©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 1 The Value...

©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 1

The Value of Recording each Step of the Research

Process

Keith G JefferyScience and Technology Facilities Council

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, OX11 0QX UKe-mail: [email protected]


Rutherford Appleton Laboratory


RCUK Shared Services Centre

•Harmonisation of data and processes across all 7 RCs•Manage ~£3 billion per year•£120m project;

– Finance, HR, procurement, payroll, Grants– Using Oracle EBS(e-business suite), Oracle ECM

(enterprise content management) and Siebel CRM (customer relationship management)


RCUK Shared Services Centre

•In context of– RCs Outputs and Outcomes project– HEFCE REF project

•Data warehouse for public use– Plan to use CERIF


STRUCTURE

The Research ProcessStep By Step – what is used and recordedThe common data elementsHow they are (re-)usedImportance of timeConclusion


The IssueIncreasing numbers of researchersIncreasing output per researcher

– Publications– Patents– Products

• metadata for research datasets

Effort to catalog - input metadata– Too great (for the user)– Does not scale (with increasing numbers)


The NotionThe research process is a workflow with e-forms

– At each step (meta) information is required and stored incrementally (re-use, minimal effort)

The researcher sees benefit from the process: examples

– Automated CV– Automated publication list– Tracking competing and cooperating teams– Research visible to intermediaries for exploitation– Boilerplate information for research proposals


The R&D Process

Workprogramme

Proposal

Project

Results

Exploitation

WealthCreation

CRISDATABASE

Information from external systems and CRIS


STRUCTURE



Research Process

Workprogramme

Proposal

Project

Results

Exploitation

WealthCreation

CRISDATABASE

Information from external systems and CRIS


The R&D ProcessRecording WorkProgramme

Workprogramme ProgrammeNameFundingOrgUnitPerson

Workprogramme document

CRISDATABASE


The R&D ProcessRecording Proposal

Proposal

TitleAbstract

Person(s)OrgUnit(s)

Proposal Document

CRISDATABASE


The R&D ProcessRecording Project

Project

TitleAbstract

Person(s)OrgUnit(s)

FundingProject Plan

CRISDATABASE


The R&D ProcessRecording Results-Product

Results

Person(s)OrgUnit(s)Project(s)

Product(s)Product Description

CRISDATABASE


The R&D ProcessRecording Results-Patent

Results

Person(s)OrgUnit(s)Project(s)Patent(s)

Patent File

CRISDATABASE


The R&D ProcessRecording Results-Publication

Results

Person(s)OrgUnit(s)Project(s)

Bibliographic InformationArticle

CRISDATABASE


The R&D ProcessRecording Exploitation

Exploitation

Person(s)OrgUnit(s)

Business planFinance Data

Marketing DataProduction Data

Sales Data

CRISDATABASE


The R&D ProcessRecording Wealth Creation

WealthCreation

Person(s)OrgUnit(s)

Annual Reports/AccountsEmployment Records

Dividends Records

CRISDATABASE


The R&D Process

Workprogramme

Proposal

Project

Results

Exploitation

WealthCreation

Note:

some CRIS developers limit recording of outputs from the process to areas indicated

Nir

van

a


STRUCTURE



Common Data Elements

ProjectPersonOrganisational UnitPublicationFundingCV

SkillsServiceFacilityEquipmentEventProductPatent

In many requirements for input or output of the record of research need:


PROJECT

ORGUNIT

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

ContactResults

PublicationResultsPatentResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

ClassificationPrize/Award

PERSON

CERIF


CERIF•It is no accident that CERIF records these common data elements •And that CERIF is extensible through the linking relation mechanism

– Generally (everyone)– Specifically (for one implementation)

•Even to external systems e.g. for finance, human resources, project management, business plans, …….

the CERIF Task Group of euroCRIS manages the evolution of CERIF www.eurocris.org/cerif


STRUCTURE



Dealing with the Issue: Progressive

Recordingearly research ideas or work in progress : grey document

– described by appropriate metadata (title, abstract….) input at the time of deposit.

– publication metadata linked to pre-existing research information (such as person, organisational unit, project) in a temporal and role-based context.


Progressive RecordingGrey Document

Greydoc

Publicationmetadata

Person

Project

OrgUnit

new

Funding


Dealing with the Issue: Progressive Recording

early research ideas or work in progress : grey document

– described by appropriate metadata (title, abstract….) input at the time of deposit.

– publication metadata linked to pre-existing research information (such as person, organisational unit, project) in a temporal and role-based context.

grey document developed into a white publication

– additional publication metadata is input at the time of submission.

– linked through temporal and role-based relationships to the pre-existing grey publication

– and to the pre-existing contextual information such as persons, organisational units etc.


Progressive RecordingWhite document

Greydoc

Publicationmetadata

Person

Project

OrgUnit

Whitedoc

Publicationmetadata

new

Funding


Dealing with the Issue: Re-Use for Scalability

Record (meta)data once: re-use many timesRecord only the metadata available and needed at each process step

– Automated input assistance - quality– Reduces input required

Addresses scalability and high user effort threshold, improves quality


STRUCTURE



Time•Time in the way research is done

– Progressive

•Time in the way research is recorded

– Workflow, prior claim

•Time in the way research is used– Timeliness, relevance

•Time in the way research is analysed

– History, provenance, periodic


STRUCTURE



CRIS Features Required

Entity instance attribute data collected once and storedEntity instances related flexibly (n:m)Entity instances related by role and temporal limits (semantics)Input incremental, flexible, validated (minimum effort)System extensible (add new attributes,entities preserving previous datastructure for interoperation)System interoperable – CRIS (to create world view)System linkable – other systems used in research process (eg finance, HR, project management to utilise them for CRIS purposes)


CERIF-CRISIt is no accident that CERIF (Common European Research Information Format) provides a datamodel with exactly these desirable properties. Linking relations are the key feature

– temporal and role information Critical to answer questions like:

– “during what time interval was person A project leader of project P?”

– “to which research group(s) did person A belong when she produced publication X?”


CERIF-CRISFurther featuresInference:

– in a multidimensional framework, – deduction or induction of relationships between entities

• eg between a grey internal report and a white published paper - and with other research outputs such as datasets or software.

Fact generation– automated generation of facts

• eg (1) Person A on Project P produces Paper X;• (2) Project P uses Equipment E• (3) Paper X states used Equipment E• Person A uses Equipment E

– the generated data may be • recorded in the CERIF-CRIS • deduced / induced afresh each time it is required.


CERIF-CRISFurther features

Assertions– relationships between entity instances (eg documents) can also be

expressed explicitly (i.e. asserted)• eg references and / or citations can be recorded by directly inputting

the information into the CERIF-CRIS.

Metrics– role-based temporal relationships between entity instances (eg

publications)– provides detailed research output metrics, – increasingly in demand from CRISs as research institutions seek to

justify their funding and to improve their relative standing in league tables

– while funding organisations seek to justify their decisions.


CERIF-CRISSummary

through the flexible and dynamic linking relations between entities,

– with their role and time-stamped attributes,

a rich context for understanding the R&D output is provided, including versions, history and provenance.

This context is particularly important for other users of CRISs such as

– entrepreneurs engaged in technology transfer and wealth creation – the media explaining to the public the importance of the research

being done.


CERIF-CRIS at the Centre

Acting as metadataRelating CRIS information to itself

– Flexible linking relations

And to information in other systems– Eg publications repository– Eg e-research datasets and software

And Via GRIDs environment to other research process systems

– E.g. finance, HR, project management


CERIF-CRIS at One Organisation

Publicationrepository

DatasetSoftwarerepository

Finance system

HumanResources

system

Project Management

system

CERIF-CRIS

Web pages DirectoryServices

This is fine for one organisation but research is international, so…


CERIF Interoperation

CERIF-CRIS CERIF-CRIS

CERIF-CRIS

CERIF provides interoperation of CRIS and associated systems with formal syntax and declared semantics so that it is reliable and scalable.

Interconnect

Backplane


CRIS & e-Infrastructure

network

Data &

Compute

servers

Detector

arrays

middleware

applications

CERIF-CRIS

Access control / UI / accounting

users


Prof. Keith G Jeffery CEng, CITP, FBCS, FGS, HFICSDirector, IT & International Strategy

STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

[email protected]

©STFC/Keith G Jeffery The value of recording each step of the research process 200909 1 The Value...

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