2012 University of California Larry L. Sautter Award Application

Due: The deadline for submission of applications isMay 15, 2012, by 5:00 p.m.

DMPTool

Guidance and Resources for Data Management Plans

Submitted by:

Perry Willett, Digital Preservation Service Manager

California Digital Library (CDL)

University of California Office of the President

415 20th St., 4th Floor

Oakland CA 94612-2901

email:

ph: 510-987-0078

Participating Organizations

  • University of California Curation Center (UC3), CDL
  • UCLA Library
  • UC San Diego Libraries
  • Smithsonian Institution
  • DataONE Consortium
  • University of Illinois
  • University of Virginia Library

Full list of participants is on page 4.

Project Highlights

The DMPTool an easy way for UC researchers to create and edit data management plans now required by most major federal funding programs. The DMPTool provides step-by-step guidance for researchers, helping them to respond to all aspects of data management expected by funding agencies, and also pointing them to resources available within UC and CDL for archiving and sharing research data.

Project Description

In January 2011, the (U.S.) National Science Foundation (NSF) published requirements stating that new grant proposals to the NSF must include data management plans describing plans for data acquisition, description, archiving and sharing. Other U.S. agencies, including the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have followed NSF’s lead by also requiring that new grant proposals include a data management plan. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires that Principal Investigators for grants with awards of more than $500,000describe plans for data sharing.

UC researchers received almost $500 million in grant funding from the NSF in 2010, and millions of dollars more from these other agencies. In order to remain competitive for future grants, they need to provide good data management plans in their grant proposals. They may not be aware of the services and resources available to them for data management—digital repositories, websites describing best practices, consultation services, workshops, partnering opportunities. Connecting researchers with these services and resources will result in better data management, better projects and ultimately better research. This helps fulfill the university’s goal of “transmitting advanced knowledge, discovering new knowledge, and functioning as an active working repository of organized knowledge.”[1]

In the fall of 2010, the UC Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library partnered with the UCLA Library, UC San Diego Libraries and several other organizations to develop a tool to aid researchers with these new requirements.[2]From the beginning, we had two goals for the DMPTool:

  • To provide researchers with step-by-step guidance for writing data management plans that respond to the precise instructions of funding agencies;
  • To highlight resources and services available to scholars to meet data management requirements

We quickly organized into working groups to develop requirements and build the software.

The process was highly collaborative and resulted in the DMPTool. The software, built with Ruby on Rails, is available as free and open source[3]. The real benefit of the service, however, is the analysis and expertise recorded in the database. The team identifies funding agencies with data management requirements for their grants, determines the questions these agencies want researchers to address, and models the questions within the DMPTool. This analysis benefits everyone using the DMPTool, makinga centrally-hosted service more attractive. CDL hosts the service, leveraging the technical infrastructure and expertise available in-house.

Innovation

Our initial idea was to implement software developed by one of our partners, the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) in the UK. Their tool, aimed at UK researchers, is called DMP Online[4] and provides the same kind of step-by-step instruction that we wanted to give our researchers. However, after careful consideration, we determined that while we could (and did) learn from the DCC’s experience, we wanted to develop a tool more closely aligned with both of our goals to provide step-by-step guidance and highlight local resources and services.

The framework we developed is flexible enough to meet the requirements of the several federal funding agencies along with one private foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Even though these various funders have differing requirements, we can accurately represent all of them within the DMPTool.

Usability/accessibility

Although it is a simple application, we worked hard to be sure that the DMPTool is usable, accessible, and useful for researchers. In order to achieve this, we made user testing a high priority:

  • We conducted structured usability tests at the University of Virginia usability lab and at California Polytechnical State University at San Luis Obisbo.
  • We worked with an accessibility specialist at the University of Illinois to determine how to improve accessibility for sight-impaired users.
  • We worked with researchers from the DataONE consortium, testing several iterations of interface designs and workflows.

The results are a highly user-friendly and accessible service open to everyone that meets significant needs of researchers. As a web-based resource, the enduser requires no special software.

Options for customization

With a goal of connecting researchers with local resources and services for data management, we make it easy for librarians, archivists and IT staff to customize the DMPTool. One simple step that organizations can take is to configure their campus Shibboleth identity provider. The DMPTool uses LDAP for basic authentication, requiring researchers to create and manage a user account within the tool. Once an institution configures its Shibboleth identity provider, researchers can log in via their campus single-signon, freeing them of the need to manage yet another user account within the DMPTool. 50 institutions have taken this step, accounting for approximately half of all users.

More significant is the opportunity for institutions to include links to services and resources they provide for data management. Institutions can include an email address to be contacted when one of their researchers have a question; they can provide links to webpages that will appear in all data management plans or aimed at specific questions asked by funders. For example, they can highlight their digital repository in questions about long-term storage. Institutions can also create blogposts to highlight events, workshops or new services related to data management, and these posts will appear to their users within the DMPTool. The CDL has customized the DMPTool for most UC campuses, pointing to the many services and resources we provide for data management. UC San Diego has also customized the DMPTool to point to the Research Cyberinfrastructure available to UCSD researchers. 16 other institutions have taken this step by adding links to local resources and services.

Collaboration

This project required close collaboration, given our expectations and short deadline. All aspects of the project, from writing requirements to designing the interface to developing the software, were self-funded and required constant communication and careful management to keep moving forward. Librarians at CDL, UCLA and UCSD served on the steering committee with colleagues at the other member institutions, and held regular meetings to keep the project on track. Developers at CDL worked closely with colleagues at UCLA and University of Illinois, dividing up the work and helping each other integrate their work as they added functionality or addressed problems. While it’s common to collaborate with partners on planning, requirements, and testing, it was the first time many of us had participated in a distributed software development project like this, and the results were extremely gratifying. See the full list of project team members on page 4.

Measuring success

The DMPTool was released in October 2011, and has received a great deal of attention. As described above, we have provided ways for institutions to partner with us and customize the DMPTool for their researchers. Without much in the way of a marketing campaign, we have received a steady stream of expressions of interest from institutions. 50 institutions have configured their Shibboleth identity providers for the DMPTool, including 7 UC campuses and UCOP, and more are added every month. 18 institutions have customized the DMPTool for their researchers.

The best measure of success is in the use of the DMPTool. As of the end of April 2012, we have over 1600 users who have created over 1200 data management plans. Uptake among UC researchers has been notable. There are almost 400 users from UC campuses and they’ve created over 300 data management plans. These users represent hundreds of research projects applying for grant support, and the DMPTool helps make their proposals more competitive.

Project team members

University of California Curation Center (UC3), CDL

  • Patricia Cruse, Director, UC3
  • Stephen Abrams, Senior Manager for Digital Preservation Technology
  • Scott Fisher, Software Developer
  • Margaret Low, Systems Administrator
  • Mark Reyes, Software Developer
  • Marisa Strong, Lead DMPTool Software Developer
  • Tracy Seneca , Information Architect
  • Perry Willett, DMPTool Project Manager

UCLA Library

  • Darrow Cole, Programmer Analyst
  • Todd Grappone, Associate University Librarian
  • Gary Thompson, Programmer Analyst

UCSD Libraries

  • Brad Westbrook, Digital Archivist and Metadata Librarian

DataONE Consortium

  • Amber Budden, Director for Community Engagement and Outreach

Smithsonian Institution

  • Günter Waibel, Director, Digitization Program Office

University of Illinois

  • Michael Grady, Executive Program Officer for Cyberinfrastructure
  • Howard Ding, Programmer Analyst
  • Sarah Shreeves, Coordinator, Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS)

University of Virginia Library

  • Andrew Sallans, Head of Strategic Data Initiatives
  • Sherry Lake, Senior Scientific Data Consultant
  • Carla Lee, Director Science Engineering and Education Services

Digital Curation Centre (UK)

  • Martin Donnelly, Senior Institutional Support Officer

[1] University of California Mission Statement,

[2] Partner institutions include: California Digital Library, UCLA Library, UC San Diego Libraries, DataONE consortium, Digital Curation Centre (UK), Smithsonian Institution, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Virginia Library.

[3] Available at

[4] Available at