Data Management Course Outline

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NOTE: We agreed that the target audience initially would be scientists

Module template and Author Guidelines

For Scientists

The case for data stewardship

Agency requirements - Ruth
- NSF data management plans - Ruth
- NASA science data policy - Ron Weaver
- NOAA Administrative Order 212-15, Management of Environmental and Geospatial Data and Information - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
Return on Investment - Erin/Carol
- Return on Scientist's investment - Erin/Carol
- Expanding the audience for your data- Erin/Carol
- Return on public investments- Erin/Carol
Verifiable science
- Tying your data to standards, metrics, and benchmarks
Facilitating science through interoperable discovery and access - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
Enhancing your reputation - Matt Mayernik/NCAR
Preserving the Scientific Record - Matt
- Establishing Relationships with archives - Matt
- Preserving a Record of Environmental Change - Matt
- Other case studies? - Matt
What Not to do when Archiving Data!

Data Management plans

Why do a data management plan?
Elements of a plan - Ruth
- Identify materials to be created - Ruth
- Identify your audience(s) - Ruth
- Data organization - Ruth
- Roles and responsibilities - Ruth
- Describing and documenting your data, including metadata - Ruth
- Standards used - Ruth
- Data access, sharing, and re-use policies - Ruth
- Backups, archives, and preservation strategy - Ruth
- ??QUESTION: Should the plan define (an) objective metric(s) to make implementation and compliance measurable?
Estimating effort and resources required - Ruth
- Hardware, software capabilities required - Ruth
- Personnel resources and skills needed - Ruth
Some available resources to help with developing your plan - Ruth

Local Data Management

Managing your data - Ruth
- Data identifiers and locators - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
- File naming conventions (Cook)
- Backing up your data (Cook)
- Write it down! Maintaining contemporaneous documentation
  - Who, what, when, where, why, how
  - Tracking and describing changes to the data
- QUESTIONS
  - Should we at least touch on version control, or is that adequately addressed by tracking/describing changes?
Data Formats - Ruth
- Building understandable spreadsheets - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
- Using self-describing data formats
- Choosing and adopting community accepted standards
- Avoiding proprietary formats
Creating documentation and metadata
- Developing a citation for your data (Cook)
- Recording provenance and context - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
- For your collections as a whole
- Creating item level metadata
- Metadata for discovery - Tyler Stevens/GCMD
- Metadata for access and use - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
- Metadata for archiving - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
- Metadata for tracking data processing - Curt Tilmes
- Individual agencies, archives and registries may have specific requirements
Working with your archive organization - Ron Weaver/NSIDC
- Planning for longer term preservation - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
- Work with your archive early and often - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
- Broadening your user community
Advertising your data
- Agency/institution requirements for publishing metadata
- Journals and publications
- Agency/institution web sites
- Using portals and registries
  - Publishing metadata to a Web Accessible Folder
  - Publishing metadata to GCMD - Tyler Stevens/GCMD
  - Publishing metadata to ECHO
  - Publishing metadata to Data.Gov
  - NOTE: Need to address additional portals and registries beyond GCMD & ECHO. Add other entries as appropriate
- Datacasting
Providing access to your data - Rama/Bob Downs/Chris Lenhardt/Ron Weaver (whole section)
- Evaluating who your audience is
- Who gets to access your data
  - Agency best practices & policies
- Access mechanisms
- Tracking data usage
- Handling sensitive data
- Rights

Preservation strategies

Sponsor (e.g., Agency) or institution requirements - Ron Weaver /NSIDC
Options for archiving your data - Ron Weaver/NSIDC
- What archives are out there? - Ron Weaver/NSIDC
  - Discipline or institutional archives
  - Finding an archive
- What to do if there is no archive out there - Ron Weaver/NSIDC
What data goes into a Long-term archive? - Ron Weaver/NSIDC
What do long term archives do with my data? - Jeff Arnfield/NCDC
Data transfer & submission agreements - Ron Weaver/NSIDC
- See "Submission Agreements" section under "For Data Managers"
- Agency/archive specific requirements my vary
Intro to the OAIS Reference Model - Curt Tilmes
Emerging standards for preservation - Ron Weaver/NSIDC
Metadata

Responsible Data Use

Citation and credit - Matt Mayernik/NCAR
Data restrictions - Bob Downs
Fair use - Matt
Feedback and metrics
Collaboration
Community participation

For Data Managers

Data Management plan support
Collection or acquisition policies
Intro to OAIS reference model
Initial Assessment and appraisal
- Identify information to be preserved
  - main features and properties
  - dependencies on information here or elsewhere
- Identify objects to be received
- Establish complementary information needs (e.g., format, data descriptions, provenance, reference information, context, fixity information)
  - What complementary information is needed for data useful for climate studies (USGCRP list)
- Assessing potential designated communities
- Assessing probable curation duration
- Assessing data transfer options
- Defining access paths
- Assessing costs and feasibility
- Metadata, metadata standards, and levels of metadata
Submission agreements
- Data integrity
- Contacts
- Schedule
- Operational Procedures
- Error reconciliation
- Constraints
- other aspects necessary for understanding how to support the data
Preparing for ingest
Ingesting data
- Validation checks
- Identifiers
- Citations
- Levels of service
Periodic re-assessment
Curation activities
- Media migration
- Format migration