eBank UK: linking scientific data, scholarly communication and learning

Michael Day and Rachel HeeryUKOLN, University of Bath

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/ebank-uk/

JISC Joint Programmes Meeting, Brighton, 7 July 2004

                                                             

Outline

• eBank UK project aims

• Progress to date

• Potential use:– Integration in digital library services– Use in e-learning contexts– Open data repositories

                                                             

The project team

• UKOLN (Bath)– Michael Day

– Monica Duke

– Rachel Heery

– Liz Lyon

– +

– Andy Powell

• Southampton– Les Carr– Simon Coles– Jeremy Frey– Chris Gutteridge– Mike Hursthouse

• Manchester– John Blunden-Ellis

                                                             

eBank UK in a nutshell

• To develop a pilot service linking journal articles and scientific datasets

(September 2003-August 2004)– Create institutional repository of

crystallographic data (Southampton) – Modify EPrints.org software to handle datasets

(Southampton)– Demonstrate eBank search service - linked to

ePrints UK - indexing harvested descriptions of datasets and journal articles (UKOLN)

– Embed eBank service into the PSIgate subject gateway (Manchester)

                                                             

Project motivation

• Exponential growth in data arising from e-science requires new modes of data curation– Publication at source – need to embed deposit

of datasets into the scientific workflow– More effective access to existing datasets– Enable re-use of data (and curation)– Enrich scholarly communication – Investigating recording the provenance of data

                                                             

Crystallographic data workflow

Set up data collection

Collect data

Process + correct images

Solve structure

Refine structure

CIF

RAW DATA

DERIVED DATA

RESULTS DATA

1

2

3

4

5

6

                                                             

Progress so far

• Pilot institutional repository of crystallographic structure reports at Southampton

• Enhanced EPrints.org software • Demonstrator eBank service at UKOLN

• Work to follow on embedding service into PSIgate

• Workshop planned August 2004

                                                             

Demonstrator

• Structure reports and metadata created and stored at local site (initially Southampton) using EPrints.org software

• Metadata made available via OAI-PMH• eBank demonstrator service harvests this

metadata (OAI Service Provider)• Potentially, other services can build on this

infrastructure, e.g. links (citations) from published papers, the PSIgate portal, the JISC IE …

Some diagrams …

                                                             

Linking Crystallographic data and journal e-Prints

EPrint (Local)

EBank (World

)

JOURNAL PUBLICATION

DATA HOLDING

INVESTIGATIONRAW

DERIVED

RESULTS

CIF

STRUCTURE REPORT

DATASET (Contains

DATAFILES)

REPORT (EPrint)

EBank REPORT

                                                             

ebank_dc record (XML)

Crystal structure (data holding)

Crystal structure report (HTML)

Dataset

Dataset

Institutional repository

eBank UK aggregator service

ePrint UK aggregator service

Subject service

Harvesting OAI-PMH

ebank_dc

Harvesting OAI-PMH oai_dc

Harvesting OAI-PMH oai_dc

Searching, linking and embedding

Searching, linking and embedding

Searching, linking and embedding

dc:identifier

dcterms:references

Linking

dc:type=“CrystalStructure”and/or“Collection”

Model input Andy Powell, UKOLN.

PSIgate portal

Eprint oai_dc record (XML)

dcterms:isReferencedBy

dc:type=“Eprint” and/or ”Text”

Eprint‘jump-off’

page (HTML)

Eprint manifestation

(e.g. PDF)Linking

dc:identifier

                                                             

                                                             

eBank (potential) links with eLearning

• Provide access to primary research data within learning materials – in the taught postgraduate curriculum in

chemistry, undergraduate project work, chemical informatics courses

• Inclusion of e-research data in e-learning courses. – through links in reading lists, through essay

assignments, through analytical problem solving, through practical work, through RDN PSIgate links, etc.

                                                             

eBank (potential) generic solution

• During Phase 1 eBank has focussed exclusively on the chemistry domain and in particular within the area of crystallography.

• Potential to expand remit to:– wider range of crystallographic data – other chemistry sub-domains (e.g.,

combinational chemistry)– Other sciences, e.g., bioinformatics, physical

sciences

                                                             

Potential for Open eData Archives

• Possibilities for digital libraries to add value enhancing data with visualisation and scientific context– through the use of mark up languages (CML,

CCML, MathML, etc).

• Encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration

                                                             

In conclusion

• eBank demonstrates benefits to research community

• Potential for integration into digital library services– Moving from demonstrator to service, need to involve

publishers and specialist services

• Potential for pedagogical benefits in teaching and learning– Wider issues of relation between research and learning

in e-learning context