About DataverseNO

On this page we have gathered information about DataverseNO.

What is DataverseNO?

DataverseNO (https://dataverse.no/) is a national, generic repository for open research data, owned and operated by UiT The Arctic University of Norway. DataverseNO is aligned with the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. The technical infrastructure of the repository is based on the open source application Dataverse, which is developed by an international developer and user community led by Harvard University. DataverseNO is CoreTrustSeal certified.


For institutions

Norwegian research institutions can establish a partner agreement about using DataverseNO as a repository for open research data. Datasets from researchers affiliated with DataverseNO partner institutions are published in institutional collections (e.g., the UiT collection: https://dataverse.no/dataverse/uit). Institutions wishing to test out DataverseNO can get access to a test instance.

The current DataverseNO partner institutions are listed on the DataverseNO Support page and on this map.

UiT is responsible for training and support for collection managers at partner institutions, whereas the partner institutions are responsible for data curation and user support at their own institution.

  • Researchers at partner institutions have access to a certified repository that is operated, upgraded and continuously further developed according to best practice. UiT has achieved and is following up CoreTrustSeal certification of the entire repository. CoreTrustSeal is a seal of quality for trustworthy and sustainable repositories. To meet the requirements of CoreTrustSeal, DataverseNO uses a common set of guidelines for depositors and curators across partner institutions.
  • Super users / collection managers at partner institutions receive training and help getting started with DataverseNO.
  • Collection managers and curators at partner institutions receive continuous support in issues related to archiving and curating data. This includes guidance on building up local curation competence at the institution, but also help with larger and / or more demanding archiving projects e.g. in the form of creation and facilitation of sub-collections.
  • Curators at partner institutions have access to a national competence network of DataverseNO curators administered and coordinated by UiT.
  • Partner institutions have access to an international competence network of repository managers and curators at Dataverse-based repositories.

For more information, please contact us at support@dataverse.no.


For individual researchers

Individual researchers affiliated with Norwegian research institutions that are not partners of DataverseNO are granted up to 10 GB storage space for free. More information about how to get started with the repository is available here. If you need more storage space or more information, please contact us at support@dataverse.no.


Data curation and preservation

To ensure that data deposited into DataverseNO comply with the DataverseNO policies and guidelines they are curated by qualified Research Data Service staff before they are published (see also the section DATA CURATION below). Datasets in DataverseNO are equipped with persistent identifiers (so-called DOIs, Digital Object Identifiers). DOIs serve as unique references to datasets, and they make the datasets searchable in discovery services like B2FIND – EUDAT, Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), DataCite Search, Google Dataset Search, and Oria.

DataverseNO commits to long-term preservation of data published in the repository as described in the DataverseNO Preservation Policy.


Metadata harvesting

DataverseNO has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to the metadata records of data published in DataverseNO, as described in the Creative Commons (CC0) Public Domain Dedication.

You can harvest DataverseNO via OAI-PMH using the following addresses:

For more information, please contact us at support@dataverse.no.


Organization of DataverseNO


The organization of DataverseNO is outlined in the DataverseNO Organization Chart, and is explained in the sections below.

ORGANIZATIONAL DOCUMENTS

The organization, including repository structure, governance, data curation, and Designated Community, of DataverseNO is regulated in the following documents:


REPOSITORY STRUCTURE

Each partner institution is assigned its own institutional collection within the DataverseNO repository. The division of responsibilities between UiT The Arctic University of Norway (owner of DataverseNO) and the DataverseNO partner institutions is regulated in partner agreements.

Another type of collection within DataverseNO are special collections, which may be project-based and/or a subject-based. Such collections may be open for contribution from researchers outside Norwegian institutions. TROLLing – The Tromsø Repository of Language and Linguistics is a thematic collection, and currently the only special collection in DataverseNO. All special collections within DataverseNO are at the full responsibility of a DataverseNO partner institution. The creation of special collections must be approved by DataverseNO.


GOVERNANCE



Ownership/hosting institution

DataverseNO is a repository owned and operated by UiT The Arctic University of Norway, and offered as a service to other institutions, and to individual researchers from research institutions in Norway. UiT The Arctic University of Norway is part of the national, governmental higher education and research system, as a state-owned university under the ultimate responsibility of the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.


Board

The Board for DataverseNO have the overall responsibility for DataverseNO, with a mandate provided by the University Management of UiT The Arctic University of Norway.


Advisory Committees

Collections within DataverseNO may have their own advisory committees which give advice to the collection managers as well as to the Board of DataverseNO on high-level aspects of the operation and development of the collection at stake as well as the entire repository. The Designated Community may raise high-level or general issues with representatives from the advisory committee of the collection at stake by contacting them directly. Currently, only TROLLing has formally established an advisory committee, the TROLLing Scientific Advisory Board. The TROLLing Scientific Advisory Board provide their advice to the managers of TROLLing.

The operation of institutional collections is embedded in the research support services and endorsed by the institutional management at the DataverseNO partner institutions. At each partner institution, there are procedures and venues in place where research support units, such as the University Library, discuss issues with representatives from the different research communities at the institution. Feedback from such discussions is provided to the managers of the institutional collections. On their part, managers for institutional collections discuss advice and feedback from the user groups of their institutional collections, including the collections contained in these, in the Advisory Committee for DataverseNO. This committee, illustrated with the blue box in the middle of the GOVERNANCE section of the DataverseNO Organization Chart, consists of representatives from all DataverseNO partner institutions (usually the collection managers), and the managers of DataverseNO. The members of the DataverseNO Advisory Committee meet at least twice a year to discuss issues concerning the organization of DataverseNO, including governance, policies and guidelines, repository structure and operation (including functionality), data curation, and issues raised by the Designated Community. Requests and advice from the DataverseNO Advisory Committee are communicated to the Board of DataverseNO and to the managers of the institutional collections by the Repository Management.


Management



Repository Management

The management and operation of DataverseNO are carried out by staff from the Library, the IT department and the Research administration at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

The repository is managed by the DataverseNO Service Team, which consists of staff from the University Library and the IT department. They are responsible for the management, maintenance, development and the daily operation of the repository, and they take care of the DataverseNO policies and guidelines, communication with the Board of DataverseNO, communication with and training of collection managers, the operation of the DataverseNO Advisory Committee, the configuration of the repository, establishment and configuration of institutional collections, user management, the implementation of new functionality and procedures to be used in the repository, preservation planning, and the certification of the repository. The DataverseNO Service Team is also responsible for communicating with the global Dataverse community.


Collection Management



Institutional Collections

The managers of institutional collections within DataverseNO are responsible for the management and operation of the collection, including compliance of the institutional collection and underlying collections with the DataverseNO policies and guidelines, user management of collection curators, training of and communication with collection curators, establishment and configuration of underlying collections, communication with DataverseNO repository management, communication with the management and the user groups at the partner institution, representing the collection in the DataverseNO Advisory Committee.


Special Collections

The managers of special collections have many of the same responsibilities as institutional collection managers, but limited to the scope of the collection. They communicate with the advisory committee for the collection – if applicable. Currently, TROLLing is the only special collection in DataverseNO.


DATA CURATION

Data curation is carried out by data curators at the DataverseNO partner institutions. Datasets deposited in the top-level collection are curated by data curators at UiT The Arctic University of Norway (owner of DataverseNO). Data curators are staff members employed at the partner institutions, usually at the library of the institution. Data curators are responsible for ensuring that data published in each collection within DataverseNO (including the top-level collection) are curated according to the DataverseNO policies and guidelines, and in line with best practice recommendations and the needs of the different user communities at stake. Curators communicate with the different user communities represented in the collection(s) they curate, e.g. during curation, but also through other channels and in other venues. Curators also communicate with the management of their collection, and with curators of other collections within DataverseNO through the DataverseNO Network of Expertise. This network of curators covers the different aspects of data curation, including metadata, file formats, and licensing. In addition to enabling knowledge and experience exchange, this network also makes sure that curation practices across the repository are aligned with the DataverseNO policies and guidelines, and also seeks to align curation practices across institutional collections from different partner institutions containing data from the same or similar scholarly disciplines.


DESIGNATED COMMUNITY


Since the DataverseNO repository provides free and open access to its collections, the Designated Community of the repository consists of both data contributors and data users. Data users include primarily researchers and research institutions, but also any other stakeholders in society reliant on access to knowledge, e.g. journalists, teachers, industry as well as the greater public. The interaction between data users and the repository happens primarily through direct contact with the contact person(s) for each dataset, and through the general contact information provided for each collection.

In a more narrow sense, the Designated Community of DataverseNO can be described as the different user groups that in addition to being data users also are data contributors to the repository. As outlined in the DataverseNO Organization Chart , these user groups fall into three main categories:

  1. researchers from Norwegian research institutions that are partners of DataverseNO
  2. researchers working within the scope of any special collection within the DataverseNO repository
  3. researchers from Norwegian research institutions that are not partner of DataverseNO

Each collection is organized and managed in a way that ensures that the needs of the user group are met to the largest possible extent.

The current partner institutions carry out research within the following subject areas (as of February 2020):

  • Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (https://eng.inn.no/research/research-areas): Agricultural Sciences, Applied Ecology, Audiovisual Media and Creative Technologies, Biotechnology, Business, Education, Film, Health Sciences, Social Sciences
  • Nord University (https://www.nord.no/en#Findresearch): Arts, Biosciences and Aquaculture, Business, Education, Nursing and Health Sciences, Social Sciences
  • Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) (https://www.nmbu.no/en/faculty): Biosciences, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Economics and Business, Environmental Sciences, Food Science, Landscape and Society, Natural Resource Management, Science and Technology, Veterinary Medicine
  • NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology (https://www.ntnu.edu/research): Architecture, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Science, Fine Art, Humanities, Information Technology, Mathematics, Medicine, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Technology, Technology Management
  • UiT The Arctic University of Norway (https://en.uit.no/forskning): Biosciences, Economics, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Fisheries, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Science and Technology
  • University of Agder (https://www.uia.no/en/research): Business and Law, Engineering and Science, Fine Arts, Health and Sport Sciences, Humanities and Education, Social Sciences
  • University of Bergen (https://www.uib.no/en/research): Design, Fine Art, Humanities, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Music, Natural Sciences, Psychology, Social Sciences
  • University of Stavanger (https://www.uis.no/?lang=en_GB#Research): Archaeology, Arts and Education, Business, Health Sciences, Performing Arts, Science and Technology, Social Sciences
  • Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (https://hvl.no/en/research/): Arts, Business Administration, Education, Engineering and Science, Health, Social Sciences, Sports

DataverseNO Curators respond to the needs of the Designated Community on the most detailed level. The curators of institutional collections are situated at the same institution as the user groups of the collection, and they communicate closely with the user groups also on other matters of research support, e.g. data management plans, Open Access publishing, grant applications, and literature search.

Members of the Designated Community may get into contact with their curator(s) in several ways, e.g. by depositing a dataset in an applicable collection, by contacting them at the address provided on the Support page of DataverseNO, by contacting them in events and meetings organized between research support services and researchers at their home institution, or by contacting them in events and meetings organized by networks like the ones mentioned above.

Members of the Designated Community may also communicate with the management of institutional collections within DataverseNO. A common use case of this type of contact is when researchers want to discuss the establishment of a collection within their institutional collection. In such cases, issues of data management are thoroughly discussed between the institutional collection managers and curators, and members of the Designated Community. The DataverseNO managers may also assist such discussions.

Collections within DataverseNO may also have their own advisory committees which give advice to the collection managers as well as to the Board of DataverseNO on high-level aspects of the operation and development of the collection at stake as well as the entire repository. User groups may raise high-level or general issues with representatives from the advisory committee of the collection at stake by contacting them directly. Currently, only TROLLing has formally established an advisory committee, the TROLLing Scientific Advisory Board. The TROLLing Scientific Advisory Board provide their advice to the managers of TROLLing.

The operation of institutional collections is part of the research support services and the institutional management at the DataverseNO partner institutions. Partner institutions have well-established venues in place where research support units, such as the University Library, discuss issues with representatives from the different research communities at the institution. Feedback from such discussions is provided to the managers of the institutional collection. On their part, managers of institutional collections discuss advice and feedback from the user groups of their institutional collections in the Advisory Committee of DataverseNO. This committee, illustrated with the blue box in the middle of the GOVERNANCE section of the DataverseNO Organization Chart, consists of representatives from all DataverseNO partner institutions (usually the collection managers), and the managers of DataverseNO.


Further reading

The article below discusses further the organisation of DataverseNO, and how the repository supports the FAIR data principles.

Conzett, Philipp. 2020. “DataverseNO: A National, Generic Repository and Its Contribution to the Increased FAIRness of Data from the Long Tail of Research”. Ravnetrykk, no. 39: 74–113. https://doi.org/10.7557/15.5514.

Contact us at support@dataverse.no for more information about DataverseNO.

New user? See the section Create a user account here.

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