Smith, P.L., II’s scientific contributions

In 2011, GreyNet embarked on an Enhanced Publications Project with DANS, Data Archiving and Networked Services in an effort to circumvent the data versus document camps entrenched in grey literature communities1. The results of that project served to incorporate in GreyNet’s workflow the acquisition, indexing, and linking of research data with their full-text and accompanying metadata2,3. Recently, GreyNet discussed with a data management librarian from the University of Florida a proposed follow-up project dealing with data papers – a new document type within grey literature. Data papers are defined as scholarly publications of a searchable metadata document describing a particular online accessible dataset or a group of datasets published in accordance to standard academic practices. As such, data papers represent a scholarly communication approach to data sharing4. The outcome of that discussion led to the formation of a project team with the twofold purpose of producing and publishing a set of data papers originating in the field of grey literature, and in so doing raise awareness to this new document type by demonstrating its value for library and information science. The method of approach includes the construction of an online standardized template that encompasses a data paper, defining the population asked to complete the template, instruction and further contact with the authors/researchers during the course of the project, along with an analysis of the results. The anticipated outcome of the project would provide a tested template that could be used by other grey literature communities in the production of data papers. It would demonstrate how OA, DSA5 and FAIR6 principles are implemented and reinforced via data papers. And, it would further provide examples of how data citations can generate trusted bibliographic references.

The data collected is based on the responses of fifty authors/researchers, who have presented full-text papers published in the International Conference Series on Grey Literature. The dataset consists of ten questions, three of which are open-ended. The data contains the number and percentages of responses to questions dealing with the author’s own empirical research data, its current availability, and the author’s willingness to archive the data and make it openly accessible. The data in this study was collected and computer analyzed via Survey Monkey, where it remains stored along with a copy in Excel housed in the DANS Easy Archive. The data from the study was collected in 2011 within the framework of an enhanced publications project². Since then, emphasis on data preservation, open access, and the reuse of data has increased exponentially. This data from six years ago offers a valuable baseline that would allow for a follow-up questionnaire in part or whole. Hereby, one would stand to gain insight into changing attitudes and practices within GreyNet’s research community and renders potential (re)use by other professional research communities.

This conference proceeding paper is the written version component of the data panel discussion on developing a dataset collection using Zenodo for a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the University of Florida. An internal University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries Strategic Opportunities Program (SOP) grant award provided support for the creation and development of an initial supplemental datasets digital collection of large, static variant call format (vcf) in zenodo. The “Documenting a Genomics Variant Files Data Management: Developing Research Data management (RDM) workflows and providing research data access via HPC” project inspired this paper. The large vcf datasets used for this project ranged from 34 megabytes to 43 gigabytes. The researcher needed to (1) develop a data repository for supplemental datasets vcf files too large for attachment as supplemental data files for journal submissions, (2) provide digital object identifiers (DOIs) for all vcf dataset files, and (3) link the supplemental vcf dataset files to the journal article via the vcf doi. These three outcomes were accomplished during phase 1 (June 2016 – December 2016) of this project and presented at the GL18. Phase 2 (January 2017 – June 2017) of this project includes performing (1) a dataset reproducibility interview, (2) an open archival initiative protocol for metadata harvest (OAI-PMH) from Zenodo to the University of Florida institutional repository ([email protected]), and (3) developing a similar use case project for researchers in UF/IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station (NCBS).