CURE Service Models
CCSS: Results Reproduction (R-squared) Service
The Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS) (formerly known as the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research, or CISER), founded in 1981, is home to one of the oldest university-based social science data archives in the United States. CCSS’s mission is to accelerate, enhance, and amplify social science research at Cornell.
CCSS offers the Results Reproduction Service (R-squared), which ensures that published research results are computationally repoducible, and that the data and code underlying the results are well-documented, reusable, and preserved in a trustworthy repository. Researchers submit their research compendium (i.e., data, code, documentation, and manuscript) to R-squared staff, who conduct a thorough review of the submission to confirm that the compendium contains all required files and that analysis code executes properly to produces expected outputs. If the review uncovers any deficiencies in the compendium, R-squared staff work one-on-one with the researcher to make necessary corrections. Once any issues are resolved, the compendium is packaged and archived in the CCSS Data & Reproduction Archive or a journal-specified repository.
ISPS: Aligning Data Curation Workflows with Data Quality Review
The Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) was established in 1968 by the Yale Corporation as an interdisciplinary center to facilitate research in the social sciences and public policy arenas. ISPS hosts the ISPS Data Archive, which is a digital repository meant to capture and preserve the intellectual output of and the research produced by scholars affiliated with ISPS, and strives to serve as a model for sharing and preserving research data by implementing the ideals of scientific reproducibility and transparency.
ISPS curation processes exemplify a full implementation of the Data Quality Review framework. All datasets housed in the ISPS Data Archive have undergone this process, which involves structured workflows for file, documentation, data, and code review. ISPS, in collaboration with Innovations for Poverty Action and Colectica, developed the Yale Application for Research Data (YARD) to manage these workflows by providing a single platform for file submission, curation activity tracking, metadata generation and enhancement, repoitory transfer, and other curation tasks that help to advance reproducibility, transparency, and long-term use.
Odum Institute: Enforcing Journal-based Data Policies
Founded in 1924, the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is considered the oldest university-based interdisciplinary social science institute in the U.S. Since receiving its first acquisition of public opinion polling data from Louis Harris and Associates in 1965, the Odum Institute Data Archive has been committed to ensuring that research data assets are discoverable, understandable, and usable now and into the future. This commitment has been the driving force behind ongoing efforts to enhance its data support infrastructure, workflows, policies, and services.
The Odum Institute Data Archive recently expanded its services to include support for journal-based data policy implementation. Odum Institute archive staff work with journal editors to integrate data curation and code review workflows into the manuscript review and publicaton process. Prior to manuscript publication, archivists perform a series of curation activities to assess the quality of the research compendium. Verifiers then attempt to repeat the computational steps to produce the results presented in the manuscript. Once curation and verification processes confirm the quality of the compendium and the reproducibility of reported results, archivists publish the compendium in the journal-designated repository as the editor gives final approval for manuscript publication. This service model exemplifies a convergence of research stakeholders around the principles of reproducibility.