This document discusses best practices for supporting open science. It recommends adopting existing solutions where possible rather than developing new ones. It also suggests engaging with researchers, incentivizing open practices, allowing for innovation and failure, collaborating with peers, and keeping service delivery options open. The document concludes by inviting attendees to a workshop on delivering research data management services.

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29/09/2020 1
The do’s and don’ts of
supporting Open Science
www.geant.org
Sarah Jones
EOSC Engagement Manager
sarah.jones@geant.org
Twitter: @sarahroams
4TUResearchData 10th anniversary celebration,
29th September 2020

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To ask your questions go to
www.menti.com
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10 years ago a new repository was launched…
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• Over 900 data collections
deposited in 10 years
• Top 10 have between
2500-8500 views
• Open to deposits beyond
4TU consortium in science,
engineering and design
• 3TU  4TU  ?
Image courtesy of Kevin Ashley, DCC

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What not to do…
Image by Markus Spiske https://unsplash.com/photos/LVieFk4bJSo

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Don’t force!
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Slide courtesy of Marta Teperek, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.55512

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Adopt > Adapt > Develop
If community already has a solution (or there is an emerging one), ADOPT
If necessary, ADAPT it to suit user needs
Only as a last resort DEVELOP an entirely new solution
Why?
• Existing services are established, adopted, mature, more sustainable…
• New development is expensive, costly to support, often inferior…
Don’t reinvent wheels!
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Don’t ignore basic user needs!
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https://xkcd.com/2341

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What to do…
Image by Rod Long https://unsplash.com/photos/EerVj2RHkw0

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• Partner
• Be responsive
• Tailor to user needs
• Fit in with research workflows
• Co-located support staff with researchers
e.g. data stewarship roles, research
software engineers, observational studies
Engage in a meaningful way
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• Pressure to publish is still noted as major stressor for PhDs
• Recognise and reward open practices
- Make it part of promotion criteria
- Ask for examples in grant application CVs, research assessment etc
• Professionalise data roles
• Example of Research Software Engineers p49 doi: 10.2777/1524
• RDA group on professionalising data stewardship
Incentivise the culture change you want to see
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• If you want to find approaches that work well, you need to
be able to experiement, fail, change-course…
• Adopt some aspects from the corporate / business approach
• Constantly monitor landscape and users to know needs
• Objectively evaluate and decide when to fund (or not!)
• Increase flexibility in workplans to respond to changes
Allow for innovation – and failure!
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• Don’t all go it alone – do we really need thousands of
generic institutional data repositories?
• Share lessons – be open about experiences
• Skills sharing akin to datacurationnetwork.org
• Sector-wide procurement to broker better deals e.g. Jisc
data repository framework
Collaborate with peers and work as a sector
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• Open source / open infrastructure
• Bespoke internal services
• Commercial tools
• Self-hosted
• Partnerships
• Run by third-parties
• National services
• Brokering / procurement
Ensure we keep service delivery options open
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What?
How?

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• Procurement pain points
• Open Source business models / open infrastructure
• Partnerships / national models for delivery
Mon 2nd – Fri 6th November 2020
https://events.geant.org/e/rdmservices
Workshop on Delivering RDM services
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Act together
Come together
Image by Tim Marshall https://unsplash.com/photos/cAtzHUz7Z8g

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Thank you
www.geant.org
Any questions?
© GÉANT Association on behalf of the GN4 Phase 2 project (GN4-2).
The research leading to these results has received funding from
the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under Grant Agreement No. 731122 (GN4-2). 16 |
To ask your questions go to
www.menti.com
and use code
65 90 091