Questions and Answers

This page aims to explain and demystify subjects and terms used in the project such as data, open access, data sharing, research data and the research lifecyle. The information will be presented in a straightforward manner as a series of questions and answers. Some of the questions we'll be asking and answering are:

1. Q. What are digital repositories, open access repositories, institutional repositories?
2. Q. What is a data library?
3. Q. What does the project mean by 'data'?
4. Q. What is a dataset / data set?

1. According to Heery and Anderson (2006) a repository is differentiated from other digital collections by the following characteristics:
   • content is deposited in a repository, whether by the content creator, owner or third party
   • the repository architecture manages content as well as metadata
   • the repository offers a minimum set of basic services e.g. put, get, search, access control
   • the repository must be sustainable and trusted, well-supported and well-managed.
   
   Furthermore, open access repositories allow their content to be accessed openly (e.g. downloaded by any user on the WWW) as well as their metadata to be harvested openly (by other servers, e.g. Google or scholarly search engines).
   
   Finally, institutional repositories are those that are run by institutions, such as Universities, for various purposes including showcasing their intellectual assets, widening access to their published outputs, and managing their information assets over time. These differ from subject-specific or domain-specific repositories, such as Arxiv (for Physics papers) and Jorum (for learning objects).
   
   
2. A data library refers to both the content and the services that foster use of collections of numeric and/or geospatial data sets for secondary use in research. (Wikipedia, 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_libraries).



3. By data, we do not mean a synonym for information. We mean research data, that which is collected, observed, or created, for purposes of analysing to produce original research results. This differs from what is commonly called research outputs, which are the peer reviewed, published papers/articles/books/presentations that are produced as a result of data analysis.
   
   
4. Datasets (or data sets) are a group of data files in any format along with the documentation files (such as a codebook, technical report, methodology) which explain their production or use. Generally a dataset is un-usable by a second party unless both parts are included.

More questions, and answers! coming soon.

For further information about the DISC-UK DataShare project contact the Robin Rice (Project Manager) - r.rice@ed.ac.uk