Integration of an active research data system with a data repository to streamline the research data lifecycle : Pure-NOMAD case study

Abstract

Research funders have introduced requirements that expect researchers to properly manage and publicly share their research data, and expect institutions to put in place services to support researchers in meeting these requirements. So far the general focus of these services and systems has been on addressing the final stages of the research data lifecycle (archive, share and re-use), rather than stages related to the active phase of the cycle (collect/create and analyse). As a result, full integration of active data management systems with data repositories is not yet the norm, making the streamlined transition of data from an active to a published and archived status an important challenge. In this paper we present the integration between an active data management system developed in-house (NOMAD) and Elsevier’s Pure data repository used at our institution with the aim of offering a simple workflow to facilitate and promote the data deposit process. The integration results in a new data management and publication workflow that helps researchers to save time, minimize human errors related to manually handling files, and further promote data deposit together with collaboration across the institution.