Edinburgh eScience Collaborative Workshop:
12th June 2008
The DCC SCARP Project
Colin Neilson
UKOLN and DCC
University of Bath, UK
Funded by:
Digital | Curation | Centre
SCARP
What is it all about?
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Definition, what is meant
Digital Curation
 … “is maintaining and
adding value to a trusted
body of digital information
for current and future use;
specifically, we mean the
active management and
appraisal of data over the
life-cycle of scholarly and
scientific materials” —
DCC website.
 In the widest sense aim to
include “human” expert and
machine based (e.g. text/data
mining) forms of curation
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Main Challenge
How can digital curation practise be promoted in a way
that is appropriate to the different research cultures
in the distinct domains of knowledge?
Can we identify common factors to illuminate an
understanding of a disciplinary landscape as a
setting for development of digital curation taking into
account the observed variability in adoption of digital
working throughout the distinct fields?
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Disciplinary approaches to:
SHARING
CURATION
AND
RE-USE
PRESERVATION
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About the SCARP project
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 JISC project funded for two years (Staff in post from
April 2007)
 Looking at approaches to data deposit, sharing and
re-use, curation and preservation across domains of
knowledge (including disciplinary based and applied
research)
 Looking for, and applying, best practice
 Employs four researchers (University of Edinburgh,
University of Bath, STFC Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory)
 A Digital Curation Centre project building on
previous case study work as part of ongoing phase
two activities
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Approach taken
 Case studies within specific fields (disciplines) in relation to
data creation, sharing and reuse, long term data survival,
deposit, preservation looking at current practice, beliefs and
attitudes, opportunities for uptake of digital curation.
 Immersive approach will include working alongside
researchers and practitioners to reflect participants view of
their endeavours and curation needs
 Literature survey of existing work in each field relevant to
digital curation including organisational and professional
compliance, regulatory and policy documents. Not repeating
work by previous JISC projects. Taking care to include the
work of the professional bodies special to each field.
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 Seeking to include science and engineering based industries
where digital curation can make a critical difference to
knowledge based economic activity.
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Deliverables
 Set of Case Studies : examples of digital curation
practise and opportunities in each disciplinary area.
 Supporting landscape survey, literature review for
each field.
 Final synthesising report : differences and common
factors in explaining the variety of digital curation
practises across disciplines. Any conclusions about
approaches to development in each field.
 Plan to disseminate findings integrated with the
work of the Digital Curation Centre, an “event” at
the end of project such as a conference.
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Activities in specific fields
 Architecture and Engineering
 Medical and Social Sciences
 Biology focusing on studies using
biological images (“small science”)
 Scientific Data Sets and Archives,
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (“big
science”)
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Case Study and Units of
analysis



In a single research group, e.g Neuroimaging Group in the University of Edinburgh’s
Division of Psychiatry
Where there is an existing community around a curation infrastructure, e.g. Earth
Observation community with existing data centres / archives
At the broadest area of disciplinary work e.g. Architecture in the context of Art,
Design and Architecture (ADA) disciplines
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Kinds of research questions
Policy drivers and barriers
 What drives the adoption of the principles, standards and concepts advocated in
UK research institutions’ data policies and guidelines; and how are those policies
and guidelines being informed by current research practice?
Stewardship practices
 How do research teams develop shared practices of data curation, sharing, reuse
and preservation; and to what extent may similarities and differences in these
practices be explained in terms of researchers’ alignment with disciplines or
domains?
Tools and infrastructure
 How are practices of data curation, sharing, reuse and preservation supported with
tools and infrastructure, and how may they be better supported?
Preserving context
 What aspects of the context in which data is created and annotated are relevant to
preserving its value for future research or learning, and how may this be better
supported?
SOURCE: Methods and Tools for SCARP / Angus Whyte et al. v2.1 (28/1/08)
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http://www.dcc.ac.uk/scarp
Colin Neilson
UKOLN, University of Bath
c.neilson@ukoln.ac.uk
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk
Digital | Curation | Centre