A repository based framework for capture, management, curation and dissemination of research data

Based on the e-Bank-UK (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/ebank-uk) and Repository for the Laboratory, R4L (http://r4l.eprints.org) projects, a working model for a scientific data capture, management, curation and dissemination framework will be presented. The eCrystals repository has been constructed on an institutional repository platform and has been configured to ingest small molecule crystallographic data generated by the UK National Crystallography Service, whilst the R4L repository supports a range of different types of analytical chemistry data. This model addresses the current escalating ‘data deluge’ problem through integration of digital libraries technologies with both the research laboratory and also with established publication and dissemination routes. The institutional model provides a potential mechanism for the long term archival and availability of information in a manner that enables the capture of its research data output through integration into the laboratory environment. The repository ingest process ensures full capture of laboratory data and effective metadata creation at the point it is generated. A private archive provides effective management of the data, whilst an embargo procedure allows dissemination of results through a public archive in a timely manner. A schema for the dissemination of crystallographic data has been devised through consultation with the community which enables effective harvesting by data centres and third party aggregator services. The use of persistent identifiers provides a mechanism to permanently link the conventional scholarly article with its associated underlying dataset. Current work is investigating the issues associated with the construction of a federation of data repositories (institutional and subject based) operating on different software platforms and its long term integration into the publishing and chemical information provision processes