Abstract

Abstract
The current requirements for open data in the EU are increasing the awareness of researchers with respect to data management and data publication. Metadata is essential in research data management, namely on data discovery and reuse. Current practices tend to either leave metadata definition to researchers, or to assign their creation to curators. The former typically results in ad-hoc descriptors, while the latter follows standards but lacks specificity. In this exploratory study, we adopt a researcher-curator collaborative approach in five data publication cases, involving researchers in data description and discussing the use of both generic and domain-oriented metadata. The study shows that researchers working on familiar datasets can contribute effectively to the definition of metadata models, in addition to the actual metadata creation. The cases also provide preliminary evidence of cross-disciplinary descriptor use. Moreover, the interaction with curators highlights the advantages of data management, making researchers more open to participate in the corresponding tasks. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

Abstract
Research datasets include all kinds of objects, from web pages to sensor data, and originate in every domain. Concerns with data generated in large projects and well-funded research areas are centered on their exploration and analysis. For data in the long tail, the main issues are still how to get data visible, satisfactorily described, preserved, and searchable. Our work aims to promote data publication in research institutions, considering that researchers are the core stakeholders and need straightforward workflows, and that multi-disciplinary tools can be designed and adapted to specific areas with a reasonable effort. For small groups with interesting datasets but not much time or funding for data curation, we have to focus on engaging researchers in the process of preparing data for publication, while providing them with measurable outputs. In larger groups, solutions have to be customized to satisfy the requirements of more specific research contexts. We describe our experience at the University of Porto in two lines of enquiry. For the work with long-tail groups we propose general-purpose tools for data description and the interface to multi-disciplinary data repositories. For areas with larger projects and more specific requirements, namely wind infrastructure, sensor data from concrete structures and marine data, we define specialized workflows. In both cases, we present a preliminary evaluation of results and an estimate of the kind of effort required to keep the proposed infrastructures running.  The tools available to researchers can be decisive for their commitment. We focus on data preparation, namely on dataset organization and metadata creation. For groups in the long tail, we propose Dendro, an open-source research data management platform, and explore automatic metadata creation with LabTablet, an electronic laboratory notebook. For groups demanding a domain-specific approach, our analysis has resulted in the development of models and applications to organize the data and support some of their use cases. Overall, we have adopted ontologies for metadata modeling, keeping in sight metadata dissemination as Linked Open Data.

Abstract
The diversity of research topics and resulting datasets in the field of Ecology (the scientific study of ecological systems and their biodiversity) has grown in parallel with developments in research data management. Based on a meta-analysis performed on 93 scientific references, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of the use of metadata tools in the Ecology domain through time. Overall, 40 metadata tools were found to be either referred or used by the research community from 1997 to 2018. In the same period, 50 different initiatives in ecology and biodiversity research were conceptualized and implemented to promote effective data sharing in the community. A relevant concern that stems from this analysis is the need to establish simple methods to promote data interoperability and reuse, so far limited by the production of metadata according to different standards. With this study, we also highlight challenges and perspectives in research data management in the domain of Ecology towards best practice guidelines.

Abstract
Research data are the cornerstone of science and their current fast rate of production is disquieting researchers. Adequate research data management strongly depends on accurate metadata records that capture the production context of the datasets, thus enabling data interpretation and reuse. This chapter reports on the authors' experience in the development of the metadata models, formalized as ontologies, for several research domains, involving members from small research teams in the overall process. This process is instantiated with four case studies: vehicle simulation; hydrogen production; biological oceanography and social sciences. The authors also present a data description workflow that includes a research data management platform, named Dendro, where researchers can prepare their datasets for further deposit in external data repositories. © 2017, IGI Global.