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Data Services for the Research Lifecycle: Planning, Collecting, Analyzing, Sharing

Dr. Ashley Jester, Columbia University Libraries

This chapter will discuss data services in the library context, with an emphasis on supporting research through approaches that rely upon subject and technical expertise.  Data services will be considered in a broad disciplinary context, building upon a simple research lifecycle framework.  This chapter will begin with a section covering a basic discussion of supporting data literacy, with an emphasis on encouraging numeracy and applying the (social) scientific method.  This section will also introduce the concept of planning for a research project, including a discussion of selecting a research question, developing a hypothesis, and planning a research agenda.  The following two sections will transition from planning to collecting.  The first of these sections will discuss the creation and use of “original” research data.  This section will emphasize best practices related to data documentation and the research lifecycle, including information about data management plans.  The next section will cover the basics of identifying and selecting secondary data for research, including a discussion of the differences between “data” and “statistics.”  This section will include a discussion on identifying data sources appropriate to the methodology employed by the researcher.  It will also emphasize grounding data selection as part of the research lifecycle, with reference to data management plans and research documentation as discussed in the previous section.  The next section will discuss transition from collecting to analyzing and will focus on the use of data in analysis, including how to support researchers in the use of statistical analysis software such as Stata, SPSS, or R.  This section will emphasize the relationship between statistical analysis and research methodology and the importance of basing the analytical approach on the hypotheses under investigation.  This section will also discuss the importance of reproducible research and strategies for documenting not only the data under use but the analytical approaches undertaken.  The penultimate section will transition from analyzing to sharing and will discuss the preservation and archiving of research data for future use, including the dissemination of research data through publishing.  This section will discuss the importance of data formats and data documentation as required to ensure the longevity of research data.  The final section will conclude, revisiting the research lifecycle framework.

Editorial suggestions...

Open the chapter with the "why/how"--why and how were data support services incorporated into the DSSC reference model? Some questions for thought...

• Why did your library (or you) choose to implement this service?
• What need(s) did you see, that caused you to develop the service?
• What was the decision-making and/or implementation process, or was this an individual on-the-fly response?
• How did this develop? (Briefly speak about development from data-finding to software support to data-analysis support, and ultimately how data services was combined with our traditional reference desk.)

Focus more specifically on what we're doing in the DSSC at Columbia, in the overall chapter.

The ultimate intent of the book is to provide case studies of new models of research support, both to 1) give other academic libraries ideas of what services to implement and how, and 2) to serve as a textbook of examples of new academic library services for LIS students. I can see now I should make this a bit more clear in the book abstract--thanks!

I do like the basic layout of this--you could easily use the research lifecycle as the context for a discussion of what we do in the DSSC. 

It might work well to have a lot of the chapter focus on the underlined sections (above)--I feel like those are the "heart" of what we do in the DSSC, and they are the areas that are most unique compared to other content in the book. There will be (likely) a later chapter on RDM services specifically at University of Edinborough, and another on dissemination through OA resources. So while those are important to include as part of the lifecycle and certainly something that we do, I don't think they should have equal focus.

It looks great so far!  :)