Developing Open Research Data Infrastructure Prototype and Community Governance Framework for Institutional data repositories

Pragya Chaube, Moumita Koley, Francis Jayakanth

Funding Area: Community governance / Gobernanza comunitaria

Problem Statement: Problem Statements: Lack of an Open Research Data Infrastructure at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc): The absence of a dedicated data infrastructure or institutional repository (IR) for managing and sharing research data openly hinders the transparent and accessible sharing of scientific knowledge. Insufficient Community Engagement: Merely developing a IR without considering community engagement and governance leads to potential mismatches between researchers' needs and the IR's functionalities, resulting in reduced effectiveness and adoption. Proposed Solution: To develop IR prototype and its governance framework in consultation with the IISc community. The exercise would be a blueprint for IISc and other institutions to develop research data IRs. Beneficiaries: Researchers at IISc: The project aims to address the needs of researchers by providing a robust IR for storing, managing, and sharing research data openly. Researchers will benefit from improved data discoverability, usability, and enhanced collaboration opportunities. Research Community: The project promotes community participation and governance, ensuring researchers have a voice in shaping the infrastructure, policies, and guidelines. Future Open Science Initiatives: The outcomes and experiences gained from this project can contribute to future open science initiatives and facilitate the adoption of open research data practices.

Proposed Activities: The proposed activities would be segregated under three verticals: I. Development of the Institutional Repository (IR) prototype: Focused-group discussion(s) with the researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc): the idea of this exercise is to understand the perspective of the researchers and how/what feature(s) of repository may be beneficial for them. We aim to recruit 8-10 faculty from different departments including Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics and Interdisciplinary studies. We already have preliminary interview data from select faculty at IISc (14 professors from across disciplines). However, with this focused-group, we’ll have more concentrated discussion(s) on IR prototype and its governance framework development. This group would be utilised for constant feedback and review through the project cycle. . Background research on different IR strategies and platform(s): We already have preliminary data on this; we have also had meeting and mentorship from the University of Edinburgh’s IR Head, Research data support last year in May 2022. We have also initiated a partnership with DataCite this year to support the initiative through their service(s) to provide metadata and accessible DOIs. Beta-product development: Based on the knowledge gathered through the above exercises, the IR prototype would be contextualised and developed. Feedback: The IR prototype would be made available to the participants in the focused-group for use. Their feedback would be gathered and changes to the IR would be made again. II. Development of community governance framework Focused-group discussion(s) with the researchers at IISc: the group would be consulted on the governance framework. Survey/interview with other stakeholders: aside from researchers in the focused-group, other stakeholders in the administration, library and IT department would also be consulted. Feedback: After the IR prototype is made available to the community, their feedback would be gathered and governance processes and policies would be reviewed and revised. Activities a-g would happen in an iterative process. III. Capacity building and knowledge dissemination Workshop/seminar series to Raise awareness on the advantages of usage open data repository Cultivate among students and researchers data management plan and practises Educate the IISc library and admin/IT community on how to operate IR backend. Educate the researcher and student community on how to use the proposed IR prototype. The IR prototype can be used as an educational resource for data management and open research data for researchers from other institutions. The IR prototype would be used as a resource to raise awareness and provide a blueprint to librarians from other institutions. We envision 18 months duration to carry out all these activities.

Openness: The proposal is to develop an open institution data repository (IDR) prototype and its community governance framework for the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). IDR promotes openness by ensuring long-term data management and accessibility, enabling data sharing, and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations. With this in view, we propose to develop an IDR prototype for IISc and develop its community governance framework. The IDR prototype and its governance framework would be a blueprint for IDR development at IISc and other Indian institutions. To engage the broader community, stepwise approach would be taken: - Firstly, the IISc community would be consulted to understand their needs for IDR. - There would be workshops for IISc staff to understand, manage and use IDR using prototype - Through workshops, there would be awareness and education on how to use IDR effectively for better research data management & research impact - Following this, the blueprint to develop the IDR prototype and its community governance framework, workshop and other content would be made available openly to researchers and librarians in other institutions. To further promote openness in our work, the workshops for the broader community outside IISc would be conducted online for ease of participation from across India and beyond. The events and other material would be openly available online on DST-CPR IISc’s YouTube channel and our organisation websites respectively.

Challenges: Technical Complexity: Developing a robust and scalable data infrastructure that meets the diverse needs of researchers from various disciplines while meeting relevant standards can be technically complex. Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging the research community in shaping the infrastructure and governance framework may be complex. Our preliminary data shows cultural and disciplinary differences in levels of awareness, motivation, and understanding of open science (OS) practices among researchers, requiring effective communication strategies. Data Privacy and Security: Implementing measures to protect sensitive and confidential research data, obeying ethical considerations, and addressing concerns related to data ownership and intellectual property rights while promoting OS are important challenges to address. Institutional Barriers: Overcoming institutional barriers to adopting OS practices can be a challenge. It requires a change in attitudes, perceptions, and policies within the institution. Resource Allocation: This is a resources-intensive project. Allocating adequate financial, technical, and human resources effectively, and ensuring long-term sustainability can be complex in a resource-constrained environment. Capacity Building: Enhancing researchers' data management skills and promoting OS practices require training programs. Designing tailored training materials according to the specific needs of researchers and ensuring active participation can be difficult.

Neglectedness: No, we are not aware of any other funding sources, nor have we previously applied for this project. The project was initiated after Dr. Moumita and Dr. Pragya conducted interviews with faculties across disciplines at the Indian Institute of Sciences last year. The purpose was to understand their attitudes towards and requirements for open research data. This exercise highlighted the necessity for an institutional data repository to facilitate long-term research data management and promote open science. After consulting with Ms. Robin Rice, Head of Research Data Support at the University of Edinburgh, it became evident that we should proceed with the project to develop the institutional repository. Dr. Francis joined the project shortly thereafter. This undertaking represents an unprecedented endeavour for us.

Success: User Satisfaction: Conduct surveys or feedback mechanisms to gauge user satisfaction with the infrastructure and its functionalities. Assess researchers' feedback on ease of use, effectiveness in meeting their needs, and overall satisfaction with the open research data infrastructure and services provided. Data Discoverability and Accessibility: Evaluate the improvement in data discoverability and accessibility within the institution and beyond. Assess metrics such as usage statistics of shared datasets and feedback on the ease of discovering relevant research data. Governance: Evaluate the effectiveness of the community governance framework by measuring the level of researcher engagement, participation in decision-making processes, and transparency in governance structures. Assess the extent to which the governance framework has enabled researchers to have a voice in shaping the infrastructure and policies. Engagement in capacity building programs: The number of registrations, participation and participants engagement in the events, within and outside the IISc community. Adoption and Usage: Measure the willingness of adoption and usage of the institutional open research data infrastructure and repository by researchers. After the blueprint of the repository is prepared, the scalability of the repository, ease of use and governance, and willingness of the institution to scale and adopt it.

Total Budget: $25,080

Affiliations: > DST- Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru >JRD Tata Library, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru > Open Science South Asia Network

LMIE Carveout: The project team and the partnering organisations are based out of India. The project would be piloted in India and the project community would also be based out of an Indian institution. The resultant blueprint/knowledge material would be of utility to other resources-constrained institutions in India and global South. According to the World Bank, India is categorised in LMIEs.

Team Skills: Dr Koley, a visiting scholar at DST-Centre for Policy Research (CPR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), joined prior full-time and led centre's open science (OS) research and initiatives. She has published several research papers on OS and contributed to the OS chapter in India's draft 5th National Science, Technology and Innovation policy. She also consults the International Science Council in the future of Scientific publishing project. She and Dr Chaube co-initiated the Open Science South Asia Network (OSSAN) and led various OS promotion events. OSSAN gave a platform to individual OS voices across South Asia to come together to deliberate on collaboration avenues to promote OS practises. Dr Koley and Dr Chaube had initiated a prior project on open research data which led to this project following the realisation for the need of an institutional repository (IR). Dr Francis has years of experience and expertise in library management system and administration. He manages IISc’s research publication repository (eprints). Dr Koley and Dr Francis have been collaborating to organize the international OA week events since 2020. Dr Francis, Dr Koley and Dr Chaube have collaborated for a workshop, in partnership with DataCite, on the need for IR and persistent identifiers. Dr Koley and Dr Chaube will lead community governance framework development. Dr Francis will lead the repository prototype's development. The workshop/education content would be developed in tandem.

How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)

Submission Number: 43