Data Repository Attributes WG Case Statement | RDA

"A complete and current description of a research data repository is important to help a user discover a repository; to understand the repository’s purpose, policies, functionality, and other characteristics; and to evaluate the fitness for their use of the repository and the data that it stewards. Many repositories do not provide adequate descriptions in their websites, structured metadata, and documentation, which can make this challenging. Descriptive attributes may be expressed and exposed in different ways, making it difficult to compare repositories and to enable interoperability among repositories and other infrastructures such as registries. Incomplete and proprietary repository descriptions present challenges for stakeholders such as researchers, repository managers, repository developers, publishers, funders, and registries to enable the discovery and comparison of data repositories. For example:

• As a researcher, I would like to be able to generate a list of repositories to determine where I can deposit my data based on a query of descriptive attributes that are important to me.
• As a repository manager, I would like to know what attributes are important for me to provide to users in order to advertise my repository, its services, and its data collections.
• As a repository developer, I would like to know how to express and serialize these attributes as structured metadata for reuse by users and user agents in a manner that is integrated into the functionality of my repository software platform.
• As a publisher, I would like to inform journal editors and authors of what repositories are appropriate to deposit their datasets that are associated with manuscripts that are being submitted.
• As a funder, I would like to be able to recommend and monitor data repositories to be utilized in conjunction with public access plans and data management plans for the research that I am sponsoring.
• As a registry, I would like to be able to easily harvest and index attributes of data repositories to help users find the best repository for their purpose.

While this is not an exhaustive list of stakeholders and potential use cases, the value of identifying and harmonizing a list of descriptive attributes of data repositories and highlighting current approaches being taken by repositories would help the community address these important challenges and move towards developing a standard for the description and interoperability of information about data repositories. The statements of interest below demonstrate that there is a significant interest in this work....

Many sets of attributes have been identified by different initiatives with differing scopes and motivations.[2] These attributes have included information about data repositories such as terms of deposit, subject classifications, geographic coverage, API and protocol support, funding models, governance, preservation services and policies, openness of the underlying infrastructure, adherence to relevant standards and certifications, and more...."