The scientific landscape for data management and sharing is changing on a national level. All federal sponsors of research are required to strengthen their requirements for grantees make all data produced from federally funded research free and publicly accessible at the time of publication or at the end of the award period, whichever comes first. The National Institutes of Health has taken the lead and updated its Data Management and Sharing Policy to meet these new standards, and we expect other federal sponsors to follow suit.
We can help!
Research & Innovation and the University Libraries are ready to help researchers meet these new policies. We have partnered together with the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine to join the Dryad data repository consortium. Anyone affiliated with the University can deposit their final datasets into Dryad for free, helping them to meet NIH’s policy. Along with Dryad, our team can help with a variety of other services.
In 2023 we designed the Open Access Challenge to help researchers complete a small task each week that will help them set up the systems needed to manage their data in accordance with these new requirements and standards.
During October of 2023 weekly challenges were sent out to researchers via ResearchNotes that helped them take steps towards accessing these tools and making them more equipped to manage data. Those who took part in the challenge were entered to win one of three swag bags provided by Research & Innovation!
What It Is
If you're not familiar with an ORCID profile, it's similar to a Google Scholar profile in that it's also a free way to make a simple webpage that can include all your scholarly works. It also helps distinguish authors from each other.
ORCID gives a unique ID to each scholarly author who signs up for an ORCID profile. This way any scholarly work you put on your ORCID profile can officially be connected to you. But ORCID has become more than that as well. Some journals ask or even require an ORCID to submit your research for publication. This allows ORCID to quickly and easily add the work to your profile.
More importantly for those needing to deposit their data, you’ll need an ORCID to register with the University’s new data repository service, Dryad, which you’ll learn about next week. This week will ensure you’re ready to go for Dryad.
What To Do
To make your profile, visit the ORCID registration page. Use your university email as your primary email. You'll see that you can add other emails to your account, including your personal email. You’ll want to make sure to add both to ensure you can always access your account, even if you leave the school.
ORCID will then check to see if you already have an account with them – if none of the suggested accounts are yours, continue to follow the registration prompts. On the final page, you'll be asked to set a privacy level for your account.
We suggest choosing the public option as you can later decide if there are individual parts of your profile that you would prefer remain private. The "Trusted Organization" option means groups like the University and any other you give permission can still view your profile.
That's it! You've created an ORCID profile. The biggest thing to remember is that you should only do this once! If you keep creating a different profile, you'll end up with multiple ORCID IDs, which just defeats the purpose of having a one-stop-shop of all your stuff.
Advanced
Your profile probably looks a little bare. When you have the time, you can take the below steps to flesh it out:
Add your education and employment information. Let people know which institutions you're affiliated with. Just click on the "Add Education" or "Add Employment" buttons and fill out the boxes.
Add funding you've received. If you're fortunate enough to have won a grant or been on a grant-funded team, you can add that to your profile as well. ORCID can help you do some of this automatically. First, select "Add funding" and then select "Search and Link." From there, choose "Dimension Wizard," which will open up a new window. You can then search Dimension to see if they have the record for your grant already and just have it connected to your ORCID page.
Add your work. Click “Add” at the top of the Works section to see all the ways ORCID offers to add your works. Choosing “Search and Link will show you all the bulk options, although unfortunately, not all of them work well. The best two options we recommend are Scopus and Lens.org. For Lens.org, you will need to create a Lens.org account (free) to do this. Scopus will take you to a search page where you can look for articles by your name and affiliation. You can also easily add articles individually using the "Add DOI" option.
Sit back and relax. ORCID does a pretty good job of automatically adding your published work to your profile once everything is set up.
What to Watch Out For
ORCID can make your life easier, especially by automating a lot of the steps. But it's not always perfect, so there might be times it doesn't catch when you publish something.
ORCID can also be a little clunky to work with, especially when you try to connect to other platforms such as Scopus or Lens.org to help update your profile. If you're ever not sure, please feel free to email Scholarly Communications & Social Sciences Librarian Teresa Schultz at teresas@unr.edu for help.
Dryad is an open access data repository where researchers can publish and publicly share their final research data sets to help meet funder requirements. This tool – available for free to all University members – can help researchers increase the visibility of their data, get their data cited, and ensure its preserved.
You can then visit the Dryad login page. Choose "Login or create an ORCID account." You’ll then see a login box appear – skip the username and password fields, though, and instead choose "Access through your institution."
This week we’ll focus on the DMPTool, a free online application that can help you create data management plans that comply with funder mandates.
What It Is
A data management plan, or DMP for short, is a document in which a researcher or research team outlines a plan for the data their project will produce. Many funders, including federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), require data management plans as part of the grant submission process. DMPs typically address questions such as:
What types of data will be created?
How, when, and who will do the work?
Who will own, have access to, and be responsible for managing these data?
What equipment and methods will be used to capture and process data?
Will data be reviewed for quality?
Where will data be stored during and after?
However, DMP requirements vary by funder. The DMPTool is an easy-to-use interactive online wizard based on templates designed to comply with these funder mandates. It also provides information on and resources related to data management best practices.
The DMPTool was created by the California Digital Library and is free for anyone to us. Users affiliated with one of the tool’s participating institutions, including UNR, can create an account and log into the site using their institutional credentials. One of the benefits of using a UNR-affiliated account is that you can see DMP from other UNR researchers.
What to do
Create an account by going to DMPTool.org and navigating to “Sign in/Sign up.” Be sure to enter in your UNR email here; DMPTool will recognize that your address is affiliated with the University and direct you to sign in with your NetID and password.
Once you’ve logged in, you can set up your profile and select your email preferences. You can also navigate to your dashboard to get a feel for the site. If you have extra time, click on “Public DMPs” and look through some real-life DMPs in your discipline or created with a particular funder you’re familiar with in mind.
Advanced
If you want an extra challenge this week, explore a DMPTool template. To do this, go to your dashboard and click on "Create plan." In the form that follows, give your plan a title (what you enter under “What research project are you planning”) and be sure to check the box marked "Mock project for test, practice, or educational purposes." Choose a funder you’re familiar with or that you think would support the type of research you engage in. If you can’t identify a funder, check the box marked on “No funder associated with this plan or my funder is not listed."
The DMPTool will then walk you through each section of the plan, providing you with guidance on the side. Common elements include a project abstract, collaborators, description of the types of data that will be created, and policies for accessing and sharing project data. You can export your final product as a Word document, PDF, or other common file type that you can attach to your research proposal.
Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) is an electronic system that researchers can use to create and maintain Biosketches that must be submitted with NIH and NSF grant applications and annual reports.
Beginning on October 23, 2023, SciENcv will be the only option for submitting a Biosketch to the National Science Foundation (NSF). Please see NSF's updated memo about the requirement. SciENcv pulls information from other systems, including MyNCBI, ORCID, and eRA commons in order to ease administrative burden and allow researchers to quickly create and recreate a biosketch for each grant application or annual report.
It also allows granting of delegate access to administrators who support research.
Click More Options >> other login options >> more login options. Type and select "University of Nevada Reno" to use your university single sign-on
Once you log in, you will be given an option to create a new MyNCBI account or link your google account to an existing MyNCBI account.
If you do not already have a MyNCBI account:
Select “Create a new NCBI account”
Select the account you wish to use and log in; this will create a MyNCBI account with a username and your email. This will send a verification link to your email.
If you already have a MyNCBI account, select “Link to an existing NCBI account”
As a next step, you will see your user homescreen.
Click on the box in the upper right hand corner with the human icon and the beginning of your email address. There are two important settings you will need to adjust.
First, you will want to link other sources of information to SciENcv to prevent having to re-enter information that may be housed elsewhere. One important source to include would be ORCiD.
On the Account Settings page, go to the Linked Accounts section and add relevant accounts that will bring information into SciENcv.
The second setting to adjust is the Delegates setting. If you want research administrators to have access to your Biosketch, to adjust it if the order of items is incorrect or to generate the information in a new sponsor’s format, you must give them access here by entering their email address.
Advanced
The next step would be to populate an initial biosketch. Click on the My NCBI link in the bread crumbs above your name above to reach your portal.
The portal pictured below is your landing page for managing tools within the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
