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Work Plan 2017

Projects

Controlled Vocabularies (CV) Manager

Controlled vocabularies (CV) will form a crucial part of the forthcoming CESSDA metadata standard. The vocabularies will be used to aid information retrieval in the CESSDA Product and Services Catalogue and in Euro Question Bank as well.

Therefore CESSDA needs a tool that will allow the creation, versioning and maintenance of controlled vocabularies, their translation into all member languages, and access to all CVs. The tool would make vocabulary work quicker, less labour intensive and less error-prone.

As CESSDA will use DDI-controlled vocabularies whenever available, there would be significant synergy benefits for CESSDA if the same tool would also be used for DDI-controlled vocabularies work. A joint tool would speed up vocabulary creation, remove the need to maintain vocabularies in two places, and facilitate access to vocabularies for various purposes through an API or exports in required formats.

UKDS leads the work task. FSD, GESIS, SND and UKDS will produce stakeholder requirements for the tool in cooperation with DDI Alliance and CMM (CESSDA Metadata Management), and will carry out user testing. Choice of participating organisations is based on their involvement in both the DDI CV group and CESSDA Metadata Management (CMM) as this expertise is needed for producing appropriate stakeholder requirements.

The CESSDA Technical Working Group will assess whether there are existing tools that could be bought and further customised for this purpose. If there are no such tools, a new tool will be developed. As it is almost certain that existing tools do not meet all the requirements needed, there will be extensive coding regardless whether an existing or a new tool is chosen. The persons/organisations responsible for tool development will be decided only after investigation into the available tools has been finalised and conclusions made. FSD and UKDS will produce the user guide.

Duration

January 2017 - September 2018

Participants

UKDS (lead), FSD, GESIS, SND.

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CESSDA Expert Seminar 2017

Revised legal and ethical framework and archiving and use of new types of data

Participants

NSD and GESIS

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CESSDA Product and Service Catalogue phase 2

The goal is to build up a central one-stop-shop for search/discovery of micro data sets relevant to social science research. The PaSC will be the main interaction point between CESSDA and researchers, and needs to support required functionality and workflows to fulfil this role.

The PaSC will not hold any data, or itself provide direct access to data, instead it will automatically, frequently and periodically collect (harvest) metadata from Service Providers and other sources, and use the metadata to power the its functionality. Fully automated harvesting is crucial to ensure that PaSC content is updated, and that it points to valid and correct end-points on the Service Provider-level.

For access to the data, PaSC will direct researchers to the source/service where the data may be obtained or analysed.

The project runs in multiple implementation phases over three years. The intention of phase 1 (in 2016) was to establish the requirements, which will be implemented throughout the subsequent phases (from 2017 onwards). This phase will determine the final architecture and implementation choices for the PaSC and will deploy a stable and expansible system.

The ongoing Technical Framework project provides a backbone for the Product and Service Catalogue work and other technical developments. It will help remove barriers to entry for all Service Providers, as it will enable them to get up to speed with the required approach for developing service components, without the need to install, configure and maintain a full suite of software development tools within their own infrastructure.

Duration

January 2017 - December 2017

Participants

UKDS (leads), CESSDA MO, DANS, FORS, FSD, GESIS, NSD.

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CESSDA Metadata Management phase 2

This project will develop further the CESSDA Metadata Portfolio version 1 built in the CESSDA Metadata Management (CMM) project from the 2015 Work Plan that ends in April 2017. CMM2 will make it possible to align optimally with other CESSDA initiatives like the Product and Service Catalogue, OSMH, the Euro Question Bank, as well as the DDI CVG and DDI Moving Forward project.

The CMM Phase 2 tasks are:

  1. Management and promotion
  2. Extended Core Metadata Model
  3. Extended Controlled Vocabularies (CVs)
  4. Management and Maintenance Plan for the Portfolio (both the Core model and CVs)
  5. User guidelines and best practices
  6. Impact analysis

The work will be carried out in co-operation with other relevant WP tasks and CESSDA Working Groups. The new version of the Portfolio will be an extension of Portfolio version 1, and the removal of or major modifications to original elements are unlikely.

It is assumed that once the proposed Phase 2 is complete, the Portfolio will not need major changes or updates for several years after its implementation unless the functional requirements change significantly.

Duration

May 2017 - December 2018

Participants

FSD (lead), ADP, DDA, GESIS, NSD, SND, UKDS.

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Technical Framework phase 3

This project is concerned with building and maintain the technical infrastructure that forms the backbone of CESSDA’s Research Infrastructure.

The aim is to automate and document various workflows, update the Technical Architecture document, disseminate the software development guidelines and elicit feedback on them, continue to enrole developers to the development environment and revise the Metadata Harvester and Repository Handlers to comply with the CESSDA Metadata Management model.

A monthly virtual meeting will be used to monitor progress, track spending, plan activities and resources for the next period.

Duration

January 2017 - December 2017

Participants

UKDS (lead), CESSDA MO, DANS, DNA/DDA, FORS, FSD, GESIS, PROGEDO, NSD, SND.

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CESSDA PID Policy

The work on a policy framework on PID for CESSDA started in 2015 by setting the agenda for a common approach. In 2016 GESIS and invited partners (DANS and SND) set up the PID Task Force and drafted the Policy Principles. The aim of a common PID policy was defined as: to introduce the use of PID in all CESSDA Service Providers (SP) to be able to locate, reference, identify and cite data in a non-ambiguous way.

In 2017 the PID Policy Framework will be finalised. In 2017, the component of the PID Policy Framework to be developed by the PID Task Force are the PID Best Practice Guidelines. In September 2017 the final documents will be delivered to the CESSDA SP for feedback and then the complete PID Policy Framework including the documents developed in 2015 and 2016 will be given to the CESSDA GA for final approval. The PID Task Force will then provide assistance for the CESSDA Service Providers in the implementation phase (help desk, webinar).

The project has three phases:

  1. Collect best practice examples and draft the PID Best Practice Guidelines. Additional desk research will be carried out if needed. The results of the review will be summarised in a report. The Task Force will meet monthly in virtual meetings.
  2. It is planned to hold a webinar on the PID Best Practice Guidelines to collect feedback from the CESSDA Service Providers.
  3. Finalising the PID Best Practice Guidelines and submitting the full PID Policy Framework to the GA.

Duration

1 January 2017 - 31 December 2017

Participants

GESIS (lead), DANS, SND.

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Data Discovery Workshops

Work on data discovery is already underway in the 2016 Work Plan in the framework of the CESSDA Training project. The Data Discovery group will meet regularly throughout 2017 and aims to complete further work on data discovery training, such as gathering materials from CESSDA Service Providers and making them available via the CESSDA website.

The purpose of this project is to widen the user base of CESSDA data and promote the understanding of complicated datasets and their potential.

The group is also planning further proposals for 2018 on Data Discovery Training for CESSDA.

What will be delivered

The project will offer three workshops to CESSDA users, post graduate and senior researchers from across Europe who are seeking to conduct research with data hosted at CESSDA Service Providers (SPs).

They will be hosted at different locations across Europe and members of staff from different SPs will act as lecturers. Lecturers from Eurostat will also be involved in the workshop on EU-LFS (EU Labour Force Survey) data. All materials will be made available via the CESSDA website.

The courses will take place in the UK, Germany and one other location depending on offer. The teachers will be invited from all SPs. The choice of teachers and locations will be done by the CESSDA Training Group.

Duration

1 January 2017 - 31 December 2017

Participants

UKDS (lead), GESIS.

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Collaborative data management module for comparative social science researchers

This project will capitalise on the wide collective knowledge of all CESSDA Service Providers in teaching good research data management practices. It will bring the practitioners together, with the aim to create a single online module on research data management for researchers that can be used across national borders.

Usefulness of the project

This module will be designed to teach researchers basic data management knowledge and skills. It will address the needs of a wide range of researchers. The content will be in line with Horizon2020 requirements, will address current data management planning requirements and will teach about FAIR principles. It will use international examples and examples from comparative research.

Experienced data management practitioners across CESSDA will join forces, creating content with an added value at a European level. This content will be used for training across the CESSDA partnership, as well as to support and influence data management policies for the commission, thereby creating high level impact for CESSDA in the long term.

What will we deliver

The training module will have online and offline components, mainly in English. Content will include theory, exercises, videos and quizzes. Researchers can follow the training online as a stand-alone module, or practitioners can use materials to deliver face-to-face training. The module will be creatively made in collaboration with a web designer to ensure high visual quality. Once the module is complete it will be tested by various partners in face-to-face teaching.

Learning objective

For researchers to acquire essential knowledge and skills on storing, managing, archiving and sharing their research data according to best practices in the field and be able to comply with Open Research Data requirements.

Course

15 hours of online interactive stand-alone content, with additional more advance materials for use in face-to-face training workshops. Trainers will be provided with exercises, group work and guidelines to use the material for one-day face-to-face workshop.

Duration

1 January 2017 - 31 December 2017

Participants

DANS (lead), ADP, CSDA, EKKE, FORS, FSD, PROGEDO, NSD, RODA*, SND, UCD*, UKDS.

* means that participants are involved as observers until they reach full membership of CESSDA.

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Euro Question Bank phase 3

The aim of the project is to develop and implement the Euro Question Bank (EQB), a central search facility across all CESSDA’s survey holdings.

The EQB will be based on the DDI-Lifecycle metadata standard, and a close collaboration with the CESSDA Metadata Management project will be undertaken. The Open Source Metadata Harvester tool will be further developed for this. It will be easy for CESSDA Service Providers to contribute documentation from their holdings standardised metadata. It will be possible to integrate EQB into the CESSDA Product and Services Portal.

The work in 2017 will be concentrated around “Broad Application and Enhanced Functionality”. Feedback on the prototype application will be gathered with a structured survey and it will be used to build a revised work plan. The data and metadata model will be extended for a second prototype. A user workshop will be organised, and a first productive application will be delivered.

This project supports the pre-allocated task of GESIS and will make it possible to work with CESSDA partners. GESIS will take the main project management and software development responsibilities as well as dissemination activities. Feedback by service providers will be gathered and a revised work-plan will be defined. Basic functionality from the first prototype will be bug-fixed and content will be imported as well as workshops with users will be organised. Project management, presentations, and project reports will be prepared.

Duration

1 January 2017 - 31 December 2017

Participants

GESIS (lead), DANS, DDA, FSD, FORS, NSD, SND, TARKI*, UKDA.

* means that participants are involved as observers until they reach full membership of CESSDA.

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Trust 2017 activities

The activities of the Trust Working Group will (for an important part) be covered by the CESSDA SaW project (task 4.3).

Additional activities will be needed in 2017 for the following reasons:

  1. The CESSDA SaW project does not run the whole year.
  2. The Working Group thinks it is necessary that in 2017 some additional meetings have to be organised, indicated in the time schedule below as core meetings, i.e. only for members of the Working Group. These are necessary in order to accompany and guide the whole assessment process. In December 2017 (when the SaW project is definitely finished) a core meeting is needed to evaluate and and plan the continuity of the tasks. In particular travel costs are needed for the Working Group members, but also working hours.
  3. Furthermore consultancy is planned: members of the Trust Support Working Group will visit the Service Providers on an individual basis.

The following schedule for DSA/WDS certification is proposed:

  • 13 January 2017: Draft assessments internally submitted to the Trust Working Group
  • January – mid-February 2017: Reviews of the assessments by the Trust Working Group
  • 1-2 March: 2nd CESSDA SaW workshop: evaluating and discussing the submitted assessments
  • March 2017: Submitting assessments to DSA/WDS
  • June: Initial responses (accept or reject) from DSA/WDS Board.
  • September 2017: Approval by DSA/WDS.

Duration

1 January 2017 - 31 December 2017

Participants

DANS, ADP, FSD, GESIS, ADP, UKDS.

Activities are carried out within the framework of the CESSDA SaW project, thus involving all CESSDA Service Providers.

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