Project StORe survey: cross-discipline report
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Date
08/2006Author
Pryor, Graham
Metadata
Abstract
The principal objective of the survey of seven scientific disciplines was to identify aspects of desired functionality in source and output repositories that would be included in a mechanism for enabling source to output links. The survey found that the proposed two-way link between source (data) repositories and output (publications) repositories was considered useful, but that there were a number of cultural and organisational barriers to the deposit of research data in source repositories. These included concerns over workload, frustration with bureaucratic processes and uncertainty with respect to the protection of intellectual property. Amongst the survey constituents there is also a perception that repositories are inconsistent in terms of their coverage, metadata and formats. An almost universal preference for simple methods of searching was declared, with positive reference made to the Google experience, although more advanced searches are undertaken when specific data sets have been identified. In the organisation of data and when using repositories, self-reliance is more common than recourse to institutional, library or other support, although the need for expert support in the development and maintenance of metadata and other standards is acknowledged. Given the large scale and complexity of many research data generated, together with the idiosyncrasies of the individual software and data platforms used to produce them, it was thought that links from processed data would in certain instances be more useful than links to/from raw data. Nonetheless, a significant degree of consensus was found over the requirements for core metadata; there was also a general agreement with the principle of open access.