RDA UK workshop - group outputs / certification. Presented at the Research Data Network workshop, St Andrews, 30 Nov 2016

1. RDA Workshops – Group outputs / certification
Christopher Brown
30/11/2016

2. RDA Workshop Groups
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» Group 1 – Trust and Certification
› RDA/WDS Certification of Digital Repositories Interest Group
› RepositoryAudit and Certification DSA–WDS PartnershipWG
» Group 2 – Data Citation
› Data Citation Working Group
» Group 3 – Metadata Standards
› Metadata Standards Catalog Working Group
› Metadata Standards Directory WG
» Group 4 – Publishing Data
› RDA/WDS Publishing Data Interest Group
› RDA/WDS Publishing Data WorkflowsWG
› RDA/WDS Publishing Data ServicesWG

3. Trust and Certification
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» Group 1 – Trust and Certification
› RDA/WDS Certification of Digital Repositories Interest Group
› RepositoryAudit and Certification DSA–WDS PartnershipWG
Lesley Rickards (British Oceanographic Data Centre)
Ingrid Dillo (DANS)

4. Trustworthy digital repositories
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» Lesley Rickards (British Oceanographic Data Centre)
» Trustworthy digital repositories –Why?
› Data created and used by scientists should be managed, curated, archived, and made
accessible
› Researchers (and others) must be certain that data held in repositories remain useful
and meaningful into the future
› Funders increasingly likely to mandate open data and data management policies
› Science publishers may stipulate data must be deposited in a trustworthy repository

5. DSA and WDS
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» Data Seal of Approval (DSA) and World Data System (WDS) came together in a WG under
the auspices of the RDA Interest Group on RepositoryAudit and Certification
» Goal was to harmonise core certification requirements and procedures, ultimately setting
the stage for a global shared framework including other standards
» Broader goal: to inspire trust, which is at the heart of sharing and archiving data.Trust
among: Users, Depositors, Funders
» Understand threats to and risks within its systems
» Encourage regular cycle of audit and/or certification

6. 16 Core Requirements
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» Organisational infrastructure
» Digital object management
» Technology
http://tinyurl.com/pm9sflp

7. Impact
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» Will provide a step towards having more coherent, increasingly stringent and compatible
standards for repository certification
» DSA–WDS certification standard adoption will create a critical mass of certified
repositories across a range of domains and disciplines
» Data Collectors, Funders, Publishers and Users – deliverable inspires trust, which is at the
heart of sharing and archiving data

8. Towards a global certification framework
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9. Certification of the DANS repository
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» Ingrid Dillo (DANS)
» DANS = founding father of DSA, handed over to an international board
» Involved in the development of other standards (DIN/Nestor,WDS)
» Involved in certification activities within RDA
» Certification of the DANS repository - ElectronicArchiving System
(EASY)
› 2011: certification of the DANS repository becomes an important
target in long term policy strategy
› 2011: DSA seal - 2 year lifecycle (not for life)
› 2011: ISO test audit
› 2013: renewal DSA seal
› 2014-2015: nestorSeal,WDS accreditation
› 2017: WDSA core requirements

10. DSA certification in practice
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» Broad in scope
› Broad range of topics: organisational, staffing, financial and legal aspects, archival
workflows, IT-infrastructure, risk management, etc.
› Properly describing policies, processes, etc.
› Development of missing policies, processes, IT- and infrastructural elements, etc
» Organisational aspects
› Management level responsibility for achieving the target
› Core cert team: planning, discussing, monitoring and partly executing the work
› Many DANS colleagues with specific expertise temporarily involved in the work
» Effort involved (highly dependent on level of entry)
› For all 16 guidelines – 2 weeks for self-assessment
› Still need to do real work in order to comply with the guidelines
› Effort rises as climb to an extended and formal cert level

11. DSA Renewal
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» Total effort: around 250 hours of work
› Policies 26 hours
› Technical development 106 hours
› Writing the self-assessment 98 hours
› Project management 16 hours
» NCDD (National Coalition Digital Sustainability) survey 2016
› Orientation phase:
– 80% of respondents estimated an investment of up to 20 hours.
› Preparation (self-assessment) phase:
– 50% up to 100 hrs.; 30% up to 200 hrs.
› Peer review process:
– 50% up to 50 hrs.; 30% up to 100; 12% up to 200 hrs

12. nestor Seal
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» Extended certification (2015)
› Extended self assessment based on the 34 criteria of DIN 31644
› Procedures defined by the German NESTOR group
› Review of self assessment by two NESTOR reviewers
› End result = nestor Seal (http://d-nb.info/1047613859/34)
› The criteria build on the DSA guidelines
› Required a large effort - around 1500 hours of work
› Around half of all DANS colleagues involved in some way at some point

13. nestor Seal criteria
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C1 Selection of information objects and
their representations
C2 Responsibility for preservation
C3 Designated communities
C4 Access
C5 Interpretability
C6 Legal and contractual basis
C7 Legal conformity
C8 Funding
C9 Personnel
C10 Organisation and processes
C11 Preservation measures
C12 Crisis / successorship management
C13 Significant properties
C14 Integrity: Ingest interface
C15 Integrity: Functions of the archival
storage
C16 Integrity: user interface
C17Authenticity: Ingest
C18Authenticity: Preservation
measures
C19Authenticity: Use
C20Technical authority
C21 Submission information packages
C22Transformation of the submission
information packages into archival
information packages
C23Archival information packages
C24 Interpretability of the archival
information packages
C25Transformation of archival
information packages into
dissemination information packages
C26 Dissemination information
packages
C27 Identification
C28 Descriptive metadata
C29 Structural metadata
C30Technical metadata
C31 Logging the preservation measures
C32Administrative metadata
C33 IT infrastructure
C34 Security

14. nestor Seal
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» Why do repositories invest in certification efforts?
› Builds stakeholder confidence in the repository (funders, publishers, etc.)
› Raises awareness about digital preservation
› Improves communication within the repository
› Improves repository processes
› Ensures transparency
› Differentiates the repository from others
» NCDD survey 2016: perceived benefits
› “awareness raising about digital preservation”, “stakeholder confidence”
› “improved internal processes, documentation and opportunities to attract data
producers as well as data consumers.”
» Lessons learned
› Commitment from the top is crucial
› Broad support within the organisation is needed
› Use the framework: do not aim too high at once

15. Questions
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» Were you already familiar with the existence of certification standards for digital
repositories before this workshop?
» And if so, has your view on certification changed after this talk and in what way?
» As a repository manager: would you consider a certification and why (not)?
» As another stakeholder (funder, publisher, researcher): would a certification add to the
trustworthiness of a repository?

16. jisc.ac.uk
Further information
Christopher Brown
Senior Co-design Manager
christopher.brown@jisc.ac.uk
@chriscb
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