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Workplan

The work of the project is divided into four work packages (WP).

WP1 Training Material Design

WP1 Training Material Design

Although the basic principles of data management are valid for both postgraduate students, and research and academic staff, we decided to make a distinction between the two groups (WP1.3 and WP1.4) - a PhD student starting on his project and a PI writing a grant proposal might want to focus on different aspects of data management. The online material (WP1.2) will cover all aspects and be relevant to both groups.

WP1.1 Research Of Available Resources

Results from previous projects (e.g. JISC RDMTrain programme, Research Data Management Skills Support Initiative (DaMSSI), Incremental ), as well as available material from the DCC and other institutions, will be studied and evaluated. Disciplines will be compared and parts of the available material identified that need to be adapted to appeal to researchers in the area of digital music and audio research. In order to integrate the material into the Vitae /RCUK Researcher Development Framework , used to assign credits by the QMUL Learning Institute , the recently released "Information-handling Lens" will also be analysed.

WP1.2 Online Training Material

The Incremental project recommends in its final report (page 21) to "create a collection of webpages to help researchers find tools and assistance". Examples will include FAQs, fact-sheets, online step-by-step guides (e.g. on creating a data management plan for PIs writing a project proposal), short instructional videos (e.g. on how to deposit a data set into a repository, from metadata collection to choosing a license). It will target both new members of staff who could not participate in face-to-face training, and those who need quick reference material or want to learn in greater depth after a seminar. It will also contain information on where to get help for different problems (e.g. copyrights, technical) inside the institution. The online material will be prepared first because it should be already in place when face-to-face training is given.

The online materials have been prepared in the form of a wiki, and are part of this site.

WP1.3 Research Staff Material

Material will be designed that targets research and academic staff involved in funded research projects, although the basic principles will be relevant to students as well. Experience from the Sound Software project showed that different material is useful at different stages of a project. We will thus create a range of training materials to cover some of these stages, to be presented in different formats (e.g. short seminars, tutorials, workshops), and to be integrated by online material. Examples include, but are not limited to:

  1. a five-minute long "executive" pitch on the benefits of data management;
  2. hands-on workshops for CIs and PIs on data management planning for research projects;
  3. conference tutorials giving an overview of research data management;
  4. material for short seminars with in-depth analysis of single aspects of data management such as available tools, policies, and discipline specific challenges.

This material will be presented at internal seminars, discipline-specific conferences and, in collaboration with the Sound Software project, at other institutions in the UK working in the area of digital music and audio research.

WP1.4 Post-Graduate Course Material

Discipline-focused material for face-to-face training sessions will be designed. The material will cover the basics of good data management practise, point out its benefits, and touch on discipline-specific challenges such as copyrights and licenses, with discipline-specific examples, based on the recently developed C4DM Data Management System. Also, the students, as suggested by the DaMSSI project final report (Conclusions, page 15, paragraph 5), will be instructed to create a Data Management Plan for their PhD projects, to be included in their Research Proposal. The material should be sufficient to cover at most one or two sessions in a module. For more in-depth study, the students will then be referred to the online material. The material will be tested first with postgraduate students at C4DM, and then at other research groups in the Digital Music Research Network.

WP1 Deliverables

  • D1.1 Summary and analysis of material already available.
  • D1.2 First draft of the online material.
  • D1.3 First draft of the research staff material.
  • D1.4 First draft of the postgraduate course material.
  • D1.5 Updated version of the research staff material.
  • D1.6 Updated version of the online reference material.
  • D1.7 Updated version of the postgraduate course material.

WP2 Test and evaluation

WP2.1 Evaluation strategies design

With the support of the QMUL Learning Institute workshop questionnaires will be developed based on their prior experience from other projects in order to evaluate the effectiveness of training material and their delivery. The feedback obtained will be used to inform future activities.

WP2.2 Feedback collection and analysis - online material

The online material will be released as early as possible during the project. Continuous online evaluation will be used to collect feedback and make the appropriate changes.

WP2.3 Feedback collection and analysis - research staff material

The workshop material will be tested at various institutions across the UK, and at the ISMIR 2012 conference, where questionnaires will be handed out at the end of each session.

WP2.4 Feedback collection and analysis - postgraduate course material

Feedback for the postgraduate course material will be collected through the standard course evaluation procedures in place at QMUL.

WP2 Deliverables

  • D2.1 Questionnaires for evaluating training material (all types).
  • D2.2 Summary of the collected feedback for the online material and recommendations for improvement.
  • D2.3 Summary of the collected feedback for the research staff material and recommendations for improvement.
  • D2.4 Summary of the collected feedback for the postgraduate course material and recommendations for improvement.

WP3 Embedding

This work package organised the various workshops, courses and seminars in collaboration with the partners.

WP3 Deliverables

  • D3.1 Final report on embedding.

WP4 Communication and Management

WP4.1 Project management

The project will be managed on a day-to-day basis by the PI, with project meetings held weekly to assess progress and problems. This has been our practice throughout the Sound Software project and previous JISC-funded projects. The CIs will participate in the management process to ensure compatibility and continuity with the requirements of the Sound Software project from a management and technical perspective respectively.

WP4.2 Dissemination

The project results will be disseminated through blog posts, Twitter, and official reports on the project's website. Results will also be presented at discipline-specific conferences (ISMIR, DAFx), and to other similar UK-based research institutions via the partnership with the Sound Software project.

WP4 Deliverables

  • D4.1 Project site and feed.
  • D4.2 Final report and publication of the material in the Jorum repository.

References

DaMSSI final report