On 7–10 June, the IASSIST 2022 conference takes place in Gothenburg, with SND as their host organization. The theme for this year’s conference is “Data by Design – Building a Sustainable Data Culture”. Several members of the SND staff will be present at the conference. In the weeks leading up to the conference, we will present some of the sessions with SND staff.
Max Petzold, SND Director and Professor of bio-statistics at the University of Gothenburg, is one of the speakers in the workshop “Tackling the Open Data challenge with effective metrics – shaping best practices” on 9 June.
Tell us a little about your presentation at the IASSIST conference
The main purpose of this workshop is to discuss the metrics and incentives that may be needed to increase access to open research data. To put it simply, it’s about the question “What’s in it for us?”. Researchers and institutions, such as the universities, shall be able to use these metrics to show that they’ve successfully followed recommendations for open data and other requirements from funders and other stakeholders.
We’ll also discuss best practices for how to collect this type of information and create visibility for accessible research data. The discussion focuses on a database at the publishing company Elsevier, where they’ve been able to analyse the occurrence of datasets connected to publications. The results show that the publication of datasets has increased steadily over the past ten years. They also show that up to 90 percent of the published datasets can be found in domain-specific repositories, which makes it difficult to get an overview over and collect the information. Here we can see how infrastructures such as SND in Sweden and DANS in the Netherlands can contribute with their national missions to make all types of research data visible and accessible.
Why is it important to share and discuss this with other people?
These are vital questions for SND: how should we think about domain-specific repositories and about how to compile and visualize the entire picture? They’re also important questions for HEIs and researchers: how can we measure successful results related to open science? It’s also fundamental that we involve SUHF [the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions] in the discussion about which metrics to use and how publication and dissemination of research data can be credited in connection to recruiting and promotions. During the workshop, Gustav Nilsonne and others will talk about the work with reward system and open science that SUHF is doing.
What are you looking forward to at the IASSIST conference and what do you hope to take away from it?
I’m really looking forward to the banquet! We can finally meet for real again and exchange experiences.
Is there anything else you want to add?
I’d like to mention that we’re hoping to welcome the RDA 10-year jubilee to Gothenburg. SND and Chalmers have been asked to host the event in spring 2023, to mark the 10th anniversary of when RDA was founded, right here in Gothenburg.
You can find an invitation to the workshop here. Last date for registration is 31 May.
Apart from this workshop, Max Petzold will also present SND’s efforts to make research data accessible: “SND – a Swedish national collaboration”. This presentation is also held on 9 June.