Start date: 1 September 2003
End date: 31 August 2004
Funding programme: Support for e-Research programme
Project website:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/ebank-uk/
JISC theme(s): e-Research, Information environment
eBank UK is a 12-month project that will investigate the issues surrounding provenance and the use and re-use of original data for research and learning purposes, and will result in the development of an eBank UK pilot service for the benefit of the HE and FE communities. It builds on existing JISC-funded development of a repository for metadata relating to research articles (ePrints UK) and on outputs from the EPSRC-funded e-Science Combechem Project. The concepts underpinning the pilot bring together both research and learning & teaching activities in an innovative manner and they seek to demonstrate the direct relationship between the two areas, which results in the growth and development of rich knowledge structures. The project is to be led by UKOLN, University of Bath in partnership with the University of Southampton, and PSIgate, University of Manchester.
Aims and Objectives
The overall aim of the project is to create a pilot UK service providing a repository of metadata describing research data and to build links to associated eprints and peer-reviewed articles.
The specific aims are to:
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Identify the wider issues and requirements of stakeholders relating to the discovery, access, use and re-use of research data, Grid datasets and derived information contained in digital libraries and virtual learning environments.
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Produce a version of the e-prints.org software for research data.
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Develop and test a pilot service based on the eprints UK service, hosted on the RND website with an interface to the PSIgate portal/gateway.
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Populate the eBank repository with metadata relating to data and publications.
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Publish two supporting studies: 1) on provenance that will contain a review of current research, issues and challenges; 2) on dataset descriptions and schema that will contain a feasibility report on metadata and schema relating to datasets and will focus on the chemistry domain.
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Evaluate the project outcomes through a consultative workshop for the wider community and make recommendations to the JISC for future work.
Project Methodology
The project activities are a mix of technical development work, desk-based research and evaluation/consultation with the community. The project represents an opportunity to bring together the digital library community with the Grid / computer science community in a very practical way and the approach will reflect the strong partnership between these groups.
Deliverables
The project deliverables will include a pilot service to be tested and evaluated by the user community. Within the context of the JISC Information Environment architecture, eBank-UK will act as an aggregation / fusion service, conforming to common standards and protocols. The two supporting studies will deliver valuable documentary reports which will inform both the funders and the wider community. The views of stakeholders will be pro-actively gathered and represented at the consultation workshop and this aspect of the project is viewed as essential to the parallel technical development process. It is hoped that the project outcomes will have the potential for very significant long-term impact on the whole scholarly communications process. The availability of original data, together with the ability to track its use in subsequent research work, scholarly publications or learning materials, has implications on the validation of research outputs, on their dissemination and on the richness of associated learning experiences.