of developing and sustaining the key infrastructures needed to enable open research.

For More information please visit:

https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1520

It is increasingly common for researchers to make their data freely available. This is often a requirement of funding agencies but also consistent with the principles of open science, according to which all research data should be shared and made available for reuse. Once data is reused, the researchers who have provided access to it should be acknowledged for their contributions, much as authors are recognized for their publications through citation. 

For more information please visit: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2017/07/17/formalised-data-citation-practices-would-encourage-more-authors-to-make-their-data-available-for-reuse/

The International Research Data Management (IRiDiuM) Glossary (http://www.codata.org/working-groups/standard-glossary-for-research-data-management-iridium) and (http://dictionary.casrai.org/Category:Research_Data_Domain) is intended as a practical reference for individuals and working groups concerned with the improvement of research data management, and as a meeting place for further discussion and development of terms.

The aim is to create a stable and sustainably governed standard glossary of community accepted terms and definitions, and to keep it relevant by maintaining it as a ‘living document’ that is updated when necessary.

Definitions should be clear and unambiguous, and where possible, fit with common usage. Definitions should be apposite across research data management activities of key stakeholders, including, but not limited to: researchers/authors, research management, research policy, computer science, IM/IT, research administration, libraries; scholarly publishers, and research funders. Some terms may have more than one definition, in which case the relevant context should be specified.

In this year’s first review cycle, the Working Group convened by CASRAI, CODATA and Research Data Canada has delivered a subset of new and edited terms for addition to the IRIDUM Glossary.

IRiDiuM is led by a Program Committee: https://forum.casrai.org/groups/ca-IRiDiuM-pc

Open Review is now invited for these new and revised terms.  This review is open until June 30, 2017.

The new and revised terms are listed at https://forum.casrai.org/c/dev/iridium – to comment on the terms you will need to register on the forum.

CODATA 2017 International Conference, ‘Global Challenges and Data-Driven Research’, Saint-Petersburg, 8-13 October, Registration and Information: http://codata2017.gcras.ru/

CODATA 2017 International Conference, ‘Global Challenges and Data-Driven Research’, Now Accepting Proposals for Sessions and Papers: http://conference.codata.org/2017/

What has CODATA delivered recently? See the CODATA Prospectus: Strategy and Achievement, 2015-2016 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.165830

Asha Law | Program Assistant, CODATA | http://www.codata.org

E-Mail: asha@codata.org

Tel (Office): +33 1 45 25 04 96

CODATA (Committee on Data of the International Council for Science), 5 rue Auguste Vacquerie, 75016 Paris, FRANCE