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RDM Decision Support

In 2023, Ministry and Libraries asked BC ELN to explore what role BC ELN could play to support RDM strategies in the province. After exploring the existing RDM infrastructure available in Canada, and with the direction that BC ELN should not create its own redundant infrastructure, two widely-used, federally-supported platforms were identified as strong candidates for adoption by partner libraries: Borealis, and the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR).

Borealis vs FRDR

Borealis provides institutions with their own instance of the Dataverse software, hosted on Borealis servers, and searchable along side other institutions' repositories through the Borealis portal at https://borealisdata.ca/. Institutions are expected to manage their own Dataverse instances, and support their own researchers in data curation (including ensuring the quality of data and accuracy and completeness of metadata) and deposit. Borealis provides technical support and coordinates a community of practice for its members.

Membership is fee-based, according to your institution's size or CRKN band.

FRDR is a national data repository at https://www.frdr-dfdr.ca/repo/. FRDR is managed by the Digital Research Alliance, and data deposit is open to any researcher affiliated with a Canadian institution. While institutional affiliation is part of the metadata attached to a deposit, data is organized by discipline- or project-based collections rather than by institution. FRDR was originally built for large datasets using special software to transfer files, but now supports smaller datasets as well with browser-based uploads. FRDR staff are available to work with researchers and perform data curation in-house, rather than requiring libraries to perform that work.

There is no fee to deposit data in FRDR.

Features, benefits, and drawbacks

Borealis FRDR
Institution has its own instance/platform, URL, and institutional branding Single shared platform organized by discipline or project
Data deposits discoverable/searchable within the institution's instance, and alongside other deposits in the Borealis platform Data deposits are discoverable/searchable in the FRDR platform, organized by Collections based on discipline or project and not by institutional affiliation
Institution responsible for managing its own software instance Software centrally managed
Indexed in DataCite search, Google datasetsearch, Lunaris for discoverability Indexed in DataCite search, Google datasetsearch, Lunaris for discoverability
Integrated with institutional SSO Integrated with institutional SSO
DOI automatically minted DOI automatically minted
Focus on smaller or medium-sized datasets Supports both very large datasets and smaller datasets
Institution responsible for data curation Has dedicated data curation staff available to support deposits
Institution responsible for all researcher support FRDR can work directly with researchers (level of institutional involvement is the institution's choice)
Supports access restrictions Supports access restrictions for sensitive data
Annual fee based on institution size ($1,000 to $15,000) No fees
Demo server: https://demo.borealisdata.ca/ Demo server: https://demo.frdr-dfdr.ca/repo/

Data deposits in Arca

Arca members may consider depositing datasets into Arca, bearing the following in mind:

  • There is a cost to excess Arca storage, while Borealis and FRDR have higher or no storage limitations. Large datasets are not good candidates for Arca.
  • Arca has DOI capabilities, but they are not automatic; sites would require their own DataCite Canada accounts.
  • The institution would be responsible for data curation and researcher support.
  • Research data would appear alongside the institution's other Arca collections.

Supporting Documentation

Borealis and FRDR session recordings:

Feedback on the sessions is appreciated, and will help inform BC ELN with future initiatives to support partner libraries' RDM work. Staff who view or attended the linked sessions are asked to fill out this survey: https://surveys.bceln.ca/limesurvey/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=389653&lang=en.

Support and documentation