Wagging the long tail of research data: improving the visibility and interoperability of disparate datasets

Universities and research institutions are becoming increasingly interested in collecting and providing access to datasets produced at their institution that do not fall within the scope of other discipline-based, or government repositories. However, there are numerous challenges. There is a huge range and diversity of datasets created in this context. In addition, there are significant variations in regional approaches. Some countries have invested in discipline-based repositories, while others are focusing on institutional data repositories. Furthermore many datasets do not adhere to appropriate standards. For example, the Science survey states, “Even within a single institution there are no standards for storing data, so each lab, or often each fellow, uses ad hoc approaches.” How can we fit local set-ups, which are different from country to country, and disciplinary difference, into a global set of good practice advice?

The aim of this interest group is to develop a set of good practices for managing research data archived in the university context. The scope of the topic will be limited to the data generated in universities and research institutions and the role of institutional repositories and libraries as agents of the institutional data management.