This presentation was provided by Andrew McKenna-Foster of Figshare, during the sixth session of our Spring 2023 NISO Training Series "Quality Assurance of Data Sets." The class focused on Data Catalogs and Repositories, and was held June 1, 2023.

1. Data Catalogues and
Repositories
Andrew Mckenna-Foster MSc, MLIS
Figshare Product Specialist
1

2. Quick Introduction
2
Andrew Mckenna-Foster
MSc - Environmental Science and Policy
Research background in invertebrate biodiversity
and conservation. (e.g. Headless millipede
mystery)
MLIS in 2020 with a focus on data curation
Product Specialist with Figshare since 2020

3. Agenda
● Introduction to data catalogues and repositories
and their role in data discoverability and data
quality assurance
● Examples of data catalogues and repositories,
such as Data.gov and figshare
● Best practices for sharing and publishing data sets
in repositories
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4. Data Repository Options
Domain-specific
Repositories Generalist
Repositories
Institutional/
Organizational
Repositories
🌲 🌲🌲 🌲
🌲
🌲
Publishers
Repositories

5. Repository versus Catalog
Domain-specific
Repositories
Generalist
Repositories
Institutional/
Organizational
Repositories
Publishers
Repositories
Data Catalog
Metadata records
Discovery
Categorization
Enhanced Metadata
File Storage
Access Options
Standard Metadata
Domain Metadata
Persistent Identifiers
License

6. Repository AND Catalog
Domain-specific
Repositories
Generalist
Repositories
Publishers
Repositories
Institution/Organization Repository and Data Catalog
Discovery
Categorization
Enhanced Metadata
Standard/Domain Metadata
Persistent Identifiers
License
File Storage + metadata only records
Access Options
Standard Metadata
Domain Metadata
Persistent Identifiers
License
File Storage
Access Options

7. Example: Repository AND Catalog

8. Repositories, repository platforms, catalog platforms
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9. Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative
Generalist Repositories:

10. Data Quality Assurance and Repositories
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Repositories can provide:
● Credibility
○ CoreTrust Seal
○ Branding
○ Linking to organization’s resources
● Provenance in a structured way
○ Versioning
○ Linking to related objects
○ Linking to funding
○ Linking to citations
● Long-term access
● Machine readable metadata
● Citation mechanisms (persistent identifier)
● Re-use License
Modestas Urbonas on Unsplash

11. 11
Example

12. Short Activity
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Search for your favorite topic in Google Dataset Search
Select a dataset result
Focus on the repository:
1. What type of repository is it? Domain, generalist, institutional, publisher?
2. How does the repository help with quality assurance? E.g.:
a. Does it clearly indicate funding, related material, and author information?
b. Can you tell if there was a curation/review process?
c. Are there links to affiliated institutions or organizations?
3. Brief share out

13. Data Quality Assurance and Catalogs
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Catalogs provide
● Discovery
● Metadata only records that point to file
locations
● Possibly enhanced metadata, possibly not
Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

14. Best Practices
Institution/Organization Level
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15. researcher
researcher
researcher
researcher
researcher
Deposits
Institutional
Repository
With review process
Disciplinary
repository
Publisher
repository
Disciplinary
repository
Generalist
Repository
Generalist
Repository
Researcher
Website
Search
Engines
Admin Reporting
Public search
and access
Public search
and access
Public search
and access
Multiple
search
interfaces
The Typical
Situation

16. Deposits
researcher
researcher
researcher
researcher
researcher
Metadata
harvest/mirroring
Institutional Repository
and Catalog
With review process
Disciplinary
repository
Publisher
repository
Disciplinary
repository
Generalist
Repository
Generalist
Repository
Researcher
Website
Public search and
access through
Institution’s portal
= credibility
Admin Reporting
Search Engines
A Better
Solution

17. Short Group Activity
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USDA’s Ag Data Commons is both a repository and a catalog
Look at this dataset from Ag Data Commons
1. Note the extensive metadata. Click the ‘Explore data’ button to see the data
set. Where does that take you?
2. Now copy the dataset title and search for it at data.gov (searching by the full
title may not work ;) You may have to get creative)
3. What are the differences in metadata between the data.gov and Ag data
commons records?

18. 18
Please reach out
with any questions
Andrew Mckenna-Foster
andrew@figshare.com

19. Where to find data repositories and catalogs
https://www.re3data.org/
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20. Best Practices
Researcher Level
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21. Using a data repository as an individual
● Look for repositories in this order: Domain,
Institutional, Publisher, Generalist
● Think about how others will look for your
data
○ keywords
○ make sure to link from your paper
● Think about how others will need to reuse
and cite your data
○ group files or publish separately?
○ what additional resources do you need
to link to or include?
● Should you submit the record information to
any data catalogs? 21

22. Example: Publishing everything together
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