COAR aims to position universities, research institutions and their libraries as the foundation for a new scholarly communication system. A system that is community based and supports the widespread sharing of research materials and outputs. Researchers produce huge volumes of research data, much of which remains on the hard drives and is unavailable for validation or re-use. In a system where openness is becoming the default, it is imperative that institutions take on greater responsibility for the collection, management and sharing of this valuable content.
In September 2016, COAR launched a Research Data Management (RDM) Interest Group to help the community expand their operations to support RDM. This group will provide a forum for discussion about managing research data, identify best practices and strategies, and support capacity building for RDM in the repository community.
RDM is wide ranging and there are already many organizations active in this area. The aim of COAR’s work is to promote and articulate the role of research institutions in providing access to research data and to help address the challenges of RDM for the repository community.
See the results of research data management survey, undertaken in December 2016
The COAR Research Data Management Interest Group has identified the following activities for 2016-2018:
- Webinars
- Develop an assessment framework to help institutions evaluate data repository systems
- Undertake a brief survey of RDM activities within the COAR membership
- Identify and link to key training material and resources
- Share collection policies for RDM in repositories
- Recommend metadata standards for research data sets
Lead
- Leader: Raman Ganguly, Vienna University Library and Archive Services, Austria
- Leader: Kathleen Shearer
Members
- Senem Acar
- Susanne Blumesberger, Vienna University Library and Archive Services, Austria
- Elisha Chiware
- James Doiron, University of Alberta Library, Canada
- Jari Friman, Helsinki University Library, Finland
- Daniela Grandin, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario di Ateneo, Italy
- Lazarus Matizirofa
- Remedios Melero, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientifícas (CSIC), Spain
- Markus Putnings
- Robin Rice, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Josefina Siguencia, CEDIA, Ecuador
- Tiiu Tarkpea
- Marta Teperek
- Angus Whyte, Digital Curation Centre, United Kingdom
All outputs of the group will be made available to COAR members. If you are interested in participating in this group, please send a message to office@coar-repositories.org
COAR has also been participating in international discussions around research data management through participation in the Research Data Alliance (RDA). Kathleen Shearer, COAR Executive Director is chair of two RDA groups: Libraries for Research Data and Long Tail of Research Data, along with Wolfram Horstmann, COAR Executive Board member.