UC3
Academic Libraries: Under-Used & Under-Appreciated
I’m guilty. I often admit this when I meet librarians at conferences and workshops – I’m guilty of never using my librarians as a resource in my 13 years of higher ed, spread across seven academic institutions. At the very impressive MBL-WHOI Library in Woods Hole MA, there are quite a few friendly librarians that […]
What Scientists Want: Requirements Part 3
I’m in the process of posting the requirements we are submitting for the DCXL add-in, in four parts. “Requirements” are the capabilities we want the proposed add-in to have, based on discussions with scientists and other stakeholders. For more information, read my two previous posts (here and here) and check out the new Requirements page for more details about […]
What Scientists Want: Requirements Part 2
I’m in the process of posting the requirements we are submitting for the DCXL add-in. These are the capabilities we want the proposed add-in to have, based on discussions with scientists and other stakeholders. For more information, read my previous post and check out the new Requirements page for more details about each of the proposed the […]
What Scientists Want: Requirements Part 1
Just before the holidays, I managed to finish the first version of the DCXL requirements. These requirements are the set of Excel capabilities that scientists would like to help them manage, share, and archive their data. I created these requirements based on many conversations with scientists, librarians, and information specialists, and they reflect the communities […]
The NeverEnding Task: Organizing Files
In my speaking with scientists about data management, I often talk about how they organize their work files on their computers. Asking someone about this is a deeply personal question- often people are highly defensive of their system, while simultaneously being frustrated with the structure. Organizing files on your computer might sometimes feel like the […]
Ontologies and Data
Ontologies is one of those words I hear people toss about in conversations about computing, programming, and development. I usually nod and smile, pretending I know exactly what the word means, and how it relates to scientific data. It took some vigorous Google searching and a great discussion with M. Schildhauer of NCEAS before I can […]
NSF Panel Review of Data Management Plans
With the clarity of the New Year, I realized I broke a promise to you DCXL readers… in my post on data policies, I stated that my next post would be about the current state of data management plan evaluation on NSF panels. Although it is a bit late, here’s that post. My information is […]
What You and Odysseus Have in Common
If you are like me, you begrudgingly read Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey in high school, but remember very little. I would like to remind you of one specific (and perhaps most famous) scene: Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens. (Stay with me— this does eventually relate to data). Odysseus, as captain of his ship, is warned […]
DCXL, Policies & NSF Data Management Plans
Unless you live in a cave, you are probably aware that NSF started requiring that researchers submit a two-page supplement to all proposals titled “Data Management Plan”. To paraphrase from the Grant Proposal Guide, investigators are told they need to discuss: Types of data Standards they will use for data and metadata Policies for access […]
Intellectual Property, Copyright, & Other Dry Topics
Recently, I found myself wondering What the heck is data governance? I was asked to participate in a workshop on Data Governance, supported by DataONE and led by MacKenzie Smith of Creative Commons and Trisha Cruse of UC3. I promptly replied “yes!”, pretending to understand the phrase, and then hurried back to my computer and […]