BioDATA: Biodiversity data mobilisation and data publication training in Eurasia

BioDATA (Biodiversity Data for Internationalisation in Higher Education) is an international project to develop and deliver biodiversity data training for undergraduate and postgraduate students from Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. By training early career (student) biodiversity scholars, we aim at turning the current academic and education biodiversity landscape into a more open-data-friendly one. Professional practitioners (researchers, museum curators, and collection managers involved in data publishing) from each country were also invited to join the project as assistant teachers (mentors). The project is developed by the Research School in Biosystematics - ForBio and the Norwegian GBIF-node, both at the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and partners from each of the target countries. The teaching material is based on the GBIF curriculum for data mobilization and all students will have the opportunity to gain the respective GBIF certification. All materials are made freely available for reuse and even in this very early phase of the project, we have already seen the first successful reuse of teaching materials among the project partners. The first BioDATA training event was organized in Minsk (Belarus) in February 2019 with the objective to train a minimum of four mentors from each target country. The mentor-trainees from this event will help us to teach the course to students in their home country together with teachers from the project team. BioDATA mentors will have the opportunity to gain GBIF certification as expert mentors which will open opportunities to contribute to future training events in the larger GBIF network. The BioDATA training events for the students will take place in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in June 2019, in Minsk (Belarus) in November 2019, in Yerevan (Armenia) in April 2020, and in Kiev (Ukraine) in October 2020. Students from each country are invited to express their interest to participate by contacting their national project partner. We will close the project with a final symposium at the University of Oslo in March 2021. The project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU).

Download Full-text

BioDATA - Biodiversity Data for Internationalisation in Higher Education

Research Ideas and Outcomes ◽

10.3897/rio.5.e36276 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

Author(s):

Oleh Prylutskyi ◽

Armine Abrahamyan ◽

Nina Voronova ◽

Tatevik Aloyan ◽

Oleg Borodin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Data Management ◽

Publishing Research ◽

Data Publishing ◽

Biodiversity Data ◽

Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

Intensive Courses ◽

Global Biodiversity ◽

Biodiversity Information

BioDATA is an international project on developing skills in biodiversity data management and data publishing. Between 2018 and 2021, undergraduate and postgraduate students from Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, and Ukraine, have an opportunity to take part in the intensive courses to become certified professionals in biodiversity data management. They will gain practical skills and obtain appropriate knowledge on: international data standards (Darwin Core); data cleaning software, data publishing software such as the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT), and preparation of data papers. Working with databases, creating datasets, managing data for statistical analyses and publishing research papers are essential for the everyday tasks of a modern biologist. At the same time, these skills are rarely taught in higher education. Most of the contemporary professionals in biodiversity have to gain these skills independently, through colleagues, or through supervision. In addition, all the participants familiarize themselves with one of the important international research data infrastructures such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The project is coordinated by the University of Oslo (Norway) and supported by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU).

Download Full-text

The Pensoft Data Publishing Workflow: The FAIRway from articles to Linked Open Data

Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ◽

10.3897/biss.3.35902 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Lyubomir Penev ◽

Teodor Georgiev ◽

Viktor Senderov ◽

Mariya Dimitrova ◽

Pavel Stoev

Keyword(s):

Open Data ◽

Structured Data ◽

Linked Open Data ◽

Data Publishing ◽

Knowledge Graph ◽

Supplementary File ◽

Biodiversity Data ◽

Text Format ◽

Biodiversity Knowledge ◽

Data Elements

As one of the first advocates of open access and open data in the field of biodiversity publishiing, Pensoft has adopted a multiple data publishing model, resulting in the ARPHA-BioDiv toolbox (Penev et al. 2017). ARPHA-BioDiv consists of several data publishing workflows and tools described in the Strategies and Guidelines for Publishing of Biodiversity Data and elsewhere: Data underlying research results are deposited in an external repository and/or published as supplementary file(s) to the article and then linked/cited in the article text; supplementary files are published under their own DOIs and bear their own citation details. Data deposited in trusted repositories and/or supplementary files and described in data papers; data papers may be submitted in text format or converted into manuscripts from Ecological Metadata Language (EML) metadata. Integrated narrative and data publishing realised by the Biodiversity Data Journal, where structured data are imported into the article text from tables or via web services and downloaded/distributed from the published article. Data published in structured, semanticaly enriched, full-text XMLs, so that several data elements can thereafter easily be harvested by machines. Linked Open Data (LOD) extracted from literature, converted into interoperable RDF triples in accordance with the OpenBiodiv-O ontology (Senderov et al. 2018) and stored in the OpenBiodiv Biodiversity Knowledge Graph. Data underlying research results are deposited in an external repository and/or published as supplementary file(s) to the article and then linked/cited in the article text; supplementary files are published under their own DOIs and bear their own citation details. Data deposited in trusted repositories and/or supplementary files and described in data papers; data papers may be submitted in text format or converted into manuscripts from Ecological Metadata Language (EML) metadata. Integrated narrative and data publishing realised by the Biodiversity Data Journal, where structured data are imported into the article text from tables or via web services and downloaded/distributed from the published article. Data published in structured, semanticaly enriched, full-text XMLs, so that several data elements can thereafter easily be harvested by machines. Linked Open Data (LOD) extracted from literature, converted into interoperable RDF triples in accordance with the OpenBiodiv-O ontology (Senderov et al. 2018) and stored in the OpenBiodiv Biodiversity Knowledge Graph. The above mentioned approaches are supported by a whole ecosystem of additional workflows and tools, for example: (1) pre-publication data auditing, involving both human and machine data quality checks (workflow 2); (2) web-service integration with data repositories and data centres, such as Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD), Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE), Long Term Ecological Research (LTER), PlutoF, Dryad, and others (workflows 1,2); (3) semantic markup of the article texts in the TaxPub format facilitating further extraction, distribution and re-use of sub-article elements and data (workflows 3,4); (4) server-to-server import of specimen data from GBIF, BOLD, iDigBio and PlutoR into manuscript text (workflow 3); (5) automated conversion of EML metadata into data paper manuscripts (workflow 2); (6) export of Darwin Core Archive and automated deposition in GBIF (workflow 3); (7) submission of individual images and supplementary data under own DOIs to the Biodiversity Literature Repository, BLR (workflows 1-3); (8) conversion of key data elements from TaxPub articles and taxonomic treatments extracted by Plazi into RDF handled by OpenBiodiv (workflow 5). These approaches represent different aspects of the prospective scholarly publishing of biodiversity data, which in a combination with text and data mining (TDM) technologies for legacy literature (PDF) developed by Plazi, lay the ground of an entire data publishing ecosystem for biodiversity, supplying FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable data to several interoperable overarching infrastructures, such as GBIF, BLR, Plazi TreatmentBank, OpenBiodiv and various end users.

Download Full-text

Unwaged Posts in UK Universities: Controversies and Campaigns

tripleC Communication Capitalism & Critique Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society ◽

10.31269/triplec.v13i2.583 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 533-553 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kirsten Forkert ◽

Ana Lopes

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Social Media ◽

Trade Unions ◽

Creative Industries ◽

Early Career ◽

Higher Education System ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

The Uk ◽

The University ◽

Uk Higher Education

This article examines unwaged posts at UK universities, using recent examples of advertised job posts. While unpaid work is common in the UK higher education system, unwaged posts are not. The posts under scrutiny in this article differ from traditional honorary titles as they target early career academics, who are unlikely to have a paid position elsewhere, rather than established scholars. The article contextualizes the appearance of these posts in a climate of increasing marketization of higher education, entrenching managerialism in higher education institutions, and the casualization of academic work. We also discuss resistance to the posts, arguing that the controversy surrounding unpaid internships in the creative industries created a receptive environment for resisting unwaged posts in academia. We analyze the campaigns that were fought against the advertisement of the posts, mostly through social media and the University and College Union. We explore the tactics used and discuss the advantages and limitations of the use of social media, as well as the role of trade unions in the campaigns against these posts, and we reflect on what future campaigns can learn from these experiences.

Download Full-text

Data ownership and data publishing

ARPHA Conference Abstracts ◽

10.3897/aca.2.e39250 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

Author(s):

Lyubomir Penev

Keyword(s):

Data Protection ◽

Open Data ◽

Data Publishing ◽

Supplementary File ◽

Biodiversity Data ◽

Biodiversity Knowledge ◽

Data Ownership ◽

Data Hoarding ◽

Data Elements ◽

Access To Data

"Data ownership" is actually an oxymoron, because there could not be a copyright (ownership) on facts or ideas, hence no data onwership rights and law exist. The term refers to various kinds of data protection instruments: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (mostly copyright) asserted to indicate some kind of data ownership, confidentiality clauses/rules, database right protection (in the European Union only), or personal data protection (GDPR) (Scassa 2018). Data protection is often realised via different mechanisms of "data hoarding", that is witholding access to data for various reasons (Sieber 1989). Data hoarding, however, does not put the data into someone's ownership. Nonetheless, the access to and the re-use of data, and biodiversuty data in particular, is hampered by technical, economic, sociological, legal and other factors, although there should be no formal legal provisions related to copyright that may prevent anyone who needs to use them (Egloff et al. 2014, Egloff et al. 2017, see also the Bouchout Declaration). One of the best ways to provide access to data is to publish these so that the data creators and holders are credited for their efforts. As one of the pioneers in biodiversity data publishing, Pensoft has adopted a multiple-approach data publishing model, resulting in the ARPHA-BioDiv toolbox and in extensive Strategies and Guidelines for Publishing of Biodiversity Data (Penev et al. 2017a, Penev et al. 2017b). ARPHA-BioDiv consists of several data publishing workflows: Deposition of underlying data in an external repository and/or its publication as supplementary file(s) to the related article which are then linked and/or cited in-tex. Supplementary files are published under their own DOIs to increase citability). Description of data in data papers after they have been deposited in trusted repositories and/or as supplementary files; the systme allows for data papers to be submitted both as plain text or converted into manuscripts from Ecological Metadata Language (EML) metadata. Import of structured data into the article text from tables or via web services and their susequent download/distribution from the published article as part of the integrated narrative and data publishing workflow realised by the Biodiversity Data Journal. Publication of data in structured, semanticaly enriched, full-text XMLs where data elements are machine-readable and easy-to-harvest. Extraction of Linked Open Data (LOD) from literature, which is then converted into interoperable RDF triples (in accordance with the OpenBiodiv-O ontology) (Senderov et al. 2018) and stored in the OpenBiodiv Biodiversity Knowledge Graph Deposition of underlying data in an external repository and/or its publication as supplementary file(s) to the related article which are then linked and/or cited in-tex. Supplementary files are published under their own DOIs to increase citability). Description of data in data papers after they have been deposited in trusted repositories and/or as supplementary files; the systme allows for data papers to be submitted both as plain text or converted into manuscripts from Ecological Metadata Language (EML) metadata. Import of structured data into the article text from tables or via web services and their susequent download/distribution from the published article as part of the integrated narrative and data publishing workflow realised by the Biodiversity Data Journal. Publication of data in structured, semanticaly enriched, full-text XMLs where data elements are machine-readable and easy-to-harvest. Extraction of Linked Open Data (LOD) from literature, which is then converted into interoperable RDF triples (in accordance with the OpenBiodiv-O ontology) (Senderov et al. 2018) and stored in the OpenBiodiv Biodiversity Knowledge Graph In combination with text and data mining (TDM) technologies for legacy literature (PDF) developed by Plazi, these approaches show different angles to the future of biodiversity data publishing and, lay the foundations of an entire data publishing ecosystem in the field, while also supplying FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data to several interoperable overarching infrastructures, such as Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Biodiversity Literature Repository (BLR), Plazi TreatmentBank, OpenBiodiv, as well as to various end users.

Download Full-text

Mapping and Publishing Sequence-Derived Data through Biodiversity Data Platforms

Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ◽

10.3897/biss.4.59212 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

Author(s):

Dmitry Schigel ◽

Anders Andersson ◽

Andrew Bissett ◽

Anders Finstad ◽

Frode Fossøy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Policy Design ◽

Molecular Ecology ◽

Added Value ◽

Data Publishing ◽

Ecological Knowledge ◽

Biodiversity Data ◽

Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽

Wide Range ◽

Global Biodiversity ◽

Derived Data

Most users will foresee the use of genetic sequences in the context of molecular ecology or phylogenetic research, however, a sequence with coordinates and a timestamp is a valuable biodiversity occurrence that is useful in a much broader context than its original purpose. To uncover this potential, sequence-derived data need to become findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable through generalist biodiversity data platforms. Stimulated by the Biodiversity_Next discussions in 2019, we have worked for about 10 months to put together practical data mapping and data publishing experiences in Norway, Australia, Sweden, and Denmark, as well as in the UNITE and the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) networks. The resulting guide was put together to provide practical instruction for mapping sequence-derived data. Biodiversity data communities remain dominated by the macroscopic, easily detectable, morphologically identifiable species. This is not only true for citizen science and other forms of biodiversity popularization, but is also visible in the university and museum department structures, financial resource allocations, biodiversity legislation, and policy design. Recent decades of molecular advances have increased the power of genetic methods for detecting, describing, and documenting global biodiversity. We have yet to see the wide shift of data generating efforts from the traditional taxonomic foci of biodiversity assesments to the more balanced and inclusive systems focusing on all functionally important taxa and environments. These include soil, limnic and marine environments, decomposing plants and deadwood, and all life therein. Environmental DNA data enable recording of present and past presence of micro- and macroscopic organisms with minimal effort and by non-invasive methods. The apparent ease of these methods requires a cautious approach to the resulting data and their interpretation. It remains important to define and agree on the organism recording and reporting routines for genetic data. DNA data represent a major addition to the many ways in which GBIF and other biodiversity data platforms index the living world. Our guide is resting on the shoulders of those who have been developing and improving MIxS (Minimum Information about any (x) Sequence), GGBN (Global Genome Biodiversity Network) and other data standards. The added value of publishing sequence-derived data through non-genetic biodiversity discovery platforms relates to spatio-temporal occurrences and sequence-based names. Reporting sequence-derived occurrences in an open and reproducible way has a wide range of benefits: notably, it increases citability, highlights the taxa concerned in the context of biological conservation, and contributes to taxonomic and ecological knowledge.

Download Full-text

Editorial

for(e)dialogue ◽

10.29311/for(e)dialogue.v1i1.527 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 1-3

Author(s):

Hannah Ditchfield ◽

Shuhan Chen

Keyword(s):

Conference Proceedings ◽

Early Career ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

New Directions ◽

The World ◽

Media Research ◽

The University ◽

Media And Communication ◽

First Time

The first issue of for(e)dialogue is composed of a collection of papers given at the New Directions in Media Research (NDiMR) postgraduate conference in June 2015 at the University of Leicester. NDiMR is a one-day postgraduate focused conference organised by PhD students from the Department of Media and Communication. This conference has a similar aim and purpose of this journal as a whole which is to provide postgraduate students, PhD students and early career researchers with a platform and opportunity to develop and share their research and critically contribute to discussions of theory and methodology on a variety of Media and Communication issues. The NDiMR conference has been held annually since 2012, each year growing in size and attracting more delegates and presenters from across the world. However, this is the first time that some of the events’ presentation papers have been collected for a published conference proceedings.

Download Full-text

Library interactions

Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education ◽

10.15845/noril.v11i1.2771 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Eystein Gullbekk ◽

Therese Skagen ◽

Hilde Westbye ◽

Andrea Gasparini ◽

Astrid Anderson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Course Design ◽

Core Competencies ◽

Learning Experiences ◽

Development Program ◽

Education Curriculum ◽

Higher Education Curriculum ◽

First Case ◽

University Of Oslo ◽

The University

Across Europe there is a push for strengthening research-based higher education (Fung et.al, 2017). As a pedagogical driven approach, research-based education aims at making students across all levels learn through enquiry and discovery (eg. Cleaver et al., 2017). Core competencies addressed are scientific and critical thinking skills, and skills in scholarly and interdisciplinary communication. At the University of Oslo, the reinforcement of research-based education is manifest in a recent large-scale initiative. The initiative implies that we must build quality in teaching and learning through partnership across and beyond the communities of our university. How can a library in higher education contribute to research-basededucation? This presentation illuminates three interrelated cases from The University of Oslo Library. They exemplify how libraries can involve students, librarians and their patrons when the aim is to develop innovative education. Together the cases prompt discussions about the methods used to include different actors’ perspectives in current development of learning and teaching design. The three cases highlight the current state of a long-term movement of our libraries away from librarycentered approaches and towards user and co-creation centered approaches. The methods described respond to the current call for partnership in building enquiry-based learning experiences. The first case is our staff-development program. Established a decade ago the program focuses on developing a shared understanding of information literacy and pedagogical theories. The program is one element in our effort to change focus from education as a private concern to corporate responsibility. The aim is to make pedagogical competencies a matter of shared knowledge and culture. The second case presents course design and the methods used to include the perspectives of students, fellow librarians and faculty. Project methodology from informatics has contributed to teambuilding and collaboration among library staff. It has also facilitated feedback from students, faculty and fellow librarians. The result is a revision of courses to students from BA to PHD levels, now with an emphasis on research-based education and active learning. The last case describes the development of physical and digital learning spaces at the university libraries. Technology has opened for a change in the way students collaborate, learn and study. A project based approach that apply user centered design and user experience have contributed to the collection of information from students and employees aimed at enhancing and developing library space to enhance learning experiences. Together our three cases tell a story about cultural change within our libraries, about implementation by involvement of different people and perspectives, and about the balancing of specialized expertise with shared vocabularies. ReferencesFung, D., Besters-Dilger, J., & Van der Vaart, R. (2017). Excellent education in research-rich universities. [Position Paper] League of European Universities (LERU). https://www.leru.org/files/ExcellentEducation-in-Research-Rich-Universities-Full-paper.pdf Cleaver, E., Wills, D., Gormally, S., Grey, D., Johnson, C., & Rippingale, J. (2017). Connecting research and teaching through curricular and pedagogic design: from theory to practice in disciplinary approaches to connecting the higher education curriculum. In: Carnell, B & Fung, D, (eds.) Developing the Higher Education Curriculum: Research-based Education in Practice. London, UCL Press, pp. 145-159

Download Full-text

Emerging Neoliberal Academic Identities: Looking Beyond Homo economicus

Studies in Philosophy and Education ◽

10.1007/s11217-021-09768-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Claire Skea

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Academic Identity ◽

Early Career ◽

Good Work ◽

Homo Economicus ◽

Academic Identities ◽

Neoliberal Governmentality ◽

Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽

The University

AbstractIn this article, I deal with the notion of ‘academic identity’ holistically, seeking to bring together the teacher and researcher roles of academics in the neoliberal university. The article begins from the perspective of early-career academics who occupy the majority of fixed-term, teaching-only contracts in Higher Education, arguing that such casualisation of academic labour entrenches the role of the academic as Homo economicus. Drawing on the work of Foucault, I demonstrate how a neoliberal governmentality is now not only exerted upon academics from without, but increasingly they are subjecting themselves to the logic of efficiency and effectiveness too. The neoliberal governmentality of the university thus influences and shapes academic subjectivities, such that what it means to be an academic is confined to this marketised logic. Despite the pressures placed on academics to ‘produce’ measurable outputs and demonstrate their impact, I argue that moving beyond Homo economicus is possible, arguing instead for a re-claiming of ‘the academic’ as Homo academicus. The idea of Homo academicus can only be supported when three conditions are present: collegiality is afforded greater importance than competition; the discourses of ‘productivity’ and performativity are balanced against simply ‘doing good work well’ (Pirrie in Virtue and the quiet art of scholarship, Routledge, London, 2019), and; academics are mindful to practice the ‘quieter’ intellectual virtues, including the virtue of ‘unknowing’ (Smith in J Philos Educ 50:272–284, 2016).

Download Full-text

Developing Our Voices: Pacific Early Career Academics’ Journeys in Aotearoa New Zealand

The Journal of New Zealand Studies ◽

10.26686/jnzs.ins33.7379 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tim Baice ◽

Sereana Naepi ◽

Seuta‘afili Patrick Thomsen ◽

Karamia Muller ◽

Marcia Leenen-Young ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

New Zealand ◽

Early Career ◽

Structural Barriers ◽

Daily Lives ◽

Aotearoa New Zealand ◽

The Pacific ◽

The University

The proportion of Pacific academics in permanent confirmation path positions at New Zealand universities (1.4 percent) continues to lag far behind the Pacific share of New Zealand’s population (7 percent). In this paper, we use a thematic talanoa to explore the experiences of Pacific early career academics (PECA) at the University of Auckland to highlight the key themes, challenges and features of our daily lives in the colonial, Western, and Pākehā institution that is the university. This paper sheds light on the systemic and structural barriers that impact PECA journeys through higher education and suggests actions that universities in New Zealand can take to further support, nurture, and develop PECA pathways into and upward through the academy.

Download Full-text

Active learning in criminal justice

Learning and Teaching ◽

10.3167/latiss.2020.130206 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 85-101

Author(s):

Jill Dealey

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Active Learning ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Wrongful Conviction ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

Degree Programme ◽

Potential Impact ◽

Learning Development ◽

The University

Active learning, with students engaging in research or activities within the community, is a favoured approach in contemporary higher education. To support this approach, the Criminology and Forensic Studies programmes at the University of Winchester have included student research into miscarriages of justice. The students interrogate evidence from a criminal trial to attempt to establish if there has been a wrongful conviction. This article discusses the importance of this work for students of Criminology. It considers the contribution to the learning experience of the range of opportunities available to undergraduate and postgraduate students and evaluates the potential impact on curriculum and learning development during the degree programme, in addition to the benefits for future employment.

Download Full-text