Paris, September 2024
CODATA and the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) are delighted to announce the publication of the machine-actionable CODATA Research Data Management Terminology (RDMT). The Terminology is open to the public and free to use via the ARDC’s Research Vocabularies Australia (RVA) service at https://vocabs.ardc.edu.au/viewById/685.
The RDMT enables those working on research data management (RDM) to access clear, unambiguous and referenceable definitions of RDM terms. It is useful for those working within the contexts of:
- research
- data management
- digital curation and preservation
- research management
- research policy
- open data advocacy
- computer science
- information management
- research administration
- library
- scholarly publishing
- digital archiving
- research funding roles.
Laura Molloy, Senior Research Lead at CODATA and convenor of the RDMT Working Group, said, “I’m delighted that we finally have this first machine-actionable version of the CODATA Research Data Management Terminology ready for our users. The revised RDMT has been available as a flat list for some time, but this version of the Terminology, published with our technical partners at the ARDC, will provide more functionality for users – including humans and machines – to allow them to use and reference these terms and definitions more easily. This is a positive step towards FAIR data.”
A community effort
Many experts from the RDM community and related domains have contributed intellectual effort to the new, revised Terminology.
The current release includes expert input from the research, archives, digital preservation, RDM, digital curation, open data advocacy and computing sectors. They worked together as the first iteration of the RDMT Working Group to refine and improve the list of terms inherited from the former CASRAI RDM Glossary. CASRAI requested that CODATA take over stewardship of the CASRAI RDM Glossary in 2020. The new Terminology emerges as a new, edited and refreshed resource thanks to the work of the RDMT Working Group. Further reviews will be conducted on a regular biennial pattern.
Tatiana Zaraiskaya, STEM Librarian / RDM Services, Harriet Irving Library at the University of New Brunswick, Canada and RDMT Working Group contributor, said, “[It was a] wonderful collaborative experience and well organised. [It’s] very important in our work to reconnect with international colleagues (librarians and data-steward providers) to develop a vocabulary of terms recognizable across the globe.”
Antony Cooper of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa, who is also an RDMT Working Group contributor, added, “Making the RDM terminology machine-actionable and available through a portal such as Research Vocabularies Australia will make the terms readily available for identifying data sets, documents and other resources.”
Open to all
The CODATA Research Data Management Terminology (RDMT) is available now at https://vocabs.ardc.edu.au/viewById/685. For more information on the CODATA Research Data Management Terminology and the RDMT Working Group, please visit the RDMT Working Group webpage.
ARDC Research Vocabularies Australia caters for researchers and those who support, describe and discover research, including vocabulary managers, ontologists, data managers and librarians. Research Vocabularies Australia is part of the national research infrastructure operated by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) to enable more valuable data for Australian research. The ARDC is enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) to support national digital research infrastructure for Australian researchers. We are delighted to have had the expertise of the ARDC team as technical partners on this project.
Questions?
For any enquiries about the revised RDMT, please contact RDMT WG convenor Laura Molloy at laura AT codata.org.