Data – APO Blog

APO data live in Research Data Australia

After a long project we are very pleased to say that APO as a database as well as all of the datasets we host are now able to be searched and accessed via Research Data Australia.

And we have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for APO so if you want to cite APO as a whole – if you are perhaps writing about the importance of open access databases as a source of evidence for public policy or that you used APO overall for a project – please include doi.org/10.4225/50/5b15c09dbc286 in your reference as it will help us to to trace this more easily.

Research Data Australia is a project of the Australian National Data Service which helps researchers find, access, and reuse data from over one hundred Australian research organisations, government agencies, and cultural institutions. It does not store the data itself but provides descriptions of, and links to, the data from their data publishing partners such as APO. Research Data Australia caters specifically for researchers but also has broader relevance to others including policy makers, educators and business people. Continue reading “APO data live in Research Data Australia”

ARC LIEF Linked Semantic Platforms kick-off meeting

LIEF group — LSP project kick-off meeting, Mayor’s Room, Hawthorn Town Hall

APO got started on the Linked Semantic Platforms for Policy and Practice (LSP) project on the 6 March, with a kick-off meeting at the Hawthorn Arts Centre in Melbourne.

Funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant, the LSP project is significant because it aims to revolutionise the way researchers are able to access, and analyse policy documents and data. The main objective of the two-year LSP Project is to develop the next generation of decision-support tools for interdisciplinary research on critical public policy issues.

By applying linked open data, knowledge graphs and collaborations across existing research infrastructure projects, the project will improve interoperability across major social science databases. The ultimate outcome of this project will be the creation of new analytical tools that will transform the research capabilities for evidence-based policy making. The LSP project also aligns closely with the Research Graph pilot project that APO is currently involved with an launching at Research Data Alliance Plenary in Berlin in March. Continue reading “ARC LIEF Linked Semantic Platforms kick-off meeting”

APO joins Research Graph pilot project and RDA plenary launch

APO has joined a pilot project being run by the DuraSpace foundation that will assist us to export and connect our data with that of other research systems and standards from around the world and visualise the results as graph databases.

Graph close up — Image: APO data graph (close up view) by Research Graph

Research Graph is an open collaborative effort toward connecting scholarly records across global research repositories. Their work is focused on linking research projects and research outcomes on the basis of co-authorship or other collaboration models such as joint funding and grants.

Research Graph is enabled by adopting the interoperability model created by the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Data Description Registry Interoperability (DDRI) Working Group. The implementation of this model is an open source software system called Research Data Switchboard. It is being leveraged to form a distributed network of scholarly works.

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A demonstration is planned for this Friday at the RDA Plenary 11 in Berlin at the end of March. Thanks to generous travel support from the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), Amanda Lawrence, APO Director, is attending the Plenary for the first time.

We are looking forward to working with Peter Vats and Dr Amir Aryani as well as the DuraSpace team and helping turn the roadmap into a reality. This project also aligns closely with the work we will be doing on the APO Linked Semantic Platforms LIEF grant over the next two years.

APO Data hosting and testing now underway

open data image Thanks to an Australian National Data Service (ANDS) grant the APO team has been working on setting up our repository to be able to host datasets as well as documents, audio, video and other content. We have been able to do this for sometime and already have around 100 datasets available however our new system provides better metadata and relationships that will allow us to easily relate data to publications internally and eventually to external content.

We are now in the testing phase and would encourage anyone with data relevant to policy and practice issues or datasets related to reports or content that is being published and disseminated through APO to try uploading your data as well.

If you would like any assistance or would be willing to be part of a testing process that we are undertaking with Richard Ferrers from ANDS please email editors@apo.org.au