Search

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report research findings from interviews with chemistry researchers about the use and linkage of source and output repositories and the expectations of the chemistry research community about their use. Design/methodology/approach- A total of 17 face-to-face interviews were conducted with members of academic staff and postgraduate research students (PGRs), in chemistry departments at a number of UK universities. Findings - As part of the StORe project (http://jiscstore.jot.com/WikiHome), which sought to develop new ways of linking academic publications with repositories of research data, 38 members of academic and research staff from institutions across the UK provided valuable feedback regarding the nature of their research, the type of data that they produce, the sharing and availability of research data and the use and expectations of source and output repositories. Research limitations/implications - Interpretation of the results must recognise that the majority of the interviewees worked in the area of theoretical/computational chemistry and therefore their views may not be representative of other chemistry research fields. Originality/value - Studies about the workflows and the norms in the use of source and output repositories are limited in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to present findings from a survey that aimed to identify the issues around the use and linkage of source and output repositories and the chemistry researchers' expectations about their use. Design/methodology/approach - This survey was performed by means of an online questionnaire and structured interviews with academic and research staff in the field of chemistry. A total of 38 people took part in the online questionnaire survey and 17 participated in face-to-face interviews, accounting for 55 responses in total. Findings - Members of academic and research staff in chemistry from institutions in the UK were, in general, favourably disposed towards the idea of linking research data and published research outputs, believing that this facility would be either a significant advantage or useful for the research conducted in the domain. Further information about the nature of the research that they conduct, the type of data that they produce, the sharing and availability of research data and the use and expectations of source and output repositories is also discussed. Research limitations/implications - Interpretation of the results must recognise that the majority of the interviewees worked in the area of theoretical/computational chemistry and therefore their views may not be representative of other chemistry research fields. Originality/value - Such data was essential for the business analysis that described the functional requirements for the development of the key deliverable of the source-to-output repositories (StORe) project, the pilot middleware, which aimed to facilitate and demonstrate the bi-directional links between source and output repositories. It also enabled the identification of workflows in research practice and contributed to the prime aspiration of the StORe project which was to invest new value to the intellectual products of academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]