Lessons Learnt from the Deployment of a Semantic Virtual Research Environment

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe ourSpaces Virtual Research Environment makes use of Semantic Web technologies to create a platform to support multi-disciplinary research groups. This paper introduces the main semantic components of the system: a framework to capture the provenance of the research process, a collection of services to create and visualise metadata and a policy reasoning service. We also describe different approaches to authoring and accessing metadata within the VRE. Using evidence gathered from data provided by the users of the system we discuss the lessons learnt from deployment with three case study groups.

Tackling the Challenges of 21st-Century Open Science and Beyond: A Data Science Lab Approach

“…They highlight the future role of machine learning support for ontology matching, the use of linked data for describing resources, and the importance of workflows generating provenance information. Edwards and colleagues 28 identified a number of lessons for using semantic information to describe resources. Insisting that users provide a lot of data for provenance purposes is likely to fail and a more relaxed, lightweight system will provide more useful information.…”

Analysing Open Data in Virtual Research Environments

“…This is a type of open collaboration, meaning that the collaboration produces a shared artifact and that it is supported by a technological platform that allows for flexible social structures and enables contributors to enter and exit the collaboration easily (Choi & Tausczik, 2017;Forte & Lampe, 2013). VREs can be used to handle the complex tasks that multidisciplinary collaboration demands (Edwards et al, 2014). Within VREs, virtual research communities can be created (Carusi & Reimer, 2010) 2013) confirm this lack of training, which they term "instructional support".…”

Using Open Research Data for Public Policy Making: Opportunities of Virtual Research Environments

“…Connaway and Dickey [12] identified the ease of use as a major theme for VRE and digital repository projects, and state that "ease of use and the need to embed the systems into the scholars' workflows are critical, yet can be difficult to accomplish" (p. 2). Many challenges nowadays also require the collaboration between researchers from multiple disciplines, and VREs can be used to handle the complex tasks that this multidisciplinary user collaboration demands [21]. x Technological issues.…”

“…VREs need to provide access to data, tools, and services [10,22], through a technical framework that is embedded in a wider research infrastructure [10,17]. One key requirement of VREs is that they allow for carrying out research on various levels and across boundaries, such as on an international level [9], across countries and institutions [22], and across disciplines [21]. Platforms, software and services across all these levels are often heterogeneous.…”