Anna Clements

Research data meets research information management: Two case studies using (a) Pure CERIF-CRIS and (b) EPrints repository platform with CERIF extensions

This paper will describe how two research-intensive universities in the UK, St Andrews and Glasgow, have worked together over several years and projects to develop their institutional research management systems to deliver services to support the rapidly evolving needs of funders, institutional policy makers and management, and, importantly, the researchers themselves. This challenge is particularly acute at the moment with ‘Open Science’ one of the hottest topics around with organisations and funders from the G81 downwards stressing the importance of open data in driving everything from global innovation through to more accountable governance; not to mention the more direct possibility that non-compliance could result in research grant income drying up. There is a need to work with those researchers that need support to develop research data management processes and infrastructures that complement their ways of working and not just impose box-ticking exercises. We will explain the strategies, systems developed, and concerns arising to date at our two Universities to help support researchers and managers in this (r)evolution.

Snowball Metrics – Providing a Robust Methodology to Inform Research Strategy – but do they help?

Abstract Universities and funders need robust metrics to help them develop and monitor evidence-based strategies. Metrics are a part, albeit an important part, of the evaluation landscape, and no single metric can paint a holistic picture or inform strategy. A “basket of metrics” alongside other evaluation methods such as peer review are needed. Snowball Metrics offer a robust framework for measuring research performance and related data exchange and analysis, providing a consistent approach to information and measurement between institutions, funders and government bodies. The output of Snowball Metrics is a set of mutually agreed and tested methodologies: “recipes”. These recipes are available free-of-charge and can be used by anyone for their own purposes. A freely available API: the Snowball Metrics Exchange service (SMX), acts as a free “broker service” for the exchange of Snowball Metrics between peer institutions who agree that they would like to share information with each other and any institution can become a member of the SMX. In this paper, we present a use case where the University of St Andrews reviewed its institutional level KPIs referring to the Snowball Metrics recipes. In conclusion, quantitative data inform, but do not and should not ever replace, peer review judgments of research quality – whether in a national assessment exercise, or for any other purpose. Metrics can support human judgment and direct further investigation to pertinent areas, thus contributing to a fully rounded view on the research question being asked. We suggest using a “basket of metrics” approach measuring multiple qualities and applied to multiple entities.

CERIF for Datasets (C4D)

The overall aim of CERIF for Datasets (C4D) is to develop a framework for incorporating metadata into CERIF (the Common European Research Information Format) such that research organisations and researchers can better discover and make use of existing and future research datasets, wherever they may be held. CERIF provides a standardised way of managing and exchanging research information and has been widely used for recording and exchanging information about research projects and publications. C4D looks at the suitability of CERIF for recording datasets, suggests ways that the model could be improved and implements pilot functionality based on the findings of C4D at the three partner Universities in the UK.

Integration of an active research data system with a data repository to streamline the research data lifecycle : Pure-NOMAD case study

The authors acknowledge the work of Juan Karsten for the partial development of the Pure-NOMAD integration. This work has been supported by the EPSRC-Strategic Partners Project (2012, grant number EP/J501542/1) and the Impact Acceleration Account (2016, grant number EP/K503940/1).

CASRAI-UK: Using the CASRAI approach to develop standards for communicating and sharing research information in the UK

This paper explains how the Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information (CASRAI) might be used to share research information in an open and sustainably governed approach, led by research organisations. CASRAI is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to reducing administrative burden and improving outcomes and impact reporting through good stewardship of information requirements by research organisations (universities, colleges, teaching hospitals and other research centres). The objective is to improve the flow of information within and between research stakeholders. The approach sees the ‘user-led’ development and maintenance of standard information agreements. These agreements include (a) specifications defining what data elements (entities) are needed for various key business processes in the research lifecycle and (b) definitions for all the terms appearing in these specifications. The open and standardised definitions are curated and maintained in an open online dictionary that can then be used by system providers and others to exchange information in a standard, agreed format e.g.by using CERIF-XML as the transfer mechanism.

Let's talk – interoperability between university CRIS/IR and Researchfish: a case study from the UK

Abstract Research funders and research organisations both require feedback on the progress, productivity and quality of the research they support. This information originates with researchers, but may be captured in a variety of systems including University CRIS/IR and funder systems. In 2014 all 7 national Research Councils (collectively referred to as RCUK) implemented a harmonised approach to the collection of research output data, currently supported by Researchfish Ltd (referred to as the Researchfish® system). In 2016 this process is gathering feedback from over 60,000 researchers in all UK Universities, and for funders in the USA, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands, tracking more than £40billion of public and charity research investment and is adding to a dataset of more than 1.5 million outputs. Researchers, research managers and funders want to find ways to capture this data once and achieve wide re-use of the information. Working together University and Research Council officers, Researchfish Ltd. and Jisc have highlighted that it is important for the “interoperability” between research information systems to be improved. These organisations have started a programme of work to improve the bi-directional flow of information between University and funder systems.

The application of the CERIF data format to Snowball Metrics

The euroCRIS Indicators Task Group aims to develop and share best practice in the use of indicators to support research information management. One of the outputs of the group will be indicators expressed in CERIF that can re-used by CERIFcompliant software services to support consistent measurements for both national and international purposes. This Task Group will express multiple sets of indicators in CERIF, with Snowball Metrics being the first set to be tackled. The goal of the Snowball Metrics initiative is for research-intensive institutions to share their knowledge and experiences to agree best practice in evidence-based institutional strategic planning. Agreed and tested metrics “recipes”, or methodologies, are shared free of charge with the sector in the Snowball Metrics Recipe Book (www.snowballmetrics.com/metrics) 1 for use by any organization, whether for public service or commercial purposes. One of the principles of Snowball Metrics is that they are system-agnostic: in other words, that although particular types of data are needed to support their calculation, the data can come from any relevant source such that the recipes are not tied to any one particular system or supplier of research information. The application of the CERIF data standard to the recipes is an important component in enabling benchmarking between institutions in a system-agnostic manner through the exchange of Snowball Metrics. CERIFication of Snowball Metrics is also expected to facilitate the endorsement of these recipes as global standards. The first set of recipes was agreed and tested by a group of universities in the United Kingdom, but the vision is that Snowball Metrics are supported by universities globally, and that multiple national groups contribute their expertise to agree how best to leverage the institutional and national data sources available, alongside proprietary data sources. The formation of Working Groups and the use of Snowball Metrics outside the United Kingdom demonstrate that the initiative is gaining global traction, and strongly indicate that the needs being addressed are widespread problems for which the sector would like to find a single answer. The universal nature of CERIF provides an important reference point to which it is expected that distinct but equivalent national data sources can be mapped and so used in international benchmarking.