ROS User Forum

Attended ROS user forum in Swindon on Friday 30th November.

Introduction – Mari Williams, BBSRC, Corporate Policy and Strategy

• Why is ROS needed :
o ROS, eVal, GtR needed to support argument for continued investment in Research in next Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) .. was due 2013
o RCs subject to performance management by BIS
o Provide evidence for parliamentary questions (PQs)
o Lots of presentations and consultations to make case for research – need metrics

Aspirations
– RCUK continue to collaborate with HEFCE on alignment with REF
– Harmonise standards

Breakout sessions on Functionality and Communications

Priorities for Functionality

–       Reporting – HEIs want to get data back out and see where data is in workflow
–       integration with existing systems 2 way; bulk upload all data; how prevent individuals entering data also
–       standards and harmonization including lists instead of free-text
–       validation by HEIs ; sign-off .. similar to Je-S

Priorities for Communication and Guidance

–       why collecting .. roadmap/vision [tie-in to other data requirements eg HESA, REF, HEBCI]
–       simplicity of quantity of data ie descope
–       speaking with one voice [all ROS & RCs]
–       simple clear messages
–       actual examples of good practice
–       proper data specification
–       demarcation of responsibility … legal eg when leave or move; PI and CoI and how varies from institution to institution
–       does it replace final report; length of time to report over [RCs almost agreed about these] 

Gateway to Research

• Using data collected from ROS (and eVal/ResearchFish and historical final reports)
• Publications data and Impact and Key Findings
• GtR project working to harmonise data collected via different routes

Important for CiA schema to be extended to include this core set of data – particularly Impact and Key Findings

Open Access

[I had to leave to catch a train … delays due to floods  …]

Understand from Gerry Lawson and Simon Kerridge that RIOXX project due to circulate draft application profile for funder metadata – OA compliance –  for Repositories before Christmas; initially DC but also looking at CERIF. RIOXX aiming to comply with OpenAire also but not confirmed yet.

Would be good to get agreement internationally … 

Research Information meets Research Data!

Presented at the DCC Roadshow in Dundee on ‘Research data meets research information: the IRIOS, C4D, CIA and CRISPool projects’

ROS includes data sets as an output so would be good to add this to CiA … so crossover with C4D work.

See details of workshop and presentations at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/data-management-roadshows/dcc-roadshow-northeast-scotland

Release of CIA survey – please participate

The project has just launched an online survey and we would be grateful if you could participate. The objective of the survey is to conduct a simple “before and after” comparison of institutional processes surrounding the transfer of research activity data by gathering data on the amount of effort required to manage these processes.

As stated elsewhere on the blog, the CERIF standard will be implemented so that information can be easily produced, transferred and used by any other compliant systems. The project is dealing with two use cases:

• Transferring research activity data for staff moving between institutions; and
• Uploading data to the RCUK Research Outcomes System (ROS).

This will then be compared with worked examples of information transfer using the new CERIF-XML approach – representing the ‘after’ data. The comparison data form a key part of the roadmap report looking at possible adoption paths for CERIF-XML.

The Use Case 1 survey above is completed anonymously. It contains 8 questions, and should take only a short time to complete and is available at: https://www.survey.ed.ac.uk/cia .

How will the “before and after” data be compared for upload to ROS?

The Use Case 2 assessment will be carried out in conjunction with RCUK as part of a review of early engagement with the Research Outcomes System, and a survey is being distributed concurrently by RCUK at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ROS-follow-up-survey .

When does the survey close?

The closing date for both surveys will be Friday 21st September.

Can anyone else complete the survey?

Please feel free to distribute these surveys to anyone whom you feel they may be relevant.

————-

Many thanks in advance for your help.

For and on behalf of the project team,
Scott

Non-Publication Research Outputs

You may be interested in this post on our sister project blog.

http://irios2.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/non-publication-output-types/

Project progress

Work on the second workpackage is progressing well and the deliverables from this workpackage are on course to be completed and handed over to the software partners very soon:

• A final functional specification is imminent and thanks to all the project partners who have provided invaluable input to the specification; included in the functional specification are the Classification Schemes that will be required and have been assimilated at the CERIF, local and bespoke levels.
• A mapping exercise has also provided very useful, producing a spreadsheet which maps CERIF attributes and role names to previous projects and we are close to providing a definitive standard model for CERIF in Action. The exercise has also separately mapped the fields required for the Research Outcomes System (ROS) to CERIF.
• Furthermore, a sample CERIF-XML file has been produced which follows the full (defragmented) embedded structure now advocated by euroCRIS.

It is anticipated that the pre-final documents will be distributed early next week for final comments and approval, with a view to handing them over to the software partners later in the week.