Figure 271007: DOE Data Explorer, DOE Data ID Service
On September 13-14, 2017, OSTI hosted a two-day DOE Data ID Service Workshop in Oak Ridge, TN, to share information about its data registration service and to gain a deeper understanding of researchers' data-related challenges and needs and how to help address them.
DOE Data Explorer (DDE), launched in 2008, is a search tool that helps users explore DOE data by identifying publicly available collections or sources of DOE-sponsored scientific research data and allowing users to retrieve individual datasets within some of those collections. In 2011, OSTI began offering a service enabling researchers to obtain digital object identifiers (DOIs) for individual datasets, and the DDE database began including those individual items as well.
Through the DOE Data ID Service, OSTI assigns DOIs to datasets submitted by both DOE and its contractor and grantee researchers and interagency partners and registers the DOIs with DataCite, an international organization that supports data visibility, ease of data citation in scholarly publications, data preservation and future re-use, and data access and retrievability. DOIs can be used to search for datasets on a number of OSTI's scientific and technical information database products.
OSTI convened its first DOE Data ID Service workshop at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in April 2016, and one big takeaway from the inaugural workshop was the desire for future events where the data community could convene to discuss issues and trends and learn what others are doing in the data landscape. As a result, OSTI planned and held a second data-centric workshop to continue its collaboration with current and potential data clients in support of their data research and management needs.
OSTI invited DOE Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP) managers, current and prospective DOE Data ID Service clients, members of digital data working groups across DOE program offices, interagency Data ID Service clients and prospects, and other key data stakeholders to the workshop. Attendees represented 10 DOE national laboratories, a National Nuclear Security Administration facility, and four interagency clients, including the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. The two-day workshop was structured to enable open discussion and practical learning opportunities through small groups and directed sessions. Sessions covered topics such as metadata ingest, defining dataset types, data publication and data citation, DOE Data Explorer and its new functionality, geolocation data, and software. Individuals from other agencies were also given the opportunity to demonstrate what they are doing in the world of data and data management.
There were several informative conversations during the two-day workshop, with attendees engaging each other and OSTI participants about pertinent issues and topics that affect their work with data. OSTI collected useful feedback that will inform improvements and enhancements to the tools and services offered to users. OSTI plans to continue this workshop series to learn more about data needs across the complex and in the grantee community.
If you would like to learn more about the workshop, including presentation materials and attendee information, please visit the DDE page about the 2017 DOE Data ID Service Workshop. To learn more about the DOE Data Explorer or the Data ID Service, please contact us at ddecomments@osti.gov or DOEDataID@osti.gov.