Resources

Opportunity

CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

Blockchain in Healthcare Today (BHTY)  invites you to submit primary research, reviews, and use cases to our open-access peer-reviewed journal for distributed ledger technology research and innovations in healthcare.  Reviews should provide an overview of existing literature on blockchain technology, identify specific problems or issues, and analyze cited work with a balanced perspective. 

Submit Your Research

Appropriate topics for submission may include (but are not limited to):

BHTY is an innovative leader in open source scholarship

• We provide social and scientific amplification of research to expand the authors’ social footprint across platforms such as Medium, SubStack, Spoitify, YouTube, FB, and Twitter
• We support Article Proof of Origin (APOO) by providing stamped and recorded metadata on the Hedera Hashgraph Ledger, and timestamped article provenance and research outputs on ARTiFACTS
• We are indexed in ScienceOpen, Index Copernicus, Unpaywall, NEBIS, Google Scholar and PKP harvester
• BHTY 2020 manuscript Acceptance Rate: 42%
• BHTY 2020 Number of Days to Accept a final manuscript: 43
• Submissions qualify for “Editor’s Choice Award,” based on citations, downloads and views – and are announced at the annual ConV2X Symposium  
• Low article processing charge (APC)
• Exemplary editorial board and reviewer feedback

Blockchain in Healthcare Today is the first international peer-reviewed journal that amplifies and disseminates distributed ledger technology research and innovations in the healthcare sector. The preeminent open access journal facilitates sharing, discussion and consensus building for a multi-disciplinary market across a global community of stakeholders engaged in discovering, implementing and modernizing quality affordable health systems and care around the globe. The journal is published on a continuous basis in order to accelerate sharing rigorously vetted theoretical and experiential knowledge required for a growth sector. A world-class board endeavors to offer rapid peer review and includes constructive commentary to strengthen work.  
BHTY's audience includes leadership from research, payer organizations, business, universities, consultants, entrepreneurs/startups, biopharma/device/pharmacy, government, policy, NGO, engineers, health information technologists, cybersecurity, auditors, computational engineers, computer scientists, data scientists, healthcare network users, public health, hospitals and innovation labs across the globe and invites all those with an interest in the latest knowledge on blockchain technology and DLT to the journal community.

Opportunity

Task Group Proposal for Presentation to the 32^nd CODATA General Assembly in Seoul, Republic of Korea, 12-13 November 2021

Link to Task Group Proposal

CODATA invites proposals for Task Groups to be approved by the 32nd CODATA General Assembly which will be held on 12-13 November 2021, following International Data Week 2021, convened by CODATA, the Research Data Alliance and the World Data System on 8-11 November 2021. Like IDW 2021, the General Assembly will be held in a hybrid format, with both virtual and in-person participation in Seoul, Korea.

The final deadline for submissions of Task Group Proposals is 12 July 2021. Proposals will be reviewed by the CODATA Executive Committee and by external experts. Recommendations will be presented to the CODATA General Assembly which will vote on and select the Task Groups.

Task Groups are approved by the General Assembly for two years. Existing CODATA Task Groups may apply for renewal and are subject to the same criteria, as described in the Call for Task Groups document (also attached).

Decadal Programme Themes and Priority Activities

Pilot activities for the CODATA Decadal Programme ‘Making Data Work for Cross-Domain Grand Challenges’ are now underway and the Programme will be officially launched at the ISC Virtual General Assembly in October 2021. The overall aim of the CODATA Decadal Programme is to enable an ecosystem for FAIR data for cross-domain research to be developed and implemented.  To do so, the Decadal Programme addresses three broad themes.  Proposals should state clearly and specifically how the Task Group activities will contribute to the realization of one or more of these objectives.

Theme 1: Enabling Technologies and Good Practice for Data-Intensive Science: Desired activities should aim to identify, define, develop or validate enabling technologies and good practices for data-intensive science that is applicable across disciplines.

Theme 2: Mobilising Domains and Breaking Down Silos: Desired activities should promote and progress interoperability of data and related services within and across the disciplines of science.

Theme 3: Advancing Interoperability Through Cross-Domain Case Studies: Desired activities would seek to develop and apply solutions for interoperability and reuse of data in cross domain case studies and all areas of research which rely on combining data from disparate, and often heterogeneous sources.

The call suggests some high priority topics under each of these three themes (see the call document for further details). Task Group proposals addressing these or similar issues are particularly encouraged.  This does not mean that Task Group proposals addressing areas not described above will be considered out of scope: we invite and encourage innovative ideas from the CODATA community.

Submission Procedure and Deadlines

Applications should be made by filling out the form available at CODATA website as completely as possible by the deadline of 12 July 2021. This form is the principal information source used for evaluating the proposals.

Proposers are encouraged to download a template to pre-fill proposed membership of the Task Group for easy upload to the above-linked web form when submitting the proposal. We also attach the template as .xlsx for convenience.

For existing CODATA Task Groups that are applying for renewal, there is an additional section required, in which the Task Group should report on its activities, outputs and outcomes to date.

Proposers are encouraged to liaise with Simon Hodson, CODATA Executive Director simon@codata.org as early as possible in the process for guidance, advice and to ensure criteria are met as far as possible

Opportunity

Host the Fifth Edition of International Data Week in 2025

Click Here for PDF Application

THE FOUNDING ORGANISATIONS ARE INVITING PROPOSALS TO HOST THE FIFTH EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DATA WEEK IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2025.

The primary objective of the conference is to bring together a large and representative part of the global data community. IDW 2016 and 2018 were huge successes, and we want to continue that trajectory and increase impact. These are important times in the world of data and we seek local partners and a venue that will help us communicate that excitement, mission and urgency. Two more editions are being prepared: IDW 2021, 8–11 November 2021, Seoul, Republic of Korea IDW 2023, 23–26 October 2023, Salzburg, Austria International Data Week is a global and inclusive event. The founding organisations are keen to engage with cities and countries where they have not held an IDW or related meeting before. Proposals from Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) are strongly encouraged; proposals from the High Income Economies should show how they will work with the founding organisations to maximise participation from LMICs. Wherever the proposal comes from, it will be important to demonstrate how the partnership will advance the missions of the founding organisations, ensure the impact of IDW, and enhance membership of and engagement with the three organisations.

Applications should demonstrate that local hosts have access to both a suitable physical venue and a virtual conference platform; to strong support from local organisations and government; to good connections to universities, industry, and research organisations in the country and region; and to solid financial support. We envision IDW 2025 as a four-day event that integrates the activities of a SciDataCon international conference and an RDA Plenary Meeting. IDW includes both research sessions and focused working meetings, as well as broad plenary sessions of general interest. The days before and after each event will be set aside for the business and governance meetings of CODATA, RDA, and WDS, and potentially other co-located meetings.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Applications should be sent by email to all of the IDW founding organization representatives listed below no later than 30 September 2021 in an electronic format based on the details and template at the end of the IDW 2025 Call for Applications document. Applications should be addressed to:

• Simon Hodson, CODATA Executive Director at simon@codata.org
• Hilary Hanahoe, RDA Secretary General, at hilary.hanahoe@rda-foundation.org
• Bonnie Carroll, Interim WDS Executive Director, at WDS-IPO-ED@utk.edu

Opportunity

Become a Reviewer for the CODATA Data Science Journal

Peer review is an integral part of the scholarly publishing process. By registering as a reviewer, you are supporting the academic community by providing constructive feedback on new research, helping to ensure both the quality and integrity of published work in your field.  Once registered, you may be asked to undertake reviews of scholarly articles that match your research interests. Reviewers always have the option to decline an invitation to review and we take care not to overburden our reviewers with excessive requests. 

Resource

The Role of DDI-CDI in EOSC: Possible Uses and Applications

CODATA recently completed a European Open Science Cloud co-creation project which explored the potential uses and applications of the draft Data Documentation Initiative Cross-Domain Integration (DDI-CDI) specification for EOSC. The main output was a substantial report The Role of DDI-CDI in EOSC: Possible Uses and Applications which explores the challenges faced by EOSC and discusses a number of use cases/examples of the role that DDI-CDI can play.

Main report: The Role of DDI-CDI in EOSC: Possible Uses and Applications (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4707263)

The report was produced in close consultation with members of the DDI Alliance that developed the specification. A wide range of experts participated in workshops and intensive meetings, as detailed in the activity report produced for the EOSC Secretariat.  Documentation on DDI-CDI is available below. The DDI Alliance aim to publish the production release in June/July 2021.

The Role of DDI-CDI in EOSC: Report on Activities (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4707290)

Report Launch Workshop, 2 June 

The report will be launched at a virtual workshop to be held at 13:00-15:00 UTC on Weds 2 June. This workshop will summarise the key findings and recommendations of the report; discuss the examples/case studies and how they may be further explored and tested; and identify next steps for trial implementations. The agenda and registration for the launch workshop will be announced in the near future. In the meantime, please save the date! The Role of DDI-CDI in EOSC: Possible Uses and Applications This report looks at the potential use of the Data Documentation Initiative Cross-Domain Integration (DDI-CDI) specification to the data-sharing requirements faced by EOSC. By analyzing real-world projects and implementations, and through discussion with those responsible for related metadata and infrastructure specifications, the potential role played by the DDI-CDI model in the overall EOSC system is envisioned, and recommendations made for how to realize the identified opportunities for its use.

Summary

The challenges faced by EOSC can be broken into two main areas:

1.  Problems of Scale: The volume of data is growing exponentially and is coming from a wider range of sources. At the same time, the FAIR principles require an increased amount of metadata, especially when it comes to interoperability and reuse of that data. Current manual approaches are proving to be unsustainable. The automation of metadata collection – that is, harvesting metadata programmatically from systems which produce, manage, disseminate, and use data – offers a possible solution, but the necessary framework for such activities is not in place. Standard models and encoding for such metadata (a “lingua franca”) must be established for large-scale capture and exchange of metadata.
2. Problems of Cross-Domain Use: In order for data to be shared across domain and institutional boundaries, it must be understood by its users at all levels. While increasing attention is paid to the semantic mapping of concepts across domains, there are other critical needs for such data sharing. Disparate data structures must be accommodated, based on the tools and formats used in specific domains, and the means of data collection and processing – the provenance of the data – must be understood. Use of specific domain models and vocabularies must be known, and they must be accessible in a machine-actionable form. Reusable crosswalks between domains are needed. All of these requirements point to the need for more granular metadata, so that data can be successfully re-arranged to be suitable for use outside its domain of origin. The path of a single observation, as it is reused and further processed, should be knowable.

DDI-CDI will not address all of these concerns; no single standard or technology will provide a complete answer. It has, however, been designed to fill important gaps in the needed range of standards, models, and technologies to meet these challenges. On the basis of an intensive series, of meetings, conference sessions, workshops and other discussions with a range of different groups, this report looks at use cases and the emerging FAIR ecosystem to understand the potential application of DDI-CDI, and the role it could play within a broader frame. The approach being taken by EOSC—as described in the EOSC Interoperability Framework and in other activities—is then assessed to show specifically where DDI-CDI would fit. Recommendations for further work are then made on that basis. Specific implementation examples include a data integration using climate data, energy consumption data, and consumer questionnaire responses; an example of how a repository could facilitate automated capture of metadata, based on the Dataverse platform; a data integration example from the European Social Survey Multi-Level application; and an exploration of processing, provenance, and cross-domain requirements as seen in the ALPHA Network and INSPIRE applications for the integration of population and clinical data. An analysis of how DDI-CDI could be used in combination with DCAT is presented, and the role which DDI-CDI could play within the emerging FAIR ecosystem, in relation to FAIR Implementation Profiles, FAIR Data Points, and FAIR Digital Objects, is examined. Finally, the way in which DDI-CDI could be integrated into the emerging EOSC infrastructure is considered in light of the EOSC Interoperability Framework and the FAIRsFAIR vision of integrated metadata catalogues. DDI-CDI offers a new type of specification which could help to realize the capture, interchange, and use of metadata throughout the EOSC data-sharing infrastructure, and could do so in ways which are scalable and machine-actionable. It operates at the needed level of granularity and would work to heighten the utility of semantic mapping and approaches to the full utilization of data. Our recommendations identify several concrete areas where this application of the model should be further explored.

DDI-CDI Documentation Introduction PDF

Link to Public Review Page

Complete download package (https://ddi-alliance.bitbucket.io/DDI-CDI/DDI-CDI_Public_Review_1.zip)

Link to Announcement at DDI Alliance website 

Recognition of funding for the EOSC Co-Creation Project

This work was supported by the EOSC Secretariat. EOSCsecretariat.eu has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Programme call H2020-INFRAEOSC-2018-4, Grant Agreement number 831644.

Resource

Call for Participation in Big Data Transfer to be used for Proof of Concepts

Link to African Open Science

The South African National Research Network (SANReN, NICIS) are working on a service for the South African Research and Education community – big data transfer service. This will be based on Science DMZs and data transfer nodes (DTNs). Currently, we have nodes at CSIR (Pretoria), WITS (Johannesburg) and Cape Town. We are looking for users with large data sets to be used for proof of concepts for the service. Anyone with > 10 GB of research/science data, particularly those with current issues in moving it around (e.g. considers shipping hard-drives of data instead of using the SA NREN), are good potentials.  Please contact Renier van Heerden (renier@sanren.ac.za ) or Kasandra Pillay or the PERT team pert@sanren.ac.za if we can assist with your large data transfers.

Resource

Open Source Geospatial Foundation

Link to OSGeo

• Training modules

• Open data platforms

• Analytical tools

Resource

Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development 

Link to Open Source Site

• Open source tools, data, and applications for natural resources in southern Africa

Resource

Create an ORCID ID Today

ORCID iD

ORCID iDs are the preeminent vehicle for identifying and connecting researchers and scholarship. ORCID is an external agency that creates and manages these identifiers. ORCIDs are also commonly required by publishers and external funders. The University of Arizona has integrated ORCID with UA Vitae to enable a seamless syncing of data between the two agencies, making your research more discoverable

Resource

Digital Diplomacy at Diplo

Diplo

Digital diplomacy describes new methods and modes of conducting diplomacy with the help of the Internet and ICTs. This blog explores what digital diplomacy is, points you to a wealth of resources, and invites you to join online training at Diplo. 

Resource

Opening the Record of Science: Making Scholarly Publishing Work for Science in the Digital Era

Opening the Record for Science PDF

Concerns about the extent to which contemporary scientific and scholarly publishing systems serve the needs of researchers and the public have been raised repeatedly in recent years. This report – which is aimed at the scientific community and its institutions – seeks to establish a shared view of the principles and priorities of the scholarly publishing system. It proposes a series of normative principles that should underlie the operation of scientific and scholarly publishing; describes the current publishing landscape and its trajectory of evolution; analyses the extent to which the principles are observed in practice; and identifies problematic issues that need to be addressed in realizing those principles.

This report is the first output of the ISC’s ongoing project on The Future of Scientific Publishing. It was prepared as a discussion document in consultation with an international working group, and has benefited from expert external review, and from extensive consultations with representatives from the ISC membership. The report will be used to set the agenda for a subsequent phase of discussion and action involving ISC Members and other stakeholders.

International Science Council. 2021. Opening the record of science: making scholarly publishing work for science in the digital era. Paris, France. International Science Council. DOI: 10.24948/2021.01

Activity

Citizen Science Projects for Social Distancing

Solve mysteries of the universe, cure COVID, hunt for aliens, and discover a new species!  If you are fidgeting to be more productive, learn something new, or just get out of the house and explore the world around you, then check out these projects that need your curiosity and your data-gathering skills.   

Most projects don't require you to register or provide any personal information, and you can do them at home or outdoors, while you are sleeping, alone, or with others of any age.  Some of them are games that, some are algorithms that run in the background and "borrow" CPU capacity from your device to solve problems so big that no supercomputer on Earth can provide enough memory to run the models, some are apps that capture the "wisdom of the crowds," and some of them provide the most comprehensive and high-quality data sets in the scientific research community!

Before joining any tracking project, we strongly urge you to read privacy statements and understand the implications for your personal data!!

Citizen Science Community Research Projects

Zooniverse gives people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to participate in real research with over 50 active online citizen science projects

SciStarter is the National Science Foundation's science diplomacy community, with more than 3,000 active projects

Cornell Lab of Ornithology hosts several citizen science projects for people who love birds

CitizenScience.gov helps federal agencies accelerate innovation through public participation in hundreds projects ranging from metadata tagging national treasures for the Library of Congress to measuring environmental change by sharing landscape selfies with NASA.  This site also lets you plan and launch your own citizen science project!

COVID Research Projects

COVID Near You lets you report symptoms if you are ill and check-in daily if you are healthy and track cases in your vicinity (USA & Canada)

Eureka hopes to become the largest epidemiology study in history by enrolling 1 million users to its smart phone app that allows users to check in regularly with health and lifestyle data (if prompted, enter the study key covid or text “COVID” to 41411)

OperationCOVID19 lets you contribute your programming skills to open source pandemic research

Corona-land is a game with an interactive coronavirus simulator, a ‘before and after’ survey, and tutorials on social distancing, hospital capacity, and what people can do to help

TrackTogether is a contact tracing survey (UK)

Flusurvey has been adapted to monitor community prevalence and trend of symptoms related of the novel coronavirus (UK)

HS 111 lets you report symptoms and helps with contact tracing for new cases (UK)

CORONA Israel is a health reporting site (Israel)

CoronAPP is physical, mental health, and well-being survey in relation to the coronavirus situation (Denmark)

TraceTogether is an app that uses a community-driven approach to contact tracing (Singapore)

Other Health & Epidemiology Studies

Influmeter  lets you report symptoms if you are ill and check in daily if you are healthy and track cases nationwide (Denmark)

FluTracking is a surveillance system to detect and monitor the spread of influenza (Australia & New Zealand)

Flu Near You helps track influenza symptoms (USA & Canada)

Health eHeart lets you regularly report your health statistics, whether you have Heart Disease or not

neotiv is an app that help Alzheimer scientists better understand the memory performance of healthy people in everyday life

Astronomy Research

Globe at Night is an international citizen-science program that people can do from their backyards

SETI@home lets you hunt for aliens through Berkeley's network-based Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

My Sky at Night lets you report light pollution through an app or on your desktop

Life Science Research

Magicicada gives citizen scientists a rare opportunity to document and map the 17 year cicada population in 2020 through the Cicada Safari app 

Identifying American Chestnut Trees lets you submit material samples to help experts save the endangered American chestnut tree from extinction

OakMapper allows you to report cases of Sudden Oak Death and track the disease that causes it on your phone or laptop

Creek Critters is an app that helps you identify freshwater stream organisms and report your findings to researchers and oversight agencies 

iNaturalist is National Geographic's app that allows you to record the flora and fauna you encounter, and share your findings with professional researchers and members of your social network

Lost Ladybug Project helps researchers understand the loss of native ladybug species

Journey North tracks Monarch butterflies in their epic transcontinental migration

Marine Debris Tracker lets individual users and groups throughout the world log and document marine debris, and tracks top performers on a public leader board

Project Noah is a global citizen science platform to discover, share and identify wildlife 

Secchi Disk lets sailors collect and share phytoplankton sample data

Birding

Great Backyard Bird Count is Audubon's annual event that captures a real-time snapshot of bird populations on one or more days of the four-day census

North American Breeding Bird Survey is a cooperative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service to monitor the status and trends of North American bird populations 

Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program lets you collect information about the presence and abundance of bird and amphibian species in Great Lakes coastal and inland marshes (US & Canada)

Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count is the world's longest-running citizen science project 

Big Data Research

Earth Observation INSPIRE Hackathon challenges you to solve interoperability problems with SensorThings API, EO authentication systems, and citizen data

Open Geospatial Consortium is a worldwide community committed to advancing geospatial location information and services

mPing helps NOAA develop new radar and forecasting technologies and techniques

Foldit is an online game that harnesses human puzzle-solving abilities and competitiveness to work out the most stable structure for proteins from an “astronomical” number of possibilities

DreamLab uses spare processing power on mobile phones to model potential cancer-fighting drug combinations while you sleep

Folding@Home uses your computer's CPU to execute high-performance biomedical modeling algorithms 

Citizen Science Games offers dozens of interactive games that let you solve research problems through play

BOINC lets you donate your computer’s idle time to a variety of research projects, such as particle physics simulations and climate change modeling