From UNSW Data Archives to UNSWorks – learnings from the ARDC Data Retention project
Ai Lin Soo1, Gerry Devine1, Jacky Cho1, Jake Surman1 1University Of New South Wales
Abstract
At UNSW, a significant volume of research data is hosted within the ‘Data Archive’, UNSW’s solution for providing long-term end-of-project storage of research data. This data is typically closed access. As part of UNSW’s involvement in the ARDC’s ‘Data Retention’ initiative (aimed at enriching data collections and making them publicly accessible), a concerted effort was made to document and openly publish as much of this data as possible into UNSWorks, UNSW’s Institutional Repository. In total, 176 data custodians of datasets within the Data Archive were contacted and offered assistance in making their specific datasets openly available in the repository. These engagements provided many insights, both positive and negative, around the awareness of, capability in, and general thoughts towards research data publishing. This presentation will share these insights and the patterns of behaviours of UNSW researchers when asked to consider publishing data from their archived collection. The presentation will also share how these findings could influence improve support by ResTech Services and the Library. The outcomes from this work strongly highlight the importance of considering and planning for publishing data at the outset of any research endeavour.
Biography
Ai-Lin Soo is a Project Officer at the UNSW ResTech Services Team as well as the Operations Manager for the Ai for Law Enforcement and Community Safety (AiLECS) Lab at Monash University. She applies her project management skills to support a diverse range of activities in areas such as research data management and operational governance. Ai-Lin is also heavily involved in the Research Data Culture Conversation (www.researchdataculture.org) as the RDCC coordinator and product manager of the Macro View.